What it Means to be a True Crime Writer
Many people I’ve met seem to think that writing true crime requires a specific skill set or insider knowledge of a case — in this article, I explain why that isn’t necessarily true
Ever since I created the Veritas True Crime publication here on Medium, and began actively recruiting talented writers who I thought might want to try their hand at a new genre, I have been amazed at how many seem to be reluctant to give it a shot.
Not because they are not good writers or aren’t interested in the genre it’s quite the opposite — all of them are excellent writers, and most of them love the genre.
Instead, what I mostly get is the same question — Don’t you need some sort of special training or insider information to do that?
To be totally honest, the answer entirely depends on what kind of true crime writing you intend to do.
For example, If I intend to write an explosive expose on a cold case where I deliver some shockingly new evidentiary game changer, the answer is probably yes. I would need at least some sort of inside access to the case files to know where investigators have looked so far — and, perhaps more importantly, where they haven’t.
However, for people trying to break into the genre, it is perfectly acceptable as well as extremely rewarding, to write case summarization pieces.
A True Crime Case Summarization article is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. You research as many aspects of a case as you can find, peruse every media article, newspaper clipping, or TV news soundbite you can find, and always try to get info from every imaginable point of view. Once you have all that, you draft what is essentially a well-researched book report on the case and present it in as compelling and intriguing manner as you can muster.
Many such articles are excellent stories, and what’s more, if you happen to develop a knack for finding and researching cases that have not been beaten to death in the national news, you’ll find that millions of people who are huge fans of the genre — we call ourselves junkies for a very good reason — will flock to your work like rabid seagulls on a beach with french fries!
To demonstrate this, I am making this article an open invitation to anyone reading it. Comment on this article letting me know that you would like to give it a shot, then go and like and follow the Veritas True Crime pub here on Medium. Once you do those things, we will promptly add you as a writer to the pub.
Then, search out one or two true crime cases you are unfamiliar with — it's always better to start with cases you don’t already know about because this gives you an intimate understanding of how your readers, who have probably also never heard of the case, are likely to react to it when you introduce them to what we refer to as fresh blood.
Go ahead and give it a shot — what do you have to lose?
Here are a few of my other related articles you might also find informative:
