As a Suffolk County Police Officer for more than two decades, I am used to writing “just the facts.” When I retired to spend more time with my family after having survived breast cancer, I wanted to pursue my dream of writing full-time. In addition to writing a true crime memoir, I have tried my hand at hint fiction, flash fiction, essays, short stories, and blog writing. I joined the NY/TriState chapter of Sisters in Crime and the Public Safety Writers Association and have attended several writing conferences. 

 Since retiring, I’ve read extensively, attended classes and workshops to learn more about writing. Along the way, I’ve picked up some tidbits from the masters. 

 P.D. James believes, “There could be no better apprenticeship for an aspiring novelist than a classical detective story, with its technical problems of balancing a credible mystery with believable characters and a setting which both complements and integrates the action.”

She also said,  “The construction of a detective story might be formulaic — the writing need not be.” On P.D. James’ website, she offers “Mystery Writing Lessons.”

Earlier this year, I joined the Short Mystery Fiction Society, an e-mail discussion group, consisting of “writers, readers, fans, editors and publishers of mystery and crime fiction from all around the globe.” The e-mail discussion is filled with solid advice.  Another helpful group, of course, is the Mystery Writers of America.

Robert B. Parker’s advice on writing and submitting a mystery novel? “Write it and send it in.” 

In the craft of writing a mystery, Dorothy L. Sayers wrote in 1936 that detectives must “display their clues to the readers as soon as they have picked them up,” and not saving them until the finale. It has been the test of quality for the modern detective story. 

Mickey Spillane said, “Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it’s a letdown, they won’t buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.” For a list of works on writing mysteries, check out thrillingdetective.com.

James Lincoln Warren offers craft advice in “The Art of the Short Story” on Criminal Brief: The Mystery Short Story Weblog Project.

Hopefully it won’t take as long, but Sue Grafton said, “I spent the first twenty years of my writing career preparing for the mystery genre, which is my favorite literary form.” 

I can compress the two biggest pieces of advice Stephen King offers in his memoir, On Writing: “Read and write.”

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Kathleen A. Ryan‘s, “Playing with Matches” appears in the forthcoming W.W. Norton’s Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer, edited by Robert Swartwood. She has won Flash Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction Awards from the Public Safety Writers Association. She blogs at Women of Mystery and http://www.kathleenaryan.com. Her fiction has appeared online at: A Twist of Noir, Nanoism, Six Sentences, Six Word Stories, Misfit Salon, and 50-to-1 blogspot. Follow her on Twitter @katcop13.