Theo Marchetti

To read a magazine before submitting, you work through at least one current issue and two or three recent back issues, then record what … Read more

Here is the short version: a rejection is a decision about one manuscript, one editor and one month, not a verdict on your talent. … Read more

A kidnapping plot works because it takes something away. Someone who was safe, known and busy becomes isolated, and every hour costs them more. … Read more

To write a revenge story, find the specific wrong done to your protagonist, give them a motive that justifies extreme action without excusing it, … Read more

Most literary crime short stories land between 1,500 and 3,000 words, with 3,000 a useful working target. Flash pieces run far shorter, novelettes and … Read more

Learning how to handle real crimes in fiction ethically comes down to four things: deciding why the case matters to your book, researching it … Read more

To write morally gray characters, give them a clear personal value, put that value in genuine conflict with another value they also refuse to … Read more

An impossible crime story, usually called a locked room mystery, is a mystery in which the crime looks physically impossible to have happened: a … Read more

Learning how to write a cold case mystery comes down to one unglamorous habit: build the entire case on paper before you draft a … Read more

Learning how to end a mystery series without disappointing readers comes down to three jobs: answer the question you spent eight books asking, resolve … Read more