Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: how to write noir

From: David Wright (dwright333@yahoo.com)
Date: 03 Mar 2009

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    I have Highsmith's Book, "Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction," and it is enjoyable read, with a good deal of the author's own experience in it. (Kind of similar to Stephen King's "On Writing," in that regard - more a master class than an exhaustive course. Definitely interesting if you enjoy her work. Ross MacDonald has a good little book too - good for the same reasons).
      There are other suspense writing guides, but they don't get into noir much. T. MacDonald Skillman's "Writing the Thriller" specifies a number of types and has guest essays by several writers, but nothing on noir, per se. Carolyn Wheat's How To Write Killer Fiction has some good stuff on suspense, but nothing on Noir. There 's some stuff in Charles Willeford's "Writing and Other Blood Sports" that would apply. Also probably some good applicable observations in both "Ernest Hemingway on Writing" and Nelson Algren's "Nonconformity: Writing on Writing."
      Interestingly, there are multiple books on how to DRAW noir: "How to Draw Noir Comics: The Art and Technique of Visual Storytelling," by Shawn Martinbrough, and "Drawing Crime Noir," by Christopher Hart.
      David Wright http://shelftalk.spl.org                            "Que Scay-Je?"

          

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