When the Crime Isn’t the Point: Writing Character-Driven Mysteries

Mystery & Crime • Writing Craft
2025
Featuring Bill Cusano, Jim Nesbitt, Lynn Slaughter, Poppy Gee, Thomas Burns, Warren Moore

This audio session is available to KNU members.

Explore Membership Options

ABOUT THIS SESSION

Some mysteries are powered by people rather than puzzles. Bill Cusano, Jim Nesbitt, Lynn Slaughter, Poppy Gee, Thomas Burns, and Warren Moore explore how to write mysteries where character psychology and emotional stakes take center stage. This session shows how crime can serve as a framework for deeper, character-driven storytelling.

MORE LIKE THIS


Crimes Across Asia: Setting as Story
Barry Lancet, Fuminori Nakamura, Juliet Graves, Lisa Brackmann, Martin Lamorne, Ovidia Yu
2014
How Theme Secretly Holds Your Story Together
Adam Sydney, J.L. Delozier, Jessica Seigel, John Slayton, Jule Selbo, Kathryn Lasky
2022
Writing Police Stories: Character, Setting, and Realism
Alex Gray, James L’Etoile, Mark Edwards, Michael Dymmoch, R.T. Lawton
2016
Adapting Stories for the Screen Without Losing Their Soul
No Presenter
2002
Writing Romantic Suspense
Jenna Kernan, Kendra Elliot, Kerry Lonsdale, Lise McClendon, Melissa Lenhardt, Stacy Allen
2018
Two Heads Are Better Than One
Agneta Friis, Carol Higgins Clark, Caroline Todd, Charles Todd, Frankie Y. Bailey, Lene Kaaberøl, Mary Higgins Clark
2012
Why Small Towns Are Perfect for Murder
Debra Gaskill, Jeffrey Philips, Mike Brown, Rick Reed
2021
The 5th Amendment: Rights and Writing
Eric Beversluis, James Glass, Lisa Preston
2019