How to Write Crime Fiction: Story Structure

In this video, I show you how to use the external and internal conflicts we talked about last time to construct your plot and story structure. Use this to get the most out of your stories, both at the situational and emotional levels.
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Thanks for watching!

[@iamwarlock1292]

Third time watching this video, and this time I took notes. I'm fairly strong through the first act but lose it before mid point. Many thanks for this excellent roadmap through that boggy lowland of complications and up-ramps. Great video!

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Glad it's helpful. Thanks for watching!

[@lewritter219]

More like movie structure.

[@resistancepublishing]

No matter how old they are, I always learn so much about your videos. Even after watching them more than once

[@vincentvu3213]

These are super useful and really easy to understand. I'm a beginner and was feeling down about my messy plot and I'm so glad I found this series. Can't thank you enough!

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Thanks for watching. Glad the videos are helpful to you. Keep on writing!

[@navoneel]

If I ever publish a crime ficiton book, I would be thanking you on the front page!!!! This is such a convenient map of how to get things done. Thank you so much, Michael!!!

[@tonyflamingo3668]

"A linear story is bad. You don't want a linear story because it means there's only one dimension to it; it just progresses on a straight line, and that's usually pretty boring." Sherlock Holmes: I'm about to ruin this man's whole career.

[@boli-5804]

i was just thinking the same thing.

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

I wouldn't say Sherlock Holmes stories are linear. Formulaic, yes. But simply from the fact that they're told from the point of view of Watson and not Sherlock, they're not one-dimensional stories at all. We get to see Watson change and stretch as a character.

[@tonyflamingo3668]

@@michaelsantosauthor1211 No we don't. Watson stays basically the same throughout the trajectory of the whole cannon, with a few minor reservations. So does Holmes. The only growth that we see is the relationship of the two, and that too very subtly. Watson may be the protagonist, Holmes the hero. But at at the end of the day, it's their friendship that's the focal character, because it's treated like a character, and it's their friendship that has an overall arc. Neither Holmes nor Watson have many discernible changes - unless you count Doyle's inconsistencies, such as the bullet in Watson's shoulder transferring into his leg.

[@TheWorld_2099]

@@tonyflamingo3668 Well...why don't you share with us your published and successful book or screenplay so we can all see what 'linear done right' looks like. Arguing for the sake of arguing is...

[@tonyflamingo3668]

​@@TheWorld_2099 There's no reason to get angry over this. Who's arguing for the sake of arguing? I will directly show you examples to illustrate my point. In The Sign of Four, what exactly happens? Woman comes to Holmes for help. Holmes accompanies her to a man's house. Exposition. Murder! Investigation. The narrative then directly goes on that investigation, one clue leading to another, finally landing in an iconic flashback of the culprit. I guess you could argue that that last part is a complication, but it only lasts a chapter - and that too not fully. There are n complications, no sidequests. And most of the Holmes stories go like that. The only two stories that don't work like this are A Study in Scarlet and The Hound of Baskervilles, the latter pulling it off more successfully than the former. Other than that, most of the stories don't have complications, or subplots as we understand them. Edgar Allan Poe's Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart are more obviously like that, though they find their depth in symbolism. My point is, complications aren't a necessity. Again, Watson and Holmes don't change all that much in their 40 years of appearance. The only arc is their relationship, and that too in the canon as a whole, not a separate story. I'm not saying this guy's necessarily wrong. He makes a great many points in regard to the glimpse to the future and want vs need, IMO, and is definitely more open-minded than that Abbie Emmons who's only interested in pushing the 3-act-structure into everyone's lives. All I'm saying is that Mr Santos must also address exceptions to the rule, and that some stories just don't need complication.

[@THECHANGINGPODCAST]

i had an idea for a crime book series and you are helping me so much because i'm new in this genre🥺❤❤

[@jessicawhite6657]

I'm writing a murder mystery series and coming across your youtube is very helpful. Thank you for all the knowledge so that I can make the perfect murder mystery series.

[@texasnana555]

very helpful. i'm trying to write a mystery (cozy) and thought i've read tons of them, it's not easy to write one. this should help. Thank you!

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

You're welcome and good luck!

[@mahamedmahamud9394]

Could I please get it because I have to write one I have a week to write one mystery

[@mahamedmahamud9394]

I am 9 grade so please help me out

[@edmundcastle8201]

I've probably watched this video ten times at this point. Incredibly helpful.

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Thanks for watching! Glad it's helped you

[@Firefly-ox2wn]

I thought about a mystery novel where the reader is the villain trying to keep secrets from the detective so reader:villan :: writer:detective

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Amber Cronback that arrangement might lend itself really well to a thriller, too. Sounds like fun!

[@rohits5289]

The movie fugitive, something like that. Or catch me if you can

[@seasalt3188]

@@michaelsantosauthor1211 love this

[@seasalt3188]

@@michaelsantosauthor1211 “choose your own ending” type of story?

[@1995yuda]

Sounds super interesting to be honest, I say go for it !!

[@daledearing4399]

I’m intent on writing my first story (novel), and series, loosely based around significant events that happened to me while living in the middle east. The 3 ACT story structure is my focus and your diagram and discussion about what goes into each act is very helpful. Thanks Michael! 👍

[@fursonia9502]

Hello! Just wanna say thank you for your work! ❤❤❤

[@gargibiswas9535]

Thank you for making these videos. I found them really helpful! 😊👍

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Glad you like them. Thanks for watching!

[@thisislifesong313]

Very helpful video-thanks so much for putting it together and sharing it!

[@Truthshallsety0ufree]

In all honesty Tom Bombadil was a fascinating character in the books. Definitely one of my favourites! Knowing this character is in the series makes me interested to watch.

[@venkateshsunkara5323]

Thanks brother, the stuff u presented was very very useful for us to write more existing..... keep posting videos like this in a simple understanding manner. Thanks alot

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Thank you, I will!

[@_Himanga_Kaushik_Baruah_]

Thank you so muchh for your guidance!! It really will help me out in my journey as a mystery author

[@potatopotato1028]

still usefull years laters thankks mate

[@shanede4721]

Thanks for sharing knowledge! But I believe in Stephen King's advice on writing basically saying that do not plan and decide what happens in the story beforehand. But for a reader this structure can help to understand a story beyond the entertainment. And also knowing the structure could help subconsciously to a writer who doesn't preplan and decide what happens. His instincts might improve.

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Yeah, believe it or not I'm not a plotter at all. I follow more of that Stephen King philosophy and Elmore Leonard's, particularly. But this kind of structure diagram is immensely helpful in editing and revisions once the first draft is done. Thanks for watching!

[@origaminoh8995]

Great Lessons! Many Thanks!

[@celisce]

Good day! I’ve watched two of your other videos earlier before posting this comment, and I’m truly grateful for your input, learnings, and contents! Your style of teaching is simple yet efficient. I’m certain it’d aid more viewers-writers and non-writers (who also might be enticed to write!)-in their (supposed) literary journey. Thank you for this! :D Please stay strong and keep going. Kindest regards.

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Thank you very much. Glad my videos are helpful to you!

[@TheCoolkarthik]

Your videos are very helpful! Thanks!

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

TheCoolKarthik thanks for watching! Glad I could help.

[@mimiwong9539]

This is something every creator must watch and comprehend. It's a writing bible to me and best of all I watched in youtube.

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Thanks! Glad it was helpful for you

[@Shwetang.]

I was in a bit of hurry and this explanation was really helpful, great work!

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Glad it helped! Thanks for watching!

[@patytrico]

Interesting class, thank you!

[@Dalimink]

i would've loved it even more if you gave an example with this !

[@apontutul]

Thanks for the explanation. Much appreciated

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Glad I could help!

[@josefinameyer7183]

Thanks for the nice video! I now have a good little outline for a story that before I only had vague concepts of earlier today! I'll make it more detailed later, but this really helped me out with figuring out the basics! Thanks! Do you have, or do you plan to make a video explaining how you come up with the actual crime in crime fiction? That is the hardest part for me, and I think you would have some good insights on it!

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Glad I could help! If I have time, which recently has been tough to come by, I would like to do that video. In the meantime, I can share my own way of picking a crime here in the comments. It'll partly be determined by your sub-genre of crime fiction (i.e., murder mystery, heist novel, etc.). But the perhaps counterintuitive advice I can give is that a good crime story is not about the crime, but about the characters. So I try to pick a crime that fits the characters, rather than characters to fit a crime. Once I have an idea of who I want to write about, I'll often browse the news or historical records for interesting scams or heists or schemes someone tried to pull, then use that as inspiration and change as many details as I need to make it unique to my own characters.

[@rathnayaka001]

Superb tutorial.... Thank you for sharing your knowledge with this world.

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Glad to help!

[@meeraannamalai4741]

Thanks sooooo much!!!!! This helped a lot!!!!!

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Glad I could help. Thanks for watching!

[@juansorel]

You are great, man!

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Thanks for watching!

[@Yoshiro_7]

Ty I needed this

[@jovanieshepherd5964]

Ready to learn

[@murrik]

Literary more leaning into internal conflict. More complications the better, stakes rise , things to lose. Glipms of possibility in the begining External conflict drives the situations Unpredictable worrying narative kind of story. Every plot point makes you ask now what, fear the bad ending hoping for the good, thats suspense

[@MeestaAlex]

I'm starting a project with some friends and this was super helpful. Thanks!

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Thanks for watching. Best of luck with your project!

[@stoic_rhino580]

Great video. Just wished for more examples.

[@marye.thompson4701]

What screenplays would you recommend reading for a crime fiction story or a "based on real life" crime story?

[@Shinchan-hr4wv]

Thank you!!! I'm writing a crime mystery and this helps

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Glad to hear it! Thanks for watching!

[@mahamedmahamud9394]

Could you please send me when your done I have to write a mystery story in my school and I have a week to write I am not good at writing mystery so please help me I go to 9 grade

[@mahamedmahamud9394]

Please help me

[@johnpineda9373]

What are your suggestion to make this noir? Does the character remain questionable even though he solves it? Is this like drawing do i use the structure until i get the hang of it?

[@peppino3609]

Thank you man i want to make a movie in the future about a ghetto story

[@1995yuda]

Great content, thank you :)

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Thank you for watching!

[@nicksturgeonbooks]

Thank you This is the best structure video I have found. #everyday

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Glad it helped! That's right, #everyday :)

[@dogge2792]

great! really great

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Thank you!

[@Dramastag_Theater]

loved executing this on the movie *better watch out* that just hit me hard. even if the protagonist is a villian it still works

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Movies are a great medium to see this kind of structure in action. They really stick to this since every page of a script is $$$$

[@JHaddadSB]

this helped a lot, thanks

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Glad it helped!

[@thomasmurphy4343]

very interesting video thanks very much mr E

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@monicamomney8756]

Currently making a music video using film noir, this was a huge help.

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Glad to hear it!

[@terrific910]

amazing, thank you!

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Glad you liked it!

[@khandkermanhat1710]

U R A SAVIOURRR

[@user-nv5sk7zu1i]

Thanks

[@adavis5926]

I was thinking of Dashell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. As the novel is written in 3rd person objective, we get no internal conflict. A more recent thriller using 3rd person objective would be Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men. I'm wondering how choosing this POV would affect the structure you present here.

[@harshsolanki9560]

Great video!!! love it!!

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Thank you!

[@harshsolanki9560]

Welcome!:)

[@g.vaibhavsaisai8785]

Hello it's helpful

[@HK-ri9bh]

than u so much

[@whatMezLearn]

thanks

[@Michaelmuq]

Hello, does this work for screenplays?

[@antal3534]

You remind me of mr. Garyson from south park. Also 10q, helped me in a thing or two

[@joaopctavares]

same here THE WHOLE FUCKING VIDEO

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Maybe I AM Mr. Garrison...have you ever seen me and him in the same room??? ;)

[@pantelnia7671]

I like how you draw to explain

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Glad it's helpful!

[@pantelnia7671]

@@michaelsantosauthor1211 :)

[@captainnolan5062]

Can you explain the 'glimpse' in a bit more detail please?

[@Tigertheawesome69]

in the beginning of the video you said you will reply to comments, so can you reply on this, also your videos are very helpful and I like them a lot

[@mesia2453]

One thing I like is... for example a murder happens... We will plan out from there how things happen where the weapons went and how come there are clues coming out which clue I want my police to find out. Everything in a planned manner so that there's no plot holes

[@Butterfr]

Amazing, amazing and amazing!

[@nateanderson6138]

Need to chat with you on my crime book I'm working on

[@sandipankundu7251]

These is a very common structure used in almost every story. Can you please make videos on some other structures atleast on one another structure.

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Admittedly, I'm not the best source for other story structures, since I write pretty exclusively in categories of fiction that utilize this one. But if I do study the others or attempt more experimental story forms, I'll be sure to do videos on them.

[@sandipankundu7251]

@@michaelsantosauthor1211 fine😀

[@maxstravagar]

Writing Crime novels may work best when you lived it or grew up around it...at least it's a advantage edge.

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Definitely gives you an advantage. However, you can also get there with a lot of research. So much of the real life procedural details get cut out anyway because they would bog down the story. But interviewing people in the business is essential!

[@blueturtle8]

hello + 100th comment ;)

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Awesome! Thanks for watching and commenting

[@sooraj.srinivasa]

seeing if you are still replying to comments

[@Jason-fp7vi]

Are you writing any new books?

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Working on a new thriller right now. About 140,000 words in and almost at the end.

[@Jason-fp7vi]

@@michaelsantosauthor1211 You were so kind to upload all these video guides to your channel at no cost to the viewer!

[@Jonatan606]

You are from South Park, m'kay?

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

Good show, m'kay.

[@zakariyamiah5037]

can someone let me read their crime opening i need to attain a flow of ideas

[@maxpachec1688]

Zakariya Miah Read some crime stories bro There’s this internet site “Z-library” you can download some books

[@Ecollado670]

I have a idea for a serial killer indie Tv-series based on the crimes of Jeffrey dahmer, Ted buddy, Richard Rameryiez, etc, it’s about the life of one fictional serial killer who kill a bunch of people in a 12 year period this really helped

[@genevievepineda2600]

I feel self conscious about putting my ideas out there, like people might think it's too dark or something. Anyone else?

[@abettermind]

Remember, dark literature is extremely popular. Everyone likes it. The most popular authors have absolutely diabolical elements in their writing. People that won't like the darkness, won't be reading your book. Also, everyone has dark thoughts. You are absolutely not alone.

[@trumantheman3990]

I don't see how this is related to crime? This is just a general story structure outline. Not very helpful.

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

The playlist (and channel) are about crime fiction, and this video covers story structure. Yes, it is general to all stories, but also to crime stories.

[@mangelarsson7774]

Sorry, but Im not believing in this. A story has to come natural.

[@michaelsantosauthor1211]

If this kind of structure feels too constricting during the writing process, it can easily be used as an editing tool instead. This is the natural way people tell stories, so chances are you'll be writing with this kind of structure instinctively. Then you and your editor can refine the specifics of your story's structure after the initial writing is complete. This is usually what I do, for what it's worth.

[@samanthaledesma604]

Sick of stories where people get better. I want to read more about people who get worse

[@fatihfadillah1791]

Thanks