GenresNon-fiction
True Crime
A real case, told with care and structure.
True crime is a real case told as a story, which means you have obligations that a novelist does not. People were hurt, and some of them, or their families, are still alive. The book can be gripping, and it should be carefully built, but it shouldn't treat a victim as material that was generously provided for your plot. If you can't say why this case needs a book, beyond the fact that it is sad and strange, you may not have a reason yet.
Structure is what separates a book from a compilation of articles. Investigation, trial, a wrongful conviction, a historical case with a different kind of archive: pick the spine and keep to it. Be honest about what is known, what is guessed, and what the police or the press got wrong the first time. Sensational detail is easy and usually the least interesting part. The better question is how a system, a town, or a relationship allowed this to happen, and what the telling of it does to the people who have to live beside the story afterwards.
The kinds of book inside it
Investigation
The reader's path follows the uncovering, so the order of discoveries matters, and you shouldn't hide a fact only to produce a cheap surprise.
Wrongful conviction
The justice system is on trial as well as the case, and the book needs to be meticulous, because the whole point is that certainty failed once already.
Historical case
Distance changes what you can know and what you should claim, and the social world around the case is often the real subject.
Forensic
The science has to be explained clearly and not oversold, since real forensics is more limited, and more interesting, than television suggests.
When you want a first sketch, Storywell can draft a contents list in this vein. You are still the one who writes the book. Compose an idea.