Writing resources?

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

I've written fanfic before--westerns, SciFi and fantasy. I'd like to write some CM but the very specific terminology and profiling lingo has me stumped. What resources do you writers use to research this important aspect of the stories?

Thanks!

Comments

[buffyaddict13.livejournal.com]

hi hon.

i felt the same way when i joined fandom. this sounds dorky, but i just watched the eps over and over. i took notes. i also read both tie-in novels. and i read matociquala's fic.

i also used the online scripts website but that seems to have closed or shut down which makes me weep into my keyboard.

i also spammed this comm with countless questions.

*is not that helpful*

good luck!

[seraphina_snape]

My favourite is this page which has links to several police and criminal slang term glossaries. It's interesting and offers quite a bit information.

I don't find the Wikipedia article on police jargon to be very good for fanfic writing, but the links at the bottom are worth a look.

You could also try the Criminal Minds Wiki glossary, which explains the terms used on the show.

~ sera

[hopskotch-hotch.livejournal.com]

Hey there!

Your question really made me think, and from just scanning through comments so far, I'm sure I'll be using some of the suggested resources too.

If you want to get into some in-depth stuff on psychopathy (for example;background, terminology), I can highly, highly recommend reading anything by Prof Robert Hare. He's a world expert in psychopathy, and has actually developed the psychometric instrument used to identify this. He has a great website of related resources: http://www.hare.org/
There's a very good links page on this site also.

I was involved in hosting a seminar he gave at my uni a couple of years ago (one of those once-in-a-blue-moon opportunities - he was just passing through) and his stuff was riveting. Very interesting guy. And he liaises a lot with the media in his work as a forensic psychologist, so his books are not overly technical.

This website is also an excellent forensic psych resource (one of the best I've seen) - it has a huge glossary of terms, lots of links and other resources: http://www.forensiceducation.com/forensic_files/index.htm

Recommended to anyone with an interest!

This is general info. about the area (not CM-specific) - Buffy is right, it's a great idea to take notes when you watch episodes. I think a lot of people do this to get a feel for the show when writing fic.

Hope this is helpful in some way :)

[derangedfangirl.livejournal.com]

I find already existing great fanfic for the fandom, especially novelizations of episodes, to get the cadence and rhythm of the various characters' speech patterns and how they look, rather than just how they sound on the dvds.


*shrugs*

As far as writing case-fics, I usually look up other solved cases of serial murders and sort of... combine things, make some stuff up, etc etc. As a whole, though, the fandom isn't HORRIBLY picky... it's hard to be, as few of us are experts on the subject ourselves, lol.

hope that helps