Mystery Tips: How to Write a Realistic Journalist Sleuth
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Whether you’re writing a whodunit, a cozy mystery or a psychological thriller, one essential element can make or break your story: The sleuth.
Classic crime fiction often employs a traditional police officer or detective to get to the bottom of things, while cozies favor the amateur investigator, typically a “regular person” who becomes tangled up in a mystery by chance. Authors have written amateur detectives of all stripes, from bakers to bookshop owners to auctioneers.
For many mystery writers, using a journalist as the main character is an obvious choice. It’s a profession that inherently involves investigation and gives your protagonist access to information the general public doesn’t have, while also being similar enough to fiction writing that authors can write from their own experience.
But depictions of reporters in popular media can also go very wrong, leaning too heavily on stereotypes or neglecting gaping holes in the fictional journalist’s story — and the story as a whole. (Don’t even get me started on the issues with Inventing Anna.)
As a former full-time reporter who still writes for a range of media publications, I have a few thoughts on ways to avoid falling into common traps. Keep reading for my top tips for writing a realistic and engaging journalist sleuth for your next thriller or mystery novel.
Show the reporting process
Have you ever read or watched a crime series with a journalist character who can magically retain exact quotes in their head, without taking down a single word? Me too. And as much as I wish I had that skill in my repertoire, it simply isn’t in the cards — nor is it a great representation of the way articles actually come to life.
Showing the process of gathering information is the first step to creating a convincing journalist sleuth, and that means illustrating seemingly mundane tasks like taking notes, poring over files and making dozens of phone calls that sometimes end in hang-ups. These moments aren’t glamorous, but they’re an essential part of a journalist’s investigation — and your job as the author is to find ways to make them work with and for your story.
You’ll also want to think about what tools a reporter would be using in your novel’s time period and setting. These days, most journalists take audio recordings of every interview, which are then transcribed by hand or with a software such as Otter. Decades ago, handwritten notes were the way to go, and journalists were often taught shorthand stenography — a writing system that uses symbols and abbreviations — to get quotes down as quickly as possible. Paying attention to these kinds of details only adds to the richness of your novel’s sense of time and place.
It may not be necessary to point out every time your sleuth hits record or jots down a note (none of us wants to fall into the trap of including too many routine actions) but occasional mentions help the reader follow the thread your reporter is chasing and home in on important clues and details. It can also be a good way to illustrate the dance between interviewer and interviewee; in many states, journalists have to get permission before recording, which creates a natural moment for you to insert tension between a reporter looking for answers and a source who’s hesitant to talk.
Nail the industry lingo
People toss around the term “off the record” in lots of different contexts, usually as a way to clarify that they don’t want something repeated. Despite its popular usage, the phrase has a specific meaning when it comes to journalism that is often misconstrued. The Society of Professional Journalists has a helpful guide to ethical standards for media, including explanations of commonly used industry jargon. Here are some quick-and-dirty definitions for terms you might use in your mystery or thriller:
On the record: The source (the person being interviewed) can be quoted by name, and all of the information they provide is fair game for publication.
Off the record: Nothing said in the interview can be published. Publications generally discourage journalists from agreeing to speak off the record, because the information gathered is useless unless it can be confirmed on the record by other means.
On background: Information learned in the interview can be published, but is limited by terms agreed to by the reporter and the source. This could mean that the source is not named but is identified by their position or a description of their expertise on the subject. Quoting a source on background is something a reporter will typically need to run by their editor before agreeing to, and many news outlets set a high bar for anonymity. Some reasons anonymity might be granted are to preserve someone’s safety, prevent retaliation at their job or protect the identity of someone who isn’t officially authorized to talk to the media.
Deep background: The reporter can use the information gleaned from the interview, but can’t give any indication that they spoke to the source who gave it to them. This usually requires a journalist to pursue other sources who will speak on the record about the issue at hand.
It’s important to remember that these terms require an agreement between the reporter and the source — and it’s not something a source can demand after the interview has taken place. In general, interactions with a journalist who has explicitly stated they’re a journalist are on the record unless another agreement is made.
A good reporter clarifies the parameters of the interview with their source before asking questions, especially if the interviewee is a regular Joe who may not have experience talking to the media. Officials and other public figures, on the other hand, should know the lay of the land, so if an official is claiming an interview was off the record after the fact when no such agreement was made, they’re likely doing so in bad faith.
Using these terms correctly in your mystery or thriller shows that your reporter knows their stuff.
Incorporate documents (and news clippings!)
Interviews are crucial to the reporting process, but journalists can’t just rely on what their sources say. They have to back this information up with evidence, whether that’s data, documentation or their own observations. Sprinkling these elements throughout your story adds another layer of intrigue — and credibility — to your amateur sleuth’s investigation.
Reporters routinely use property records, court records, police reports, minutes from public meetings, published statistics and other public documents to support their work. Sometimes, sources also provide documents that can’t be accessed by the public, such as their own medical records, school disciplinary records or private correspondence.
In most states, you can even use public records requests to obtain emails sent or received by public employees, such as elected officials, city staff and law enforcement officers. That’s not to say the process of obtaining public documents is easy; journalists often face exorbitant fees, long wait times or heavily redacted responses to their requests. Familiarize yourself with the public records process in the country or state where your book takes place, and do some digging to find out what kinds of documents are readily available.
Another way to deepen your journalist character is by literally showing your sleuth’s work with news articles written into the text, because it’s much more engaging to read the actual piece of journalism than a description of the finished product. The Rebekah Roberts series by former reporter and journalism professor Julia Dahl is a great example of how to seamlessly incorporate fictional news stories into a novel.
Get real interviewing experience
If you’re struggling to write scenes where your sleuth is interviewing sources, why not try on the interviewer hat yourself? Reporters rely on interviews with experts, officials and the public to do our work, and in my experience, most of us are glad to return the favor. Consider reaching out to a journalist writing in your desired subject area for an informational interview about their process.
This is an opportunity to ask about what tools they use in their reporting, where they look for documents and data, questions they ask in every interview and even how they might approach a particular story or situation. At the same time, you’re getting a feel for the typical back-and-forth of a news interview. Here are a few potential questions you can ask:
What’s the first step you take when working on a new story?
How do you deal with a source who is hesitant to talk or even openly combative?
What are the biggest challenges you typically face when reporting?
What are some interesting but little known aspects of your work as a reporter?
Be sure to find a reporter who covers the same beat as your main character — if your protagonist is a magazine writer, for example, you wouldn’t necessarily want to interview a newspaper journalist covering criminal justice. And a television or radio reporter would have different insights to offer than someone writing for a print publication.
To find the right match, try searching on Twitter or a database like Muck Rack, which compiles information about members of the media for public relations professionals. If you have trouble connecting with someone, I’m happy to share some thoughts on my experience in the news industry. Feel free to get in touch.
Avoid problematic stereotypes and clichés
No matter the genre, readers love a good trope, and tropes around fictional journalists abound, from the drunken good ol’ boy newspaperman to the ditzy magazine writer or the sleazy tabloid reporter. At best, these types of characters can make for a juicier or more sensational story, but at worst, they can promote stereotypes that make it harder for actual journalists to do their jobs. In reality, most journalists view their profession as a public service, and work long hours for little pay to provide that service.
My advice is to tread lightly when having a journalist character bend the rules. Things like accepting payments or gifts from a source in exchange for publishing a story, offering sources money to be interviewed or altering quotes at a source’s request are big ethical no-nos. And please, for the love of all that is good, don’t make your main character’s love interest one of their sources, especially if your sleuth is a woman. Journalists don’t sleep with their sources, and this particular stereotype contributes to the very real harassment of women in the field.
Avoiding harmful clichés doesn’t mean you have to make your journalist sleuth a shining beacon of morality. But it’s important to frame ethical dilemmas as just that — dilemmas — rather than routine steps in the reporting process. If you do decide to put your reporter in a sticky ethical situation, I would first consider why the bad behavior is necessary. Does it add something to the investigation or our understanding of the character? Or could the journalist get the same information through other means? Asking yourself these questions can help you avoid playing into stereotypes that do more harm than good.
TLDR: To write a realistic journalist sleuth, you have to do your research.
In a way, it makes sense that crafting a convincing sleuth would require some sleuthing of your own. Talk to real journalists, learn about the tools and tricks of the trade and spend time writing about the process, not just the end result.
If you need some more inspiration, check out a few of my favorite books with journalist protagonists. What titles would you add to the list? Reach out and let me know.
