Chris Shella’s Best Advice Ever for Writing Urban Fiction Legal Thriller Novels
By Chris Shella
Advice, Advice Advice…. What advice could I give new writers on how to write Urban Fiction Legal Thrillers? HMMMM. Well you do know as a lawyer I’m allergic to giving free advice. So instead of charging my usual 500 hour fee rate, I will let you, gentle reader, in on how to do this.
There are three keys to writing this type of book.
The first key to writing an urban fiction legal thriller is that you have to know something about the legal system. I cannot tell you how many books, by some of the most famous authors in the world I have thrown down in disgust because they are so wrong on the law and how the criminal justice system works. Legal thrillers work only when they have a basis in reality and how the law operates. Now you don’t have to be a lawyer for this to be in your story. All you have to do is to sit in a courtroom anywhere in the country and watch cases (pleas and trials)for about a month and you will be surprised how much legal jargon and how much of the legal process you will pick up that way. DO NOT,I repeat DO NOT watch movies like “The Firm” or “Legal Eagles”. They are Hollywood’s idea of trial work. If you want Hollywood’s idea of trial work you might as well make the Judge an elf and the prosecutor a demon. It will have just as much of a basis in reality as that stuff does
The second key is to actually put trial work into your novel. I know as a criminal trial lawyer, I’m prejudice against non-trial lawyers but I find that all the people who have read my work love the insights into the justice system that my book gives them. So if you truly want to write a legal thriller, you have to have more than a protagonist who is a lawyer. You have to insert legal work into the book, which should be easy since you have spent a month in a courthouse observing how lawyers work. People are always curious about the lawyers and law and if you put that element in your book you already have quite a few readers hooked.
Lastly, the most important key to writing an Urban Fiction Legal thriller is sitting your butt in a chair and actually writing. You can read all the books in the world about how to be a writer but you will never be one until you are one. Sit at a computer or put pen to paper but you just have to do it. Writing isn’t easy and can be very daunting. But just realize no one is going to shoot you or put you in jail if they don’t like your writing, but no one will ever like your work if you never create it.
Author Chris Shella is a graduate of Morehouse College and the University of Texas Law School and started his legal career in Long Island, New York at the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office. He is admitted to the practice of law in New York, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and North Carolina. Shella is also admitted to the federal court in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the Middle District of North Carolina, U.S. District of Columbia, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, the Eastern District of New York, and the Southern District of New York.He is also admitted to the Bar Of The United States Supreme Court. He and his cases have been covered on Court TV, CNN, and in the New York Times, and other media outlets across the globe. He has represented everyone from lawyers to major drug traffickers to a serial killer in Baltimore. His two most famous case are the Vegan Baby Case and his defense of the Duke Lacrosse Case accuser for the alleged murder of her boyfriend.
Chris now resides in Durham, North Carolina, with his wife and son.
His latest book is the legal thriller, Reasonable Facsimile.
You can visit his website at www.reasonablefacs.com.
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