Do you want to write a noir novel and learn how to do so?
In this article, we share some of the key characteristics of noir fiction and how you can incorporate these into your novel.
1. Understand the genre
A lot of times, the hardboiled detective subgenre gets mixed in with the noir subgenre, mainly because the two are subgenres of the crime fiction genre. On top of that, they often have similarities in terms of the setting and the usual tropes and characters.
However, the key difference between noir and the hardboiled detective subgenres is in who the protagonist is and the nature of the stories. The protagonist in a hardboiled detective subgenre is always, as the name of the subgenre indicates, a detective who has been through some tough times and knows how to handle himself in tough and dangerous situations. The detective knows how to solve the mystery and/or crime at hand and apprehend the bad guy(s). The main story or plot is always a mystery that the detective needs to solve.
A noir novel, however, can have a hardboiled detective as a protagonist, yes, but the protagonist can also be a suspect in a crime, a perpetrator of a crime, even a victim of a crime. Oftentimes, hardboiled detective stories and noir stories are said to be two sides of the same coin.
In other words, if you write the story from the perspective of the person who commits the crime (or is a suspect or a victim), then you have a noir story. If you write the same story from the perspective of the detective trying to solve the crime, then you have a hardboiled detective story. And, if the hardboiled detective is actually the one who commits the crime (and spends the novel trying to get away with it), we’re back in the noir subgenre.
2. Have unusual character’s arcs
In a usual novel (i.e. the way most novels are written, in most genres), there is a positive character’s arc (for the protagonist and other major characters). By the end of the novel, they have become better persons as a result of their inner journey. Noir is different in the sense that the character’s arcs are either flat or straight up negative.
A flat character’s arc is where the protagonist’s negative views of the world and themselves are reinforced by the end of the story. They might not become a worse person than they were before, but they haven’t become a better person either. If a character has started off as an antihero (i.e. a person who lacks the conventional qualities of a good person), then they end the story as an antihero.
A negative character’s arc is when the protagonist’s positive views of the world and themselves are absolutely crushed by the story. Their inner journey is full of pain, suffering, and by the end of the story, they have lost the personality characteristics that made them a conventional “good” person. From a conventional good person, they’ve become an antihero at best, and straight up villain at worst.
3. Create a dark setting
An idyllic mountain village, for example, is not a place where you can write a noir story (although, rules are meant to be broken so it doesn’t mean you cannot try). It’s just that noir is defined by its setting – mainly, either a corrupted, dark city, full of lawlessness or corrupted law enforcement that functions like a mafia, and is often in cahoots with an actual mafia organization within the city.
The darkness in the city is also reflected in the way the city looks – the city is dirty and full of grime. The dwellings, both where the protagonist and other characters live and work, are dilapidated, and sparse in furniture. The weather is gloomy, cloudy, rainy, and it seems that the sun never shines. If it snows, it quickly turns into grey or brown mulch.
The story usually takes the protagonist in various places that denote vices: brothels, red light districts, opium dens (if the era is right), and bars. Any public dwelling like that is full of smoke because everybody smokes cigarettes, and it will not be surprising if the protagonist, when walking through a dark alley, comes across homeless people living in cardboard boxes or in tents. These homeless people might also attack the protagonist if they are too well dressed.
It’s worth mentioning that the whole city doesn’t have to be this dark place. The story can also take place in a normal city, but the places the protagonist gets to see and visit will be the “bad part” of town.
4. Mind the historic eras
You can use a modern setting to create a dark city, or a dark part of a city, but it’s worth mentioning that noir has its own eras as well.
The oldest era for noir is Victorian London, i.e. the Victorian Era, from 1837 until 1900 or so. London is specifically mentioned for a reason, as that is the city where most of these stories take place, due to what the city was like in that era.
After that, we have the Roaring 20’s, where New York mainly takes center stage for noir settings, then the Great Depression (starting in 1929 with the crash of the stock market and the economy), both of which get combined with Prohibition (i.e. the prohibition of alcohol in the USA), then World War II (with the war raging in Europe, the main settings here are in the USA).
Moving on from those periods, we have the eras from the 1950’s up to the 1980’s, where post-war corruption of law enforcement and mafias become more prevalent, and the settings involve other cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and others.
It’s worth mentioning that you can also mix in other genres like urban fantasy and science fiction to create a noir setting. For urban fantasy, the city either has a magical, but dark, underbelly, set in modern times. In science fiction, you can go for a futuristic city that has all the elements of a noir setting.
5. Explore corruption themes
Exploring corruption themes means to both show what corruption can do to a city (i.e. make it an unsafe place, where crime happens more often than not, and people live their lives with the knowledge that danger lurks around every corner), and present the reason for the corruption (i.e. either a corrupt law enforcement, or law enforcement that cannot cope with the crime in the city). The mafia almost always get involved in some way – they are either always a step ahead of law enforcement, or have law enforcement in their pockets (most often, it is the second type).
Through the protagonist and other characters, you can explore what living in such a place will do to a person. For example, a detective, who has been through some tough times, has now started to commit crimes and tries to get away with them.
Or, you have a woman whose life has been ruined in some way (i.e. her husband was murdered), and now she is trying to take revenge on the ones who killed her husband.
There is little to no conventional morality in such stories, and empathy, compassion, and caring for another person become notions that are almost ridiculed as naiveté rather than something to aspire to. Instead, an argument is being made that sometimes, when justice fails, you need to take matters into your own hands.
6. Delve into tragic characters and bittersweet endings
When somebody says tragic characters, what comes to mind are the heroes of Ancient Greek Tragedies. Their stories never ended well, it was always either in death or destruction of themselves almost to the point of death (for example, King Oedipus in the eponymous play, King Oedipus, abandons his post as king and gouges his own eyes out). But these Ancient Greek heroes got to their end precisely because their positive qualities (those that made a hero a good person) do not allow them to continue living after the events of the story (King Oedipus discovers that he has killed his father and married his own mother).
The noir tragic characters often do not start off as good people at the beginning of the story. Their childhood was difficult so the immorality of the protagonist and/or other characters, or, their refusal to accept conventional elements of what it means to be a good person, has started long before the story happens.
During the course of the story, the protagonist, and other characters, fall ever deeper into more tragedy. For example, the lady looking for revenge on her husband befriends a well-intentioned detective, who gets killed in the course of the story, further fueling her revenge intentions, which ultimately lead either to her death, or her psychological ruin.
As such, usually, noir novels do not end on a happy note for the protagonist and other characters. At best, the ending is bittersweet. For example, maybe the lady seeking revenge will achieve her goal, defeat the bad guys (for example, kill the mafia leader who murdered her husband, or ensure a corrupted detective who covered that crime gets imprisoned), but she is aware that all that she achieved was to create a power vacuum, and in due time, there will be another mafia leader who will ruin another woman’s life in some way.
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20 Detective Fiction Writing Prompts
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How to Write a Crime Short Story