True Crime Over Coffee (Aug. 7–14)

I must take a moment before we dive into the stories of the week.

This is my 100th post on Medium.

Image by poedynchuk on Pixabay, text added by author.

I started this journey hesitantly back in February of this year; a reluctant novelist with an obsessive love for true crime. The self-doubt loomed, daunting. True crime writing is not to be taken lightly. It is a calling with a responsibility to both sides of the story.

On one side is the victims and their family and friends, and the story of their loved in is all over news and social media. How a writer talks about them is public and out there, and it matters. The words we write can have a massive impact on their healing process and how the world sees the victim. We are honouring the dead, regardless of their social status.

The other side is a suspect who is innocent until proven guilty, and someone help us all if a true crime blogger writes scathingly about someone who might be innocent. We never know what evidence will come to light, what secrets will be spilled during trial, and what plot twist might arise.

Could I be a believable and credible true crime blogger and offer sympathy and empathy to both sides of a story? Could I do the research with enough depth and balance to write the long criminal psychology posts and series I want to? I hope I have read enough…