Where does true crime fit in?

[Grampa Joe]

I write true crime books. If I hedge the facts, i.e. create dialogue for the characters and make suppositions about the events, is this fiction or non-fiction?
Joe

[TrixieBelden]

I also write true crime.

If you can call it that. Im a crime reporter and have written a few articles on various cases.

Im in the process of writing a book on the women of death row.

To my understanding if you write a book that is about a real case but is your own guess at what happened and what was said, then it is fiction, based on truth.

[PerditaDrury]

I have written a number of true crime books...

It's called "creative nonfiction" if you utilize fiction techniques to tell a true story. My true crime books have been called this and sometimes "literary nonfiction".

True crime stories can be "fictionalized" but they can never, by definition, be "fiction". At one end of the spectrum they are "loosely based on actual events", at the other end they are court transcripts and interviews.

The most versatile true crime writers make the true story read like fiction...

[Grampa Joe]

Good! What I have in the front of my book is "This book is based on a true story. Every effort has been made to represent the facts." I guess next book will have a little different wording.

[PerditaDrury]

That'll do it!

Good luck with your book!