How to Write Like a Hardboiled Detective (With a Jazz Twist)

I write fiction, too, so I wanted to research the rules of writing the hardboiled detective genre:

• Cut the fluff.

• Ditch the adjectives.

• Short sentences. Sharp like a muted trumpet.

• Metaphors that hit like a bassline in a smoky bar.

• Every line must groove, or it gets the boot

• Your detective doesn’t “walk down the street.”

  He “moves like a blues riff—slow, steady, and full of trouble.”

Writing noir is like playing jazz.

Know the rules. Then break them.

But always—always—keep the rhythm.

Do you think your writing swings? or is it just noise?

Does this still work now?