History Main / WritingAboutYourCrime

* ''Literature/TheOverstory'': Douglas writes a long journal of sorts of everything that happened when he was an environmental activist (though he refers to his allies by their code names), including their arson and [[spoiler: accidentally getting Olivia killed.]] Though he never intends to publish it, it gets discovered by a visitor to his house, leading the police to quickly figure out that he is describing real life events and try to determine just what the real names of the other three people involved were. [[/folder]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'' [[spoiler: Ernesto de la Cruz in one of his old movies includes a scene that recreates the poisoning of his friend Héctor, only that Ernesto is the victim in this case]],(though in his version, of course, he survives).

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* In ''WesternAnimation/Coco'' [[spoiler: Ernesto de la Cruz in one of his old movies includes a scene that recreates the poisoning of his friend Hector, only that Ernesto is the victim on this occasion]],(though in his version, of course, he survives).

Compare CopycatCrime, where the criminal bases his crimes on a book rather than vice-versa, and ReminiscingAboutYourCrimes, where the criminal recounts past atrocities in front of another person.

Compare CopycatCrime, where the criminal bases his crimes on a book rather than vice-versa.

* Polish writer Kristian Bala was convicted after the police found very specific details of a recent crime in a novel he had published. The victim had dated his ex-wife.

* In ''{{pictures for sad children}}'', a serial killer discovers that he's the subject of a media firestorm, so he takes advantage by writing a book about his killings. ''A non-fiction, self-help book'', encouraging readers to follow in his footsteps. The media thinks [[PoesLaw he just wrote it as an elaborate prank]], but he's quick to point out that he's completely serious.

Believe it or not, this has happened in real life.

Someone has committed a crime, a murder usually. For whatever reasons ([[CriminalMindGames teasing the investigators]], venting, gloating, or just for kicks), the criminal then decides to publish a book where the crime is presented as fiction, usually in minute detail.

Someone has committed a crime, a murder usually. For whatever reasons ([CriminalMindGames teasing the investigators]], venting, gloating, or just for kicks), the criminal then decides to publish a book where the crime is presented as fiction, usually in minute detail.

Someone has committed a crime, a murder usually. For whatever reasons (teasing the investigators, venting, gloating, or just for kicks), the criminal then decides to publish a book where the crime is presented as fiction, usually in minute detail.

* Inverted in Creator/{{Stephen King}}'s ''Literature/{{Secret Window, Secret Garden}}''. A man accuses the protagonist of plagiarizing a story about a double murder and the subsequent disposing of the bodies. [[spoiler:He ends up realizing the other man doesn't exist and attempting to commit the crimes and hiding the bodies exactly as described in the story. He does it in the movie version.]]

* Played with in Film/TheNumber23. The protagonist is obsessed with a book which he feels related to his own life, which is on the surface a novel about a suicide girl and a detective. Turns out [[spoiler:he wrote the book while insane and later forgot about it; the female character is a twisted version of a girl he murdered in real life. The "novel" also encodes the place where he left the corpse.]]
* Inverted in Film/SecretWindow. A man accuses the protagonist of plagiarizing a story about a double murder and the subsequent disposing of the bodies. [[spoiler:He ends up realizing the other man doesn't exist and committing the crimes and hiding the bodies exactly as described in the story.]] See under Literature the difference between the movie and the original book.

* Inverted in Creator/{{Stephen King}}'s Literature/SecretWindowSecretGarden. A man accuses the protagonist of plagiarizing a story about a double murder and the subsequent disposing of the bodies. [[spoiler:He ends up realizing the other man doesn't exist and attempting to commit the crimes and hiding the bodies exactly as described in the story. He does it in the movie version.]]

* In Webcomic/''{{pictures for sad children}}'', a serial killer discovers that he's the subject of a media firestorm, so he takes advantage by writing a book about his killings. ''A non-fiction, self-help book'', encouraging readers to follow in his footsteps. The media thinks [[PoesLaw he just wrote it as an elaborate prank]], but he's quick to point out that he's completely serious.

* In ''Webcomic/PicturesForSadChildren'', a serial killer discovers that he's the subject of a media firestorm, so he takes advantage by writing a book about his killings. ''A non-fiction, self-help book'', encouraging readers to follow in his footsteps. The media thinks [[PoesLaw he just wrote it as an elaborate prank]], but he's quick to point out that he's completely serious.

* This trope is the basis of the film ''Film/BasicInstinct''. Writer Catherine Trammell is suspect of having murdered a former rock star in the same way a character in a crime novel penned by her (also a former rock star) was killed. We don't know whether she's guilty or not until the very last scene of the movie.

[[folder: Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/PicturesForSadChildren'', a serial killer discovers that he's the subject of a media firestorm, so he takes advantage by writing a book about his killings. ''A non-fiction, self-help book'', encouraging readers to follow in his footsteps. The media thinks [[PoesLaw he just wrote it as an elaborate prank]], but he's quick to point out that he's completely serious.

* This trope is the basis of the film ''Film/BasicInstinct''.

* Subverted (maybe) in the case of OJ Simpson, who published ''If I did it'' as a "purely hypothetical" account of the crime by which he was tried and acquitted. The publisher considered that the book was "his confession".

* This is TruthInTelevision for social media. There have been many cases where a person or a group of people have committed a crime and wrote about it on social media, even going so far as to show a video of them in the act. Needless to say, [[WhatAnIdiot they usually get caught]].

* The FrameStory of ''Film/KindHeartsAndCoronets'' is a murderer writing his memoirs the night before his execution. He confesses to having got away with several other murders - but happens to be innocent of the one he's actually been convicted for. In the end [[spoiler:he's given a last-minute pardon and released... then realises he's left the incriminating memoirs on the desk in his cell.]]