Writing violence: JonBenet Ramsey and the legal, moral and aesthetic implications of creative non-fiction

This article began as a hybrid critical/creative paper that was presented as part of an all-female panel discussing the intersections between writing and extreme violence. The article is an attempt to represent the writing process of the creative nonfiction author, and to consider the ways in which critical theory can be used to highlight, or conversely obscure, fictional writing. In addition to considering the effect of using a real story, a true crime, as the basis for a semi-fictional work, this essay also considers the writer's relationship to publishers, editors and agents, and their interventions in the writing process.