CrimeFest is all said and done this year. Over the past days we’ve been having a sort of withdrawal here at Thriller School, missing the prime advice from fellow crime writers. I say “fellow” because they’re just like you and me. A bit quirky, love their food and drinks, and—most of all—enjoy talking about their […]
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This is a very exciting time for Thriller School. We’re moving towards a new digital horizon where we want to be able to give you what you want and in the format you want. I looked up some stats for this blog and based on these numbers, this leap to technology isn’t just a weak […]
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Looking in the mirror isn’t that scary… In a recent article from Patricia Cornwell, she lets us hear about a brief snipbit concerning her newest novel Dust. I noticed two interesting things about that novel. One, was the recent and very real account of the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy on December 14, 2012 in […]
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I had a very pleasant and efficient security consultant from Isis Security come round earlier this week to check the locks on our doors and windows (reassuringly he found little new that we needed to add), but it was interesting that, in conversation with him, we found that his experience of real-life criminals (or feral toe-rags […]
View Post creative writing, crime fiction, crime fiction writing, crime writing, thriller writing
Tonight may be a time for ghouls and ghosties, but tomorrow sees the dawn of yet another National Write a Novel Month. This superb and increasingly august institution provides a wide variety of ways for people to get started on their writing, to be inspired by others, and to be encouraged and supported in a whole […]
View Post creative writing, crime fiction, crime writing, thriller writing
It’s work, Jim, but not as we know it… One of the great pleasures of running Thriller School is having to read crime fiction. Friends and family look at me sceptically when I settle down with the latest Michael Connolly or James Patterson and say, “It’s work, really…” This week, in preparation for Charles Cumming being one of our […]
View Post creative writing, crime fiction, crime fiction writing, crime writing, thriller writing
Whatever kind of writing you are engaging in, from thriller writing to scientific papers, there is always an implied, or, sometimes, explicit, relationship with the reader. As a writer of crime fiction, one of the decisions you will need to make, sooner rather than later, is how you are going to position your reader in […]
View Post creative writing, crime fiction, crime fiction writing, crime writing, forensic science, thriller writing
In my last post I talked a bit about narrative techniques and ways in a which the writer can position the reader. One thing I would suggest avoiding is getting your reader really p***** off by playing with them. There’s a chapter opening in George Eliot’s Middlemarch (I know, I know, an extraordinary book, with many good […]
View Post creative writing, crime fiction, crime fiction writing, crime writing, thriller writing
Carrying on from what I was talking about yesterday. I have been thinking a lot over the last couple of weeks about narrative technique in fiction – and a lot of these thoughts equally apply to non-fiction writing. The most important decision you can make as a writer – and it doesn’t have to be […]
View Post creative writing, crime fiction, crime fiction writing, thriller writing
People are beginning to pack their pens and make their way to the September Thriller School, which is centred around getting the details right, so that your readers can be convinced and carried away. An example of how not to do it occurred in a book I read the other day, which, for discretion’s sake […]
View Post creative writing, crime fiction, crime fiction writing, crime writing, criminal law, forensic science, thriller writing