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
I have just read an interesting and very generous article by Mike Gerrard on Suite101.com talking about the upcoming Thriller School weekend (9th – 10th January 201o) – hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did! – http://england-travel.suite101.com/article.cfm/crime_and_mystery_fiction_writing_course.
View Post creative writing, crime fiction, crime fiction writing, crime writing, criminal law, forensic science, thriller writing
HarperCollins has put up an excellent post on their Killer Reads site (well worth checking out anyway if you’re at all interested in crime fiction) – http://www.killerreads.com/. They have been very generous in sharing what Thriller School is doing with their readership, who are, by definition, people interested in every possible kind of crime fiction, […]
View Post creative writing, crime fiction, crime fiction writing, crime writing, criminal law, forensic science, thriller writing
Serial murders in an Oxford college, a forensic scientist… fiction and fact fuse at Thriller School’s opening weekend, St Hilda’s College, Oxford. Thrillers, mysteries, whodunnits, detective stories, English village ‘cosies’ and hard-boiled private eyes – this crime fiction course is an opportunity to read, discuss and learn about crime writing of all kinds. Writers, publishers, […]
View Post creative writing, crime fiction, crime fiction writing, crime writing, criminal law, forensic science, thriller writing