Masterclass: Writing Crime Fiction

How to create compelling plots, dramatic characters and nail biting twists in crime and detective fiction

Rosemary Rowe

• Publisher: Teach Yourself
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781473601369
• eBook ISBN: 9781473601383
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Creative Writing
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Do you have an idea for a gripping crime novel?
Would you like to know how to plot your book flawlessly?
Do you want to create beautifully crafted characters and nail biting twists?This book is designed for anyone who wants to write an unputdownable crime novel. Whatever your subgenre, whether Scandi-crime or detective 'cosies', this book is full of inspirational advice, acute insights and practical exercises. The first part of the book establishes the rules of writing crime fiction - from convincing characters to the role of research. The book then covers the practical craft of writing and editing, before explaining in detail how to secure a contract and/or self-publish your work. A comprehensive guide for anyone who wants to be the next Val McDermid or Ian Rankin.

1

Exploring the genre

What is crime fiction? As we shall discover in this chapter, there is a no single answer and even the classic types of this richly diverse genre – from whodunnit to howdunnit to whydunnit – can be broken down into subdivisions or their boundaries blurred. What matters, though, is that we should care about the characters involved and that there is real jeopardy – which means that there must be violence, usually murder, at the heart of the story.

What is a crime fiction novel?

This may seem self-evident but it is worth defining in our terms. A crime fiction novel is:

• a novel – which means a full-length book. You should aim at somewhere between 60,000 and 90,000 words. Any shorter and it becomes more of a novella or long short story, which are different markets. Any longer and it will be very difficult to sell. (However, even as I write, a crime story of over twice that length has just won the Booker Prize. In this game there are no absolutes.) But 60,000 or so words will give your book the greatest chance. When (and if) you find a publisher, your editor will guide you as to cuts – or even which parts of your story to expand.

• fiction – which means you’re going to make it up. There is an entirely different market for non-fiction crime. Of course you may use real-life events, or even characters, as inspiration; everybody does. But as inspiration only. The final story comes out of your head – not out of research and newspapers. And since you have possibly never seen a corpse, much less a murder, you are simply going to have to imagine it.

Key idea

General advice to aspiring novelists is to ‘write about what you know’. Unless you are a murderer, police officer, advocate or judge, this won’t apply to the central incident in crime novels. This is the first of the ‘general rules’ that we are going to break.

Even so, there are no absolutes. There is a sort of ‘half-fact’ variety, in which a purely fictional character re-examines a famous actual event – usually one that happened long ago. (There are also examples where this pretends to be the case but the supposed distant murder is imaginary too.)

And this brings us to the special requirements of the genre.

The four central requirements of the genre

1 The novel is about a crime – preferably murder.

2 This crime is the driving force behind the plot.

3 The crime will out and justice will be done.

4 The author will ‘play fair’ with the reader.

1 IT IS ABOUT A CRIME – PREFERABLY MURDER

This is the one essential requirement and so important that it must be said again. Your crime must be one with huge physical stakes for the victim. Usually this is murder, although kidnap, violent rape, torture, child abduction and horrific cruelty to animals have all been used, though mostly in crime thrillers, rather than mysteries.

Howard Haycraft

‘There really must be a murder, or at least a major felony – otherwise, what’s the point? Who’s ripping off the hand towels at the Dorchester Hotel is hardly the business of a mystery novel.’

Don’t try basing a crime novel on a theft of art or jewels – unless there is a murder in the course of it. Some great writers (Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle) have done it, but not in full-length books. This is the stuff of short stories. For a whole novel mere theft is not enough, even when fabulous treasure is involved.

In particular, don’t base your book on dreadful doings at banks or companies, however much that’s ‘writing what you know’. If you want to air that subject, try a different genre: a factual exposé or social satire perhaps. Financial double-dealing does not stir the blood. It won’t create enough tension to sustain a crime novel – unless there is a murder, and not often, even then.

Key idea

There must be very high physical stakes for the victim for a crime novel to work.

Snapshot exercise

Read through the following:

She looked at the police officer with anguished eyes. ‘My baby,’ she whispered, as though it cost her pain to speak. ‘Only three weeks old. She was right here. I put her down myself.’ She shook her head. ‘I left the room a moment – only a moment – because I thought I’d heard someone at the door but when I came back in here she had disappeared!’

1 Ask yourself: what is your attitude to the woman in the extract? Think of three adjectives you might apply to her.

2 Now reread the extract, substituting the words ‘diamond necklace’ for ‘baby’ (and ‘it’ for ‘her’, where appropriate) and repeat the exercise.

Which alternative feels like ‘high stakes’ for the woman?

2 THE CRIME IS THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THE PLOT

This does not mean that you are limited and cannot tackle psychological, social or political issues. On the contrary, these may be compelling triggers for a homicide – and sometimes the most chilling butcheries of all are those committed in the name of an idea. Just ensure that the human drama is what drives the narrative. This applies even when the central crime does not actually occur – in psychological thrillers, for example. Here it is the threat or suspicion of the crime that propels the narrative, whether or not it actually happen...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Title
• Dedication
• Contents 
• About the author
• Introduction
• 1 Exploring the genre
• 2 Creating settings
• 3 Creating characters
• 4 Writing dialogue
• 5 Plotting and structure
• 6 Style and viewpoint
• 7 Give us a clue
• 8 Getting your facts straight
• 9 Writing, editing and redrafting
• 10 Preparing for publication
• Appendix: bibliography
• Answers
• Copyright