Have you seen the “Saw” series of films?
Apparently, the very thin plotline runs thus. Insane guy kidnaps people and implants various nasty things into their boldies and the only way to escape ios for them to rip various bits from their bodies. I haven’t watched them nor will I. Violence for its own sake may […]

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Steve emailed me today with a question. “how do I add enough tension to my crime plot so the reader has to turn the page?”
I know I’ve posted on this before but I think a little more detail wouldn’t go amiss.
Tension.
There can be no tension without conflict and the conflict has to be large enough […]

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Have you ever had one of those days? I’m having one today. My writing day has been interrupted by a series of, well, I won’t call them disasters but just little things that are not too annoying in themselves but when added up cause a headache and put me off writing.
I try to shrug off […]

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Gone are the days when the plot reigned supreme. Agatha Christie’s puzzle driven cosies are consigned to the recycle bin of history. To Agatha, characterisation was secondary to the puzzle. Her crime writing was a masterpiece of puzzle fiction.
I re-read some Agatha Christie the other day. (I have most of her works) Murder on the […]

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How to end your Crime Novel.
You know how you want your novel to end. But somehow it seems a little stale. The case is solved, the antagonist is either in prison or dead. Now what?
The traditional happy ending very rarely happens in real life so we need to consider endings very carefully.
Closure.
Obviously, we have to […]

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So many crime writer come unstuck at this point of their novel. You’ve written what you consider an absolute killer of an opening. You’ve got the plot up to the point of no return. the ending is pretty clear in your mind.
Now what?
The middle or Act 2 of the book is where many would be […]

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Most fiction novels are written to the same basic scheme. The scheme dates back to Ancient Greece.
In the 5th Century BC, those clever Greeks spent a lot of time philosophising about life death, the Universe and everything. (I’m sure I’ve heard that somewhere before). They also spent a lot of time discovering the nature of […]

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Yes guys., I’ve actually finished the video on how to use freemind as part of your plotting strategy when writing a novel.
The video focusses on just the basic features of how to work with and edit nodes in order to get your thought processes straight. It will show you how you only need to work […]

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I have just picked up a copy of Val McDermid’s novel “Beneath the Bleeding”
Publisher Harper Collins
Paperback ISBN 978-0-00-724328-0
My first contact with Tony Hill, was when I saw Wire in the Blood on TV starring Robson Green. After seeing the first part, I rushed out and bought the book and have been a fan ever since.
In […]

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Having trouble with your plot? Don’t know where to begin?
This great free e-book from Holly Lisle will take you through the basics of plot writing and planning. She does things a little differently than I do but she has had countless novels published in the fantasy genre and although not crime, her tips on plotting are […]

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