Crime fiction – how many bodies does your story need?
It’s a question that all crime writers must ask themselves at some point during the writing of their books: how many people should they bump off throughout the story? It might be a slightly grisly...
View Article6 tips for keeping a crime fiction series fresh
When writing a crime fiction series, there will inevitably come a time when you feel like you know the regular characters better than you know yourself, and you have an established method for going...
View ArticleWriting the perfect murder
While it is debatable that there is such a thing as the perfect murder in real life, in crime fiction, it’s the writers who make the rules. I’m not necessarily talking about writing a literally perfect...
View ArticleThe power of normalcy in crime fiction
In the world of crime fiction, we spend a lot of time writing about extraordinary things. Extraordinary crimes, incredible leaps of logic that lead to the solving of those crimes, amazing strength of...
View Article9 tips for writing crime fiction
Crime fiction is one of readers’ favourite genres, and with so many great crime novels out there, writers always need to look for ways to up their game. If you’re new to writing in the genre, where...
View ArticleEverything you ever wanted or: the importance of desire in crime fiction
No, no that kind of desire. Sorry. So much of fiction – all fiction, really, not just crime fiction – is based around the desires of our characters. The things that they want or don’t want, the things...
View Article7 Tips for Writing Original Crime Fiction
Originality is something that we all strive for as writers, and particularly in a popular, competitive genre like crime fiction, it’s important for writers to develop their own style that sets them...
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5 Mistakes to Avoid When Writing a Murder Mystery
Writing a murder mystery is a tricky business. It’s unlike writing most other genres of book in that it generally either requires a lot of careful planning and plotting or one hell of an editing...
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The 10 Commandments of Detective Fiction
Back in 1929, Ronald Knox created the Decalogue or Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction, which authors of the Golden Age such as Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Ngaio Marsh largely adhered to....
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Guest Post by Garry Rodgers — Would Realistic Crime-Fiction Sell?
Today’s guest post comes from Garry Rodgers. If you’d like to be a guest poster on the blog, please contact me. Articles written by guest posters are all their own words. I don’t edit, censor or change...
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