Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, Creative Thursday Intensive Writing Workshop: Last Orders - How to Create a Murderer

Following a highly interactive session with Ian Sales about the Modern Day Detective, which gave us pointers to the complexity, procedure and pressure of running a modern day investigation, as well as the culture of the police, to give us that edgy realism and intensity to our writing, attendees of Creative Thursday attended the second Intensive Writing Workshop: Last Orders - How to Create a Murderer.

This exercise-based workshop with award-winning crime novelist, Guardian crime fiction reviewer and Guardian/UEA Masterclass tutor Laura Wilson, showed us, with the aid of a series of unusual photographic prompts, how to create memorable, psychologically complex villains with plausible motives.

A villain is usually the person who does the killing, but a great crime novel consists of good triumphing over evil and the status quo being restored and a villain runs the gamut from the personification of evil to someone whose actions you could condone.

In 2003 the American Film Industry published a list of top 20 villains and the top 10 is as follows:

1) Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs)
2) Norman Bates (Psycho)
3) Darth Vader (Star Wars)
4) Wicked Witch of the West (Wizard of Oz)
5) Nurse Pratchett (One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest)
6) Mr Potter (It's a Wonderful Life)
7) Alex Forrest (Fatal Attraction)
8) Felicity (Double Indemnity)
9) Regan McNeil (The Exorcist)
10) Damien (The Omen)

The top 10 heroes:

1) Atticus Finch (as played by Gregory Peck)
2) Indiana Jones
3) James Bond
4) Rick (Casablanca)
5) Will (High Noon)
6) Clarice Starling (Silence of the Lambs)
7) Rocky Balboa
8) Ellen Ripley (Aliens)
9) George Bailey (It's a Wonderful Life)
10) T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)

Laura believes that even madness has to have some internal consistency, even though it can be unrecognised by the mad person as there are no limits to human self-delusion.  Murder has to have a credible motive/reason why.

Motives for murder:

1) For practical reasons - money, power or self-protection (e.g. if you need a heart transplant and are on the list, bump off the others)
2) Emotional satisfaction - revenge, envy, jealousy, love, ambition
3) Conviction - terrorism, in order to achieve an ideological/social/religious or aesthetic purpose, altruism and intellectual
4) Murder committed by psychopaths, criminally insane, irrational (drugs etc.)

Any motive you can think of falls into 1 or 2 of these categories.

As the Guardian's crime fiction critic, Laura notices a lot of the same stuff, e.g. golden girl slipstream 2 years ago when they wanted the next Stieg Larsson (turned out to be Jo Nesbo) then it was novels set in Cuba, Italy, Spain and when Dan Brown had come out, she noticed a lot of Maltese crosses.  Trends can also be things like friends from Uni/school who do a bad thing that haunts them the rest of their lives or human trafficking; social/domestic trends i.e. no divorce murder.  There is humour in crime fiction, e.g. Elsie Tyler, Christopher Brookmore and Simon Brett, but you can't sell it abroad.

Murders motive has to be properly thought through:

1) Things are not sufficiently accurate (when you have done something you must remember you have done it, e.g. a one-handed person cannot row in a boat to escape)
2) Fear of creating problems (need tension/suspense, create it then compound it, needs to be 3 times as bad by the middle of the book)
3) Quite difficult to kill somebody (remember the physicality of the whole thing; a dead weight is a dead weight)

Consider whether your killer feels remorse and their actions must match accordingly (guilt, horror, self-loathing) and you need to understand how they got that way (not in a backstory way).  You can search the national archives and all the photo's from crime scenes are there, as sometimes seeing things in black and white can be more helpful than research.

You and the murder/er needs to:

1) Have sufficient motive (to them that we can believe)
2) The character introduced early enough in the story (can be peripheral in the beginning, then can forget about them and reintroduce at the end)
3) Don't change your mind halfway through as to who's done it without going back and altering
4) Don't make them so bad in every way that it is obvious it is them (a single redeeming feature does not cut it either)
5) Don't have the villain recounting their evil plan at the end of the book (information dump)
6) Avoid them conveniently giving up
7) Convincing background (can't be just Mum/Dad issues) and avoid sexually abused child, lesbian side-kick etc. as they are too clichéd, unless you can give it a really original twist
8) Not over-explain (e.g. when tried to get reader to believe Hannibal and Clarice getting together in the Silence of the Lambs novels by explaining why he is who he is, the attempt at making him sympathetic ruined the character

Using an exercise where the attendees each chose a photograph of last meals of death row convicts on a plastic tray (we all have an emotional connection with food) we had to choose one and write in 1st/3rd person about the thoughts and feelings of the individual who has chosen to eat this as a last meal, e.g. age, sex, background, crime committed, innocent or not, circumstances surrounding the crime, what do they feel about their predicament, e.g. un/fair and whether they think they will be punished in the after life.  There were several photos to choose from, including just cereal, 3 different puddings, a dozen hotdogs, large bag of crisps, fruits, salad and a McFlurry, but I chose one with a glass of water, an egg and tomato salad with 2 pots of mayo, a banana and a nectarine (turned out to be an axe murderer).  The person with the cereal was a rapist/murderer and the one with the large bag of crisps was a poisoner and had chosen that meal because it was tamper-proof.

An enlightening exercise and a lively and informative workshop.

#Theakstonscrime  #TOPCRIME2014

Noah film review

Went to see this film with my Mum as part of the Odeon's Senior Screen.

IMDB says: A man is chosen by his world's creator to undertake a momentous mission before an apocalyptic flood cleanses the world.





Starring Russell Crowe (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind) as Noah, Jennifer Connelly (Blood Diamond, Hulk) as Naameh, this is the Hollywood version of the bible story.  With some excellent CGI effects, the rock-formed watchers for example, and some fine acting, this comes alive on the big screen.  Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast, Hugo) is spectacular as baddie Tubal-Cain, as is Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs, Thor) as Methusala the wise Grandfather and Emma Watson (Harry Potter, The Perks of Being a Wallflower) is convincing as Ila, as is Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower) as Ham and Douglas Booth (Romeo and Juliet, Worried about the Boy) as Shem.

The film has been banned in Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar and UAE and both Christian Bale and Michael Fassbender were offered the role of Noah, but declined due to scheduling conflicts.  Bella Heathcote, Saoirse Ronan and Dakota Fanning were considered for the role of Ila.

This was a movie played out on a huge scale with a story so epic, but the two things it left me wondering when I left the theatre was what happened to Ham and was the Noah/Ila dynamic the first incidence of man's oppression of woman?

Tagline: The end of the world....is just the beginning.                         6/10

#Noah   #RussellCrowe   #EmmaWatson

Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival Creative Thursday, Intensive Writing Workshop: Getting Started PART 2

Here is part two of the review of the excellent Melanie McGrath Intensive Writing Workshop: Getting Started.

3) Narrative: 8 point arc, western storytelling structure.

Drama is conflict with pointer and foundations you can go back and check out, that you can resolve or move you on in the story.  There are often 2/3 arcs at the same time.

8 Point Arc:

1. STASIS (situation of story when you first enter it) the World, setting, timeframe

Melanie suggested creating a calendar/wall planner to check off against the dates in your story.

2. THE INCITING INCIDENT (e.g. murder, body) First chapter, find the 'what if?' moment

3. QUEST/STORY GOAL (e.g. solving the crime) Internal goals too

4. OBSTACLES ('what if?' was creating obstacles, more and more and each to follow = causal chain) external/internal dramatic tension rises (start small - BIG) leads to more and more conflict

5. CRITICAL CHOICE (hard path, right or easy, wrong path e.g. reveals Main Characters (MC) character

Readers should know and want MC to not mess up.

6. PEAK/CLIMAX of tension (e.g. The Firm, initial choice to go after the Mafia (who he works for) in a way that won't debar him as a lawyer)

7. REVERSAL (result of critical choice doesn't go smoothly, e.g. killed baddie, but not really dead - Carrie)

8. RESOLUTION (e.g. gambler realises he lost his family because of gambling, gives it up, goes back and reconnects with family)

This 8 arc structure can always be referred to when plotting and editing your drafts.  The protagonist should also have an inner arc.  3 act structure e.g. inciting incident (internal story goal to resolve, e.g. body found reminds them of.... redeeming pasts), internal obstacles (coward giving up whatever, confronting their pasts etc.) and critical choice (do I redeem myself or put myself in danger?).

The protagonist always needs to lead the action, but you need to give them an internal arc (psyche) as well as the action.

Setting/scenario happens where and then a 'what if?' for character/action and what the story goal/quest will be.

In the book by US literary agent Donald Maass 'Writing the breakout novel' which Melanie recommends, there is a lot about raising the stakes for your protagonist.  Melanie also recommends getting your log-line and title of your book for your pitch, e.g. this book 'TITLE' is about 'MC' who 'STORY GOAL' by 'QUEST' to 'MCs WANT/NEED/INNER CONFLICT.' 

We all wrote our one line pitches and those that were brave enough, read them out.  The end of the session was for questions which brought up the following issues/answers:

Your synopsis should be picking out the bones of the narrative drive.  Do not describe the characters, tell the story.  In the synopsis, reveal who the killer is, but that is the best bit, because the agent/editor/publisher wants to know the outcome, but Melanie revealed that she has never done this, so she doesn't feel this is a hard and fast rule.  She wouldn't put in all the subplots as it loses the energy, just what the stakes are as the hero needs to come out of it changed somehow.  Melanie sees the synopsis as a sales document, so long as the book works, the pitch doesn't matter later.

Melanie feels you have to be surprised when your character emerges as you need commitment, passion for the story, know your MC and what the stakes are because the goal is to redeem something/heal something, not to solve the murder.  The murder is what she calls the McGuffin, something for them to sit on.

This was a very useful and informative workshop and I will be taking the lessons learned going forward when I write my first draft of my WIP crime novel TPB.  I thoroughly recommend attending Creative Thursday when it runs next year, maybe I will see you there.

#Theakstonscrime  #TOPCRIME2014

Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, Creative Thursday - Melanie McGrath Intensive Writing Workshop PART 1

Absolutely loved attending the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival last weekend and the festivities kicked off with Creative Thursday.  The Intensive Writing Workshop I attended in the morning was Getting Started, a lively, practical workshop with bestselling novelist and Arvon creative writing tutor Melanie McGrath which focussed on exercises to get us started on our crime idea.  We learned how to come up with original story scenarios hand in hand with developing believable characters to then develop our scenarios into full length stories through an understanding of classic story structure.

Melanie, author of White Heat, Hopping, Silvertown and The Long Exile, started by asking us all to write on a piece of paper the things that hold us back from writing.  There were various answers but the two recurring and connected reasons were time and lack of confidence.  She then informed us that the workshop would deal with three writing staples, scenario, character and narrative, then the eight point arc and the classic story structure.

1) Scenario/situation: the world of the novel, time frame

Melanie introduced us to the 'what if?' exercise as mentioned in Stephen King's excellent book 'On Writing' as this shows you the common themes that you are passionate about and shows you what you should be writing about.  If you use this exercise, the plot points that you have written should help you when you get stuck.  The 'what if? exercise is to take a lined piece of paper, split it into three sections and write a list of 'what if?' questions that follow on from each other, for example mine started with these three:

What if everyone could see dead people?  What if this stopped them living their lives?  What if this means no-one falls in love any more?

Then complete the list until you get to the bottom of the page.  Then pick a question about half the way down your list and turn it on it's head, e.g. 'What if the clones where better than the people?' would turn into 'What if there is something wrong with the clones?'  Then continue the list to the bottom of the page and then repeat this exercise until you have three lists of 'what if?' questions.

Doing this exercise could be a surprise and you may not be writing about what you think you should be writing about and this lack of planning can be why you get stuck, but not any more.

Melanie then explained that there are only 7 stories except ones that take in elements of these, but no-one writes like you so this should not hold you back and that all literature is about solving problems.

2) Character

Deep character is shown by the choices that someone makes in a given situation - character is action, e.g. run away or fight, save the child or the woman.  Character comes in as you write your plot (your 'what if's?').  Writing your book is like driving at night - the beginning of a book is a shadow and as the book goes on the road becomes clearer, but you can't know that from the beginning.

Melanie explained that the first draft that she shares with her editor/agent is usually the seventh she has written and then there are 8-10 drafts of editing before it comes out.  She starts with detailed plotting (framework) but the character dismantles it and she has to reconstruct.  A novel is 100k words and she can't keep it all in her head, so she writes chapter summations.  She has written 7 books and is working on 2 at the moment, a series with 3/4 characters and a standalone with a whole set of new characters.

We then did three exercises to narrow down character.  First writing a character sketch of ourselves in first person including qualities, what you want from life, what inner conflict/s are and what your most obvious characteristics are.  Then write a character sketch of yourself, written in the perspective of someone who doesn't like you and what that person thinks you want, what your inner conflicts are and your characterisations, which might be the opposite of what is the truth.  The third exercise was to write a character sketch of yourself from the point of view of someone who likes you, friend, family etc. using the same parameters.  This should be very revealing as all people lie to themselves about themselves to various degrees and how other characters respond to the main characters and their motives behind this in your book reveals character, but keep in mind that your characters may be deluding themselves and the reader.  Their constant reactions to how they relate to one another, make decisions in modes of action (inner conflict, what they think they want and what they actually want) and how they interact with people around them are the key to character.  You can do this exercise to help understand your characters as you are writing them.

Melanie did warn us that goodness writes blank though, your hero cannot just be good, s/he needs to be flawed somehow, but they can be horrid so long as those around them are worse or if they are deliciously horrid, but they must not be just good. 

90% of our communications are body language, but the narration is about verbalisation, so maybe tape people (particularly those with a quirky way of talking) and this can inspire you to try out something similar, e.g. an angry person would talk in short bursts and a placid, dope smoker would use long sentences and talk nonsense.  Elmore Leonard was a genius at dialogue, but no-one actually speaks like that; you must heighten it, it must serve a purpose and differentiate each character.

She recommended completing a first draft and then go through it and make decisions for each character about how they talk and edit them accordingly.

Tomorrow's blog post will deal with PART 2 of the workshop about narration and the 8 point arc.

#Theakstonscrime  #TOPCRIME2014

Cleckheaton Writers Group meeting 21 July 2014

Lively CWG meeting tonight where A, N, P, L, D, myself and new members Ay and S were in attendance.  Ay felt that she was a beginner and is looking for advice and to become more disciplined; all the members agreed that this is one area where all writers struggle, it is amazing how good the washing looks when you know you should be writing.  S also felt that she was a beginner as her writing has been in the academic field of science and facts, though she finds writing cathartic and writes a blog to get into the discipline of writing regularly but feels she has the beginnings of three books.

Following the introductions and P passing around cake for her upcoming birthday, we discussed our WIP.  I informed the group how my crime novel is taking shape, D discussed her work on her new WIP 'TW' and A told us that he had written 4/5 chapters since the last meeting.  We discussed NaNoWriMo as this month is camp NaNo and D & L told the new members about their foray into JanNoWriMo, a writing project they and N undertook in January.

I then read out N's science fiction short story for feedback from the group.  We all agreed that it was a great piece of writing, created good empathy with the character and that it felt like the beginnings of a much longer piece.  The strength of the character came out and it was suggested that the backstory should be hinted at rather than given away too soon.  N does feel that he would like to write more of this story and we all look forward to reading more as N goes forward with the piece.

D fed back to the group in regards to her science fiction/horror/fantasy course that she has been attending at the Lifelong Learning Centre at the University of Leeds.

I told the group about some of the things I had learned at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival this weekend (blog post reviews to follow from tomorrow) including a writing exercise using 'What if?' to generate plot points (more of this in an upcoming blog post).

D then led the group in a creative non-fiction session about feature writing (a hand-out featuring travel writing and feature writing was circulated to the members) followed by a timed writing exercise where members had to write a feature story.  S, A, P and myself shared our features and I passed on my apologies for the next meeting.  It is yet to be decided who is to chair the next meeting, set the agenda and which two members are to submit work for the feedback session, but the second part of the creative non-fiction session will be tabled for this upcoming meeting.

The next meeting will take place on Monday 4 August 2014 at 6-8pm in Cleckheaton Library.  Meetings fortnightly thereafter and new members always welcome.

East Anglian Book Awards, noon on 24 July 2014 deadline

Have had such a brilliant time at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Festival this weekend and am already looking forward to next years.  Fantastic evening at the Quiz last night where we were joined by crime writing legend John Harvey and then today there was a fabulous event today where he was interviewed by Mark Billingham, I will post reviews of all the events starting from next week.

If you have a published book and you live in East Anglia, or your published book is set mostly in this area, then this competition could be for you:

The East Anglian Book Awards opens for entries- top prize £1000.  View this email in your browser

Do you represent an author living in East Anglia, or a writer whose book is set in the region? Enter their book into the East Anglian Book Awards.   Now in its seventh year, the East Anglian Book Awards celebrates the best in regional writing talent, offering the shortlisted authors extensive press coverage and publicity through local bookshops. The winning author will receive a  £1000 top prize, sponsored by the PACCAR Foundation.  For the first time, there is also a £100 prize, courtesy of East Anglian Writers, for the best designed book jacket. Judges include bestselling novelist Sophie Hannah and award-winning poet George Szirtes. Authors and publishers are invited to submit by noon on the 24th July. The 2013 East Anglian Book Awards winner was Masterpieces: Art and East Anglia, edited by Ian Collins. Previous winners include Mick Jackson (2010) with his novel The Widow’s Tale, Diana Souhami (2011) with her biography and memoir of Edith Cavell, and Candy Whittome (2012) with The Last Hunters, a poignant portrayal of Cromer’s crab fishermen. The East Anglian Book Awards are presented by the EDP, Jarrold and Writers’ Centre Norwich with the support of the University of East Anglia. The awards celebrate the best new writing from Norfolk, Suffolk and Fenland. The £1000 goes to the East Anglian Book of the Year, which will be selected from the winning category titles.     The Categories & Judges: Fiction - Sophie Hannah Poetry - George Szirtes History & Tradition - Trevor Heaton General Non-Fiction - Judge TBC Children's Books - Joyce Dunbar Biography & Memoir - Diane Souhami   To Qualify: Works have to be set largely in East Anglia or be written by an author living in the region, which for the awards’ purposes is defined as the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and the area of Fenland District Council. Books must have been published for the first time between August 1, 2013 and July 31, 2014 and been commercially available.   To Enter: To enter, simply submit two physical copies of your nominated book, plus a covering letter which includes details of which category you would like it to be entered for. Send your entries to Trevor Heaton, EDP, Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich NR1 1RE. Any entry queries should be addressed to him at trevor.heaton@archant.co.uk with ‘EABA’ in the subject line. Entries must arrive by noon, July 24th. Please note we cannot return entries. The judges will consider all titles before drawing up their shortlist for each category. This shortlist will be published in the Eastern Daily Press, Evening News, and online. Shortlisted authors will be informed. The winners will be revealed in November at this year’s East Anglian Book Awards evening, which will feature a reading from a high-profile author, the awards ceremony and a meal. Shortlisted authors should be prepared to travel to Norwich for this event.   For more information visit the EDP website.

Crime Writing Workshop, 22 July, London

Another amazing day at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival today, where the highlight for me was this evening at the Robert Galbraith (AKA JK Rowling) event.  Not only was I on the front row to listen to one of my two favourite living writers being interviewed by another great writer, Val McDermid, but I also got my copy of her new Cormorant Strike novel, The Silkworm, signed by her.  What a wonderful privilege.  Looking forward to tomorrows events.

Talking of crime writing, here is the latest newsletter from the London Writers' Club, which has details of a crime novel workshop in London:

London Writers' Club 2014

July 22: Crime writing workshop with literary agent and two authors     On 22 July, we'll be holding a special crime writing workshop with the literary agent, Jack Ramm of the Eve White Agency and two authors - Luana Lewis and Jane Shemilt .    Members have free entry to this workshop, tickets for non-members are £15: Book now.   Do poison pen letters work in novels?    Songs to write your crime novels to.    How well do you know your classic crime novel covers?      Fancy Bali in October? A stunning opportunity for writers of all levels to retreat from the world of distraction and be supported in their writing.    Lifetime membership to LWC:  From September onwards we will run 8 live face-to-face events per year instead of 10 and we will do more on line events to help members outside of London. We are looking forward to a new chapter for LWC and it's lovely to have you along for that.   Let us know if you'd like more information on lifetime membership.       Jacq and Kirsty   #LWC July 22 Crime novel workshop          Tickets £15 for non-members, members book a ticket here.        book a members' ticket here.