Crime Fiction Coach - a new service from four leading crime authors!!

Writing fiction can be a daunting experience, and many writers (unpublished and published) often welcome a helping hand.

Thanks to four brilliant, experienced crime fiction authors -
Steph Broadribb, Susi Holliday, AK Benedict & Louise Voss -
there's a new coaching service focusing specifically on writing crime fiction. 

Crime Fiction Coach can help you through all stages of the writing process:

• gathering together your thoughts and ideas
• finding the writing process that works for you
• keeping you motivated
• writing a first draft
• wading through the editing process
• offering honest constructive critique
• creating a polished manuscript to submit to agents and publishers. 

I've been fortunate enough to gather these four authors together to find out more about Crime Fiction Coach and how it can provide advice, guidance and support.

Why did the four of you set up Crime Fiction Coach - and did anything in particular prompt this decision?
We set up Crime Fiction Coach because we know what it's like to be just starting out writing your first novel, or having written a novel not being sure what to do next, and we wanted to make a place for those people to come and get advice and support. We also wanted to create something that is flexible to individual needs - yes we do standard coaching programmes, critiques and writing packages, but we also recognise that everyone is different and so we can create a programme or package that's tailored for a person's needs if our standard services aren't hitting the spot.

Who is Crime Fiction Coach aimed at?
Crime Fiction Coach is aimed at people who want to write, whether they're at the very start of their writing project (or not sure how to start) all the way through to getting their final draft and submission package ready for agents and publishers. 

Do you think writing crime fiction requires additional or different skills to writing in other genres?
If we’re talking commercial genre fiction overall, then the elements are quite similar – bestselling books are generally hooky, well-paced and written in a way that makes you want to keep turning the pages. Crime fiction does have some additional elements – namely suspense, mystery and often psychological elements of both the good and the bad guys. If you’re writing commercial fiction of any sort, then your main aim has to be to keep the reader hooked throughout. In crime, it’s about that, plus leaving clues, red herrings and creating satisfying ways to murder people that serve as entertainment rather than purely exploitative gore. Also, there are so many sub-genres of crime fiction, that it’s often the case that you read a book that is not billed as crime, but still contains many similar elements. I think the four of us specialise in crime because we prefer the darker side of storytelling. 

Why are the four of you ideal for the job?! 

Steph Broadribb

"I write two series - one US set action thriller, and one UK police procedural - and have a background in coaching. I'm passionate about working with writers at all stages of their journey and use a range of coaching techniques to help you free your creative thinking and move forward to achieve your ambition. I love a fast-paced page turner and my strength is in supporting writers who are writing for the commercial fiction market."




Susi Holliday

"I’m still juggling a day job with writing and other commitments, so I know how hard it is to find the time to write and stay motivated when you feel under pressure – this is something that I think I can help others to work out in their own way, to make sure you stay on track with everything and don’t get totally overwhelmed."








AK Benedict

"I have over ten years' experience in coaching writers, guiding them from their tentative first drafts to finished, often published, novel or script."











Louise Voss

"We all have different strengths so whatever your writing issue, we have no doubts that one of us will be able to fix it. Personally, I love to help people bring their characters to life using great dialogue and vivid detail."









What are you offering that other critique services don’t?
There are lots of great companies offering manuscript critique services, agent submission package critique, feedback on partial and full novels – we do offer those things – but for us the focus is more about helping people along the way. The coaching element is our unique selling point. Whether you are a complete beginner and don’t know where to start, or you’ve written for a while but haven’t secured a deal yet, we can help you. Our aim is to guide you through the things that are holding you back, whether it’s time, ideas, being blocked, lacking in confidence – whatever it might be – these are the things that we are passionate about helping you with.

Thanks for the insight into Crime Fiction Coach, Steph, Susi, AK and Louise!! 

And good luck with what looks to be a fabulous service.

Visit the Crime Fiction Coach Website here to learn more and join the mailing list. 

You can also join the Crime Fiction Coach online writing group on Facebook (click here).

Top 10 Tips on Writing Crime Fiction from Mark Billingham

On the evening of 5^th April 2017, I attended the Writers' & Artists' ‘How to Write Crime Fiction’ masterclass, with top crime author Mark Billingham. It was a fantastic introduction to writing crime fiction – talking rules and when to break them. I wrote the following blog post for the Writers' & Artists' website (click here).

Here are 10 top tips I learnt from Mark

1. Write the book you want to read

Don’t look for gaps in the market. 

Write about what interests you as a reader – this is likely to interest other people too.

2. Choose a strong opening

You need to hook the reader quickly and early. You have 15 seconds in a bookshop to ‘sell’ your book through the cover, blurb and first few paragraphs. Lure the reader in with a killer sentence or anything that asks a question. This is essential if you’re submitting a manuscript to an agent or publisher, as it’s all you’ve got.

3. Decide on your point of view (POV)

You may find you write more quickly and easily in first person. But the protagonist has to be present in every scene and can’t know what anyone else is thinking. Your character also needs to be interesting as everything is filtered through their worldview. Their thoughts need to be entertaining to keep your readers engaged.

Second person – ‘you’ is rarely used.

Third person has more scope and is most commonly used in crime fiction. But the POV must be consistent – no head hopping within a scene or chapter. Chapters can switch between viewpoints or some may be written in the first person to get inside the killer’s head.

4. Find your own way

Decide whether, and how much, you want to plot in advance. Do what’s right for you.

Mark takes the ‘driving at night’ approach to writing. He knows where he’s going, but can only see as far as the headlights. The journey opens up bit by bit and sometimes he comes to dead ends and brick walls. He’ll have an idea of what’s going to happen 40 or so chapters ahead. But, he says, surprising yourself as you write is part of the fun.

5. Don’t get bogged down by research

Do your research after you’ve written your story. Then you’ll know what you need to know. Crime readers can be savvy about procedure, such as DNA and fingerprints, so don’t take liberties.

Visit locations if you can, simply to get a feel of a place – what they smell like, what they look like. You can’t get all of that on Google Maps.

Illnesses and addictions affect a lot of people so it’s good to have a proper insight, and people are usually happy to talk. If you’re talking to coppers, listen to their anecdotes and banter.

6.  Dialogue is everything

Great writers can do everything through dialogue, conveying information and character traits. So if you’re good at writing dialogue, use it a lot. You can even write whole scenes in dialogue if this works for you. Remember though, dialogue looks different on a screen to how it sounds. So read it out loud. If you hear clunky lines, lose them.

Character and realism in dialogue is more important that literary eloquence. But unnecessary dialogue can be tedious so ditch the small talk. And remember that naturalistic dialogue isn’t always readable, so you may have to adapt it.

7. Be disciplined

Every writer has their own routine. Some have no routine at all. It’s important to keep writing – 5000 words a week is a good target, but it’s not set in stone. Some days will be less productive than others. If you’re struggling to write more of your story one day, write something else for a while.

8. Less is more

Nudge the reader’s imagination. A single drop of blood on a pristine kitchen floor can be far more powerful than a graphic murder scene.

If you’re good at describing landscapes, describe them. But don’t paint the whole picture. Readers also don’t need to know everything about your characters’ clothes, hair or mannerisms.

9. When you’re done, rewrite

Some people write from beginning to end and then go back to the beginning and do the rewrites. Others can’t write chapter 2 unless they’ve finished with chapter 1.

Rewriting is generally taking stuff away, but not always. If it sounds like writing, rewrite it. Leave out the boring parts readers tend to skip.

At some point you’ll need to hand your manuscript over to a reader for their opinion. Make sure it’s someone you trust but someone who’ll be honest too. If they’re telling you something’s not right, it’s often confirming what you already know.

10. Finish things – and start again

This is what makes you into a writer – you finish what you’ve started. Don’t give up halfway through.

As a writer, you’ll do a lot of waiting – for agents, publishers, edits… – so always be thinking about your next book.

Obviously rules are made to be broken - so you may wish to adapt some to suit your own writing!

Huge thanks to Mark Billingham for his advice, and to Writers & Artists for putting on such a brilliant evening - not just informative but great value too. And, finally, a big thank you to Susi Holliday, another fab crime writer who told me about the masterclass in the first place!