How to Writea Crime Novel

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Dr. Barbara HendersonWriter, Journalist and WA Tutor

Dr. Barbara Henderson is a published writer for adults and children. She is a former journalist with a PhD in Creative Writing. She is programme leader in creative writing for the Open College of the Arts and an experienced tutor in writing and journalism.

Crime fiction is a huge area of the market and so one of the first things you need to do is consider the type of crime you want to write – because this is a genre where category is important, particularly as far as publishers are concerned, and of course because it is such a wide genre.

To help you I want to define some terms. Some of them – probably all of them – will be familiar to you but just in case they are not, then this run through will make sure we all know what we are referring to.

We can safely say that crime fiction involves the solving of or an unlawful act, usually but not always a murder, and that the writing tends to be heavily plot-based, although that is also changing.

Welcome – my name is Barbara Henderson and I write as Bea Davenport.

I have two novels in the crime/suspense genre, both published by Legend Press, and I also have a Creative Writing PhD from Newcastle University.

More than that, it is very hard to make generalisations but I am going to try, by doing some categorising of the sub-genres that come under the crime umbrella.

Crime Fiction Categories

Peter Messent in The Crime Fiction Handbook breaks the genre down into Classical Detective Fiction, HardBoiled Crime Fiction, Police Novels and what he terms Transgressor Narratives, and these are classifications that tend to be loosely followed so let’s have a quick look at what we mean by them – before we get into some of today’s publishing or marketing categories and what they represent.

Classical Detective Fiction: the origins tend to be credited to Edgar Allan Poe and The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), which is the first in a series of detective stories featuring C. Auguste Dupin – it’s about the murder of two women in Paris and Dupin solves the mystery after discovering a hair that is not human at the crime scene.

With this story, Poe is believed to have become a forerunner for Sherlock Holmes and for the classical detective story. Poe says this of how his detective’s mind works:

“He is fond of enigmas, of conundrums, of hieroglyphics; exhibiting in his solutions of each a degree of acumen which appears to the ordinary apprehension praeternatural. His results, brought about by the very soul and essence of method, have, in truth, the whole air of intuition.” (2000: 527 – 8).

That also sounds very like Sherlock Holmes, who also talks about his ‘exact science’ in The Sign of Four. You can also find this kind of detective in Dorothy L. Sayers’ first Lord Peter Wimsey novel Whose Body? (1923) and Ellery Queen uses algebra! These are often what are called ‘locked room’ mysteries - for example, Agatha Christie’s The Murder on the Orient Express.

You may have heard the term ‘Golden Age’ detective fiction, which is usually given to British detective fiction written between the two world wars and following this classical tradition. Agatha Christie, for example, is associated with the British country house murder, in an affluent setting.

Other writers that would probably fall under the category of classical detective fiction would be GK Chesterton with the Fr Brown stories, Michael Innes, Ngaio Marsh, Ellery Queen and Josephine Tey – and more recently Colin Dexter, Erle Stanley Gardner, Elizabeth George, PD James and Ruth Rendell.

But crime fiction has become increasingly influenced by what we call the hard-boiled form.

Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction: In The Simple Art of Murder(1944) Raymond Chandler praised ‘hard-boiled’ writing -such as that by Dashiell Hammett.

Chandler praised Hammett for his realism and a move away from what he called ‘Cheesecake Manor’ where ‘somebody stabbed Mrs Pottington Postlethwaite III with the solid platinum poniard’. He said that Hammett ‘took murder out of the Venetian vase and dropped it into the alley’.

In this sub-genre, according to Lee Horsley, in his book Twentieth Century Crime Fiction (2005, OUP), the world is a harsh place and crime is not exceptional. And it also meant a move away from the amateur detective to the professional private eye. Who are those who have been influenced by Hammett and Chandler? Walter Mosley, Sara Paretsky, Ian Rankin and many others.

The Police Novel: In the 1990s, James Ellroy said this:

“From 1997 on, I’ve written about cops. I consciously abandoned the Private Eye tradition that formerly jazzed me. Evan Hunter wrote: ‘The last time a Private Eye investigated a homicide was never.’”

Joyce Carol Oates also said that private detectives are rarely involved in authentic crime cases and would have to access to the findings of forensics experts. So the ‘police procedural’ has become the dominant form of crime fiction.

As its name suggests, it suggests a certain narrative structure: criminal act, detection and solution, with a protagonist who is part of the police system, and it pays a lot of attention to the police procedures. So we move away from the likes of Sherlock Holmes and towards the more everyday, more recognisable police protagonist. But of course there is a lot of innovation within that procedural label – for example, Thomas Harris’s The Silence of the Lambs (1988).

So we can list Patricia Cornwell, James Lee Burke, Michael Connolly, Kathy Reichs, Elizabeth George and British writers like Michael Dibdin, PD James, Val McDermid, David Peace, Ian Rankin.... the list goes on and on. Police novels are also important in European crime novels such as George Simenon’s Maigret novels, Jo Nesbo and many other Europeans. All represent police culture and the way they work. They also often raise wider questions about society. Ian Rankin said in 2007:

“I wanted to write about contemporary urban Britain and couldn’t think of a better way of doing it than through the medium of the detective novel: I would after all be posing questions about ‘the state we’re in’ and reckoned a cop could act as my surrogate.”

Transgressor Narratives: This is Messent’s rather awkward term – Lee Horsley calls them ‘literary noir’ and she says the form is ‘exploring the psychopathology of killer protagonists, revenge-seekers and those murderously determined on achieving upward mobility” (2005:39).

You can trace ‘noir’ back to the 1930s, with the likes of James M. Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) and Double Indemnity (1936) ) which both take the form of confessions. Following in his tradition are Jim Thompson (The Killer Inside Me, 1952), Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr Ripley, 1955) and both of these follow a series of killings – and we have seen a continued rise in the numbers of crime novels that feature serial killers since then. Ripley is also a killer who gets away with it even though that feels like a more recent phenomenon.

Turning to the publishing world: we know that there are now all sorts of marketable sub-genres of crime fiction that merit their own label: cosy mysteries, feminist crime fiction, LBGT crime fiction, black and Latin American crime fiction, Nordic noir, historical crime, etc, etc.

The good news is that crime fiction is never static and never appears to be running out of ideas. It’s also a growing market: in 2016 crime led romance almost four-to-one in the UK in paperback and by a bit more than twice in e-books and apps.

Don’t worry right now, though, about where your novel is going to fit in because you need to concentrate on getting the writing right and the sub-genre will follow (or your publisher will decide).

Getting Started

So now we’re going to think about two questions that you, the writer, will need to answer: Who’s the Body/victim? And Where’s the Body/victim? (because setting is very important).

Victims: It’s said to be received wisdom that the best crime novels are those where there’s a murder (or other central crime) in the first chapter. Rules are there to be broken, of course, but perhaps as a new writer it’s good advice.

“Place the body near the beginning of your book—preferably on the first page, perhaps the first sentence.”

– Louise Penny

In crime fiction, the focus is the investigation of a crime. Starting with the crime lets you start with drama and mystery, which is what the reader is expecting. That’s not to say the crime has to begin the story chronologically but it should usually be the first event a reader encounters. And having grabbed your reader’s attention, you can go backwards when you start your second chapter.

Tip:

Ask yourself: who is your victim? (Or first victim, if there are going to be more than one). Write down the name of your novel’s first victim. What is their name? What do you know about them (age, job, looks)? What’s happened to them (to make them a victim)?

Now let’s think about setting as it is often crucial to a crime novel. Think about what a huge part Holmes’s London, Christie’s Orient Express or country houses, or Rebus’s Edinburgh or Chandler’s Los Angeles play in the success of those stories.

Exercise: So where is your novel set?

Describe your setting as if you are a murderer; then describe it again as if you are either a detective or a soon-to-be victim. How do they experience the place differently? What does each character see and make use of? What obstacles or useful aspects does this place present? Include details – sensory writing. And think about what is going to happen there.

Characters

Now let’s think about the main characters in your crime story – who may or may not be detectives, of course, but I’m talking about your main ‘hero’ character – for want of a better expression – and the main ‘villain’ character. The protagonist and the antagonist, in other words.

In crime fiction, the crime is the hook and you will have heard it said that such novels are plot-driven – but your characters form the substance of the story.

“I think that a crime novel – like any story – succeeds or fails on the basis of character.”

– Michael Connelly

You will hear authors all the time talking about characters and their importance – even in a very plot-driven genre like crime.

Writers like Agatha Christie could get away with recycling very similar and quite stereotyped characters – again and again. She thought she was showing that human nature was fundamentally the same where ever you go. Today though we expect believable, non-stereotypical characters. In a crime novel characters get hurt, including the main characters - but whether we care about that is what makes your plot a memorable one.

Compelling characters chasing each other or threatening each other will be more interesting than dull characters enacting the most horrendous crimes ever conceived.

So the best crime writers give their ‘heroes’ flaws and personal problems as well as talents.

For example Ian Rankin’s has personal backstory – his daughter was involved in a hit and run in the first book and that she’s in a wheelchair. Ann Cleeves’ DI Vera Stanhope is fat, unattractive, shambolic, but very clever. If you read these novels – think about this - why do we like Rebus? And Vera? (They’d be difficult to work with!)

Inspector Morse hates the sight of blood and is afraid of heights; Wallander has high blood sugar, he’s separated from his wife, has an overbearing daughter and a father suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Exercise: Think about doing a Character questionnaire for your protagonist and your antagonist. You can find lots of these online and it’s one of the exercises we also do on our Beginners’ creative writing course.

Villains

Part of crafting a crime fiction novel is knowing who your villain is and using this information to create the perfect–and plausible–crime. Remember that a GOOD villain (by which I mean an in-depth, interesting, complex one) drives the conflict of the story. Without the villain the hero cannot overcome obstacles and develop as a character. So know your villain as well as you know your hero.

Tip:

Think about who are the villains who have stayed in your memory? Why?What do you know already about your baddie?

Here’s one way of approaching him or her. Think about how they choose to kill their victim(s). Now ask yourself: Would your villain have the expertise and capability to commit this particular crime? Choose a modus operandi that your villain (and all your suspects) might plausibly adopt, and establish that your villain has the capability. A murder by strangling, stabbing, or beating is more plausible if your villain is strong and has a history of physical violence. Can they actually use a gun? How violent is the death? Sometimes the method is much more violent than was needed – this says something about the reasons behind the crime.

Remember that villains don’t think of themselves as bad.

Tip:

Imagine the villain pleading for leniency – what would they say?

Tip:

Also ask why does your hero need to be involved? Why them and not someone else? Even in a police procedural – it’s more than just a job to the main character – it’s a personal mission.

Plotting your story

Crime readers enjoy trying to solve the ‘whodunnit’. A tight plot is essential in this genre, so you may find planning helpful – even though not all writers do it.

Writer Annie Lamott (who’s not a crime writer) created a mnemonic catechism, ABCDE, to help writers remember the basics of plotting. These are the elements:

Action: Set the scene with an event that launches the series of events that will become your story. This scene should happen as early as possible, and though some writers have broken this rule, in crime fiction I suggest you observe it unless you have an outstanding reason not to.

Background: Set out context gradually – not in big chunks – and not at the beginning of a crime story!

Conflict: Tension is produced by your protagonist’s need to achieve a goal. That goal should be specific and become more and more important as well as appearing less and less attainable by the obstacles you will place in the character’s way

Development: This is the bulk of the plot and all the events and incidents along the way. These should steadily escalate in import and impact to heighten the tension and keep the reader hooked. Every event needs to be there for a reason.

End: Lamott further divides the end into a mnemonic trio of ‘C’s: The crisis is the stage at which the protagonist must decide how to resolve the conflict, the climax is the tipping point, at which the conflict is resolved, and the consequences consist of the state of affairs that exists after the crisis and the climax—has the main character changed, or has the main character changed the world in some way?

Some other tips about plotting

• It’s often said that your main character must always want something on every page, even if it’s just a glass of water that they can’t get. Usually they’re more desperate.

• A good rule is to make your protagonist confront the thing he/she fears most and have to overcome it.

• Every character should have a personal conflict of their own.

Think about how flaws and obstacles get in the way

Exercise:

It’s a common but essential question that writers need to ask, and you need to ask it of your protagonist and your antagonist. What does your character want? Who or what is stopping them from getting it? And now WHY do they want it?

Each character has two goals, motivations and conflicts—External and Internal. It is helpful to work out what these are for your characters. Almost all stories follow a pattern in which rising action propels the protagonists through a series of complications that result in a climax, followed by the falling action of the resolution. At this point, the character must learn something, grow, and accomplish a goal.

What should a perfect plot look like?

A good plot has a clear motivation. It has a clear structure. It has an outcome. It has subplots.

How to fatten a plot

If you think that your plot is a little lightweight, then it needs substance added to it. That doesn’t need mean more events, more backstory, more points of view.

So let’s say your character needs to solve a crime. Okay – but in the mean time what else is going on at home that means they can’t always focus on that? Are they watching their father succumb to dementia and are they going through a divorce? Can you complicate it further?

The key is to add layers and complexity.

Multiple POVs

If you are telling stories about multiple protagonists, each of whom will occupy a decent chunk of the novel, then you basically need to develop a plot outline for each one of them. It might be quite good to think of ways to do this – via a timeline for each character?

Crime stories often use multiple POVs. That’s OK - but do take care to keep the focus on your central story.

Make the start a really gripping one. In any story, the opening sentence, paragraph, page or chapter can be vital and crime writing is no exception. Joanna Penn advises:

“Start your story off like a shotgun blast in the middle of the night.”

Never start with a description of the weather. I read a crime writer/blogger who said, “In a crime novel, if you open with the description of the weather I’m going to think that the weather killed somebody.”

Timing and Tension: maintaining the suspense

Common issues to do with pacing are:

• Not developing character enough, so a reader doesn’t really care

• Not providing enough obstacles for your character

• Revealing the answer too early

Pace

Pace should change naturally because of the plot, but you should also change the pace of your writing, in other words the length and choice of paragraphs, sentences, and words.

Remember crime fiction readers do not necessarily appreciate pages of elaborate writing.

For fast pace, cut anything that doesn’t move the story forward in some way! When in doubt cut it out!

Exercise:

Take a paragraph of writing and see what you can cut to make it shorter and pacier.

Structure

Every story should have an opening that is developed in the middle to build tension which reaches its climax towards the end, after which there is a rapid conclusion. You will recognise this as typical of the classic Three Act Structure.

In a crime story you should not spend too much time in the ‘first act’ where development, setting and exposition take place, and should start your narrative as close to the inciting incident (aka point of change, first turning point or initial crisis) as possible.

Obstacles, setbacks, climax and resolution make up the outline of the rest of your story. Imagine a graph of building tension.

Your story should follow that arc by allowing your character to face obstacles, setbacks and minor victories on the way towards reaching the dramatic climax and bringing resolution.

Exercise:

If you are graphically minded draw yourself a rough graph or jot down the beginning, middle and end of your story. Now write the story and fill in the gaps. If you’re not so graphically minded, just jot down a few key phrases or events that might carry your story forward to a possible conclusion.

Don’t worry, this isn’t cast in stone, and you can change the beginning, middle, end and anything in between at any time. Once you have a first draft, go back and see if it has some kind of structure or arc. If not, you may have to tweak it a little.

Plot twists, cliffhangers, and page-turners. These are the devices writers use to keep readers engaged – the things that mean you turn the page to the next chapter even though you are tired and you know you should go to sleep. The reader has to find out what happens next.

Some writers are criticized for overusing these devices or for planting twists that are contrived or forced. The best plot twists are natural to the story.Soap operas and television dramas use this device to hook viewers, and it’s a way you can hook readers.

Exercise:

Choose a scene you want to include and write it, or simply outline it – and end on a cliffhanger.

Structure may be a different question to your actual time frame. So your earliest point historically may be – say – November the 11th and your latest point might be November the 23rd. But these may not be your starting and finishing points in the narrative you put together. Why not? Sometimes a linear structure can be a rather dull and uncreative way to write – and therefore to read.

A common device is the flashback. I bet we can all think of a dozen films and novels that are told in flashback. Why? Because it works well. Many television programmes do that also – there are some episode of the West Wing, for example, that use flashback. I’d like you to start watching out for films and TV programmes that don’t start at what is really the beginning of the story – how do they do it? Does it work? Is it a structure that might work for you?

Don’t give too much information at once and don’t give too much information in large chunks. Space out the facts but give the reader ‘rewards’ as they go along.

Dialogue

Dialogue is one of the basic ingredients for a good story. Crime novels are a genre that is driven by internal dialogue and dialogue between characters. A crime novel without dialogue would seem strange. A lot of writers have trouble with believable dialogue, though.

Who are your characters? What is their social group/age/demographic? When is your novel set? Make sure your characters speak like real people – but in written dialogue you need to tidy it up quite ruthlessly. In dialogue, every word is important and should serve a purpose.

Break up speeches with action. The crime writer Allan Guthrie says “Three sentences are about as much as I’ll allow any character to utter in one burst. I then break off to let him scratch his chin, or, better still, interact with his immediate physical environment, and only after that will I let him continue speaking.”

Researching your crime novel:

Crime fiction has to be plausible. It is likely to involve police procedure or legal procedure or forensics or methods of murder or things that you may not know about first-hand – and so you will have to research.

Most writers enjoy the research side of things. The American writer Douglas Corleone is a former criminal lawyer and who writes a crime series. He talks on his blog about how he had to use forensics in his plot and so he actually went to half a dozen different sources to familiarise himself with arson investigation. He learned how the investigators determine a fire’s point of origin; how they rule out accidents and what steps they take to discover the identity of the arsonist.

He used books; he contacted experts in the field – but a lot of what he learned didn’t make it into the story. Knowing the information meant he could write with authority.

Tip:

Select an area you need to research. Research it using one or possibly two sources. (If you are using the internet, make sure it is a reliable source). Seek out experts where you need to.

How is it going to be used in your story?

Tip:

Write a short scene in which you use this research, making sure you don’t use too many technical terms and keep it pacy and interesting.

Denouements

The denouement refers to the resolution of the complications of a plot in a work of fiction, generally done in a final chapter (or even in an epilogue). The denouement generally follows the climax, but in crime/mystery novels, the denouement and the climax may occur at the same time. (The climax is the turning point, which changes the protagonist’s fate).

The first rule for crime and thriller endings would seem obvious: answer the main question posed by the crime. Who’s murdering people (and why)? Another key good ending element in a crime novel: surprise, or shock. A twist. Often it’s the antagonist’s identity – the last person anyone would suspect, though crime readers are good at working things out. Or the surprise may be the reasons behind the crimes.

Another essential element is that the antagonist and the protagonist are brought together for a kind of a showdown.

“To finish a novel is one trick, but to end your story is quite another.”

– C. Patrick Schulze

So make sure your ending toes up all or most loose ends and makes sense – and crucially, your characters should bring it about, not some event that happens out of the blue. Give your final sentence some impact.

Exercise:

Write the last line of the novel.

Now answer these questions: in order to get to this point, how has your character changed? What loose ends/sub-plots will you need to tie up? If writing a series, what will you leave open to ensure readers go back again?

Useful sites and reading

Police procedure:

www.acpo.police.uk/FreedomofInformation/Ourpoliciesandprocedures.aspxwww.literatureworks.org.uk/Resources/For-Writers/The-Crime-Writers-Association

US site but some useful stuff:

www.writerswrite.com/journal/feb99/research-resources-for-mystery-and-crime-writers-2994

Read in a wide variety of genres – golden age, hard-boiled, noir, psychological. But do concentrate on more recent crime novels so you know the market.

How to Write Crime Marele Day

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For more creative writing resources, visit our blog or have a browse of ourWriting 101 page.

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