Crime writing course

Just a quick reminder that crime novelist and creative writing tutor John Dean has launched an online Crime Fiction Course.

John, author of 12 novels published by Robert Hale, and the creator of DCI John Blizzard and DCI Jack Harris, also runs Inscribe Media Ltd, which is based in Darlington in North East England, which will be offering the course.

The online course, which runs in eight parts and can begin at a time and date to suit the student, will help writers to improve their technique and improve their chances of being successful, either in competitions or admissions to publishers.

When they enroll, students will be offered ongoing one-to-one feedback on their work, be it short stories or novels.

John, whose latest novel A Breach of Trust came out in January 2015, and who is a member of the UK-based Crime Writers’ Association, said: “Writing can be a lonely pastime and my aim is to help aspiring writers to improve their technique and improve their chances of being successful in a very competitive market.

“Crime fiction remains hugely popular and, hopefully, I can help aspiring writers to develop their ideas, and because it is online it does not matter where they live. In recent years, I have worked with writers from everywhere from Croatia to Australia and New Zealand.”

There is no official certificate of qualification at the end of the course, which will be led by John and features:

• Personal attention

• Exercises and practical work

• Discussions by email

• Because the tutor is on line, you can do the work at time and pace that suits you

Themes to be included are:
An examination of where ideas come from - what triggers ideas in writers?

Once you have the idea, how do you develop it? The course will look at the art of  plotting

How can you use places and landscapes to aid your story telling?

How do you pick characters to do the job? What are their functions in storytelling? This will include a look at creating villains

How conflict can be used to develop stories that assume a life of their own

That all important start to your story - how do you grab the reader right from the off?

Writing with pace - how do you produce a narrative that keeps your reader turning the page?

Pulling it all together - how to produce the finished piece of work.

Editing - how to make those changes that make all the difference.

Pitching to publishers and agents

The course costs £75. For further details you can contact John at deangriss@btinternet.com

Writing for film

I am working with a writing group who are being offered the chance to work with some film-makers which got me thinking. So how do you write a script? Here’s some thoughts:
* Read plenty of scripts and see how the experts do it - get used to how the script looks on the page. Then watch the film itself and see how the script translated when filming actually began.
* About half of the content of a screenplay should be dialogue and the other half should be visual.
* Keep camera directions to a minimum. Let the filmmakers decide how to film the script.
* Action is important you need to keep the story moving.
* Keep the story well-paced - generally, one screenplay page is one minute of screen time.
* Develop true-to-life characters. Know their history and why they react to events the way they do. And keep it consistent: if they are aged fifty in one scene make sure you do not have them celebrating their sixtieth birthday in the next unless it is part of the plot.
* If it helps, focus on a few key details that tell us what kind of person your character is. Maybe the person cannot wear a tie smartly, maybe their clothes are always grubby, maybe they never look anyone in the face. And when you write your scene, ask yourself if your character would really react like that?
* Before you write your script, write a list of scenes you want to include and what happens in each one. That way you can make sure your story develops in the right way.
* And finally, keep the balance right: you don’t want the first half of the film to be all dialogue, followed by 45 minutes of car chases.

John Dean

There's an idea

I’ve been doing a lot of teaching on the idea of ideas lately and came across these excellent quotes.

·         People always want to know: Where do I get my ideas? They're everywhere. I'm inspired by people and things around me. (Gwendolyn Brooks, American poet)

·         My standard answer is "I don't know where they come from, but I know where they come to, they come to my desk." If I'm not there, they go away again, so you've got to sit and think. (Philip Pullman, English writer)

·         Ideas come to a writer, a writer does not search for them. "Ideas come to me like birds that I see in the corner of my eye," I say to journalists, "and I may try, or may not, to get a closer fix on those birds." (Patricia Highsmith, American crime writer)

·         It's very blurred, it's not clear. The plan is something which gradually evolves. Usually, I'll just start with one particular idea or certain image or even just a mood and gradually it'll kind of grow when other things attach themselves to it. (Jane Rogers, British novelist, editor, and teacher)

·         Anything can set things going--an encounter, a recollection. I think writers are great rememberers. (Gore Vidal, American novelist, playwright, essayist)

·         You can write about anything, and if you write well enough, even the reader with no intrinsic interest in the subject will become involved.
(Tracy Kidder, literary journalist)

·         "From you," I say. The crowd laughs. I look at the woman asking the question; she seems innocent enough. I continue. "I get them from looking at the world we live in, from reading the paper, watching the news. It seems as though what I write is often extreme, but in truth it happens every day."
(A. M. Homes, American novelist and short story writer)

·         My usual, perfectly honest reply is, "I don't get them; they get me."
(Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist, playwright, and critic

 

John Dean 

Open mic night

The Open Mic night for authors season continues on Thursday April 30. The nights, supported by Darlington for Culture and which offer a forum for writers to read their material and audiences to enjoy it, run at Voodoo Café/Cantina, 84 Skinnergate, Darlington, on the last Thursday of the month. Each session starts at 7pm and the cost of entry is £3 paid on the door.
More information is available from Inscribe Media Limited at deangriss@btinternet.com

LIterary festival

The third Darlington Literary Festival, part of Darlington Arts Festival, is taking place this May with a wide variety of events taking place across the town.

They will include author talks and book signings at Darlington Crown Street Library, readings by writers including Vane Women and Inkerman Writers, and writers' workshops, including a day long workshop hosted by the Society of Authors.

Bennet House Writers are inviting the public along to their Open Day and the Folk Club and Darlington Green Theatre are collaborating on their "Songs and Sonnets" event.

Tracy Iceton, one of the authors running workshops at the festival, said: “This year’s Literary Festival promises to be another fantastic opportunity for writers and artists to engage with budding writers and enthusiastic readers.”
Literary fans can also enjoy open mic nights, a book fair, a May Day environmental book group, and Chris Foote-Wood's one-man Dickens show, as seen at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Joanne Land, of Darlington for Culture, one of the organisers, said: “If you love books, there is definitely something here for you.”
For more information, please visit

http://www.darlingtonforculture.org/literature-at-the-festival-2/

Writing humour

There’s an old saying that if you are not a humorous person, don’t try to write humour.
Well, it is only part-true. It is certainly the case that a straight-laced, humourless person might well struggle to write side-splitting comedy but if you are an author, that might not be a good enough excuse.
Why? Because humour is vital to creating good fiction. Even if you are not writing an out-and-out comic piece, humour has a role to perform.
For a start, it can create light against the dark. Take an example: you are writing a sinister piece with the tension building as the tale unfolds. You might decide to keep the tension going right to the end, which would be one way of writing it.
However, you might decide that a flash of humour, a single line of dialogue by a character, could momentarily ease the tension, cause the reader to relax slightly, and provide an even greater impact when you suddenly strike with the next piece of drama, or horror or fear. Ghost and horror writers know that trick well - they are past masters at toying with their readers.
Humour also works well with novels because a relentlessly heavy theme in a story can benefit immensely from the odd break for something a little lighter.
There is another good reason for using humour in your writing because it reveals things about your character and can show another side to them that the reader might not have seen before. Or it can reveal in a brief conversation the depth of two people’s relationship.
And it does not need to be side-splitting humour, that is not the intention: it has other roles to perform.
As one critique of the great William Shakespeare said: “Humour is a tool that allows us to see the subtle details of their minds; a glimpse at the inner workings of each character’s personality. It is through the humour that Shakespeare employs that we are able to see “roundness” in characters that could be otherwise doomed to exist as “flat” characters. Shakespeare uses humour to give his players new life, to help them expand beyond the bounds of mere characters and turn into real people.”
And look how well he did!
 
John Dean

One for the Sherlock Holmes fans

Here’s a treat for Sherlock Holmes fans. Maidencombe-based country-house hotel. Orestone Manor has joined forces with Unique Devon Tours to create a mesmerising 'Hound Of The Baskervilles Tour.
The experience introduces the story behind The Hound of the Baskervilles, covering the people, places and legends that inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with locations ranging from tranquil Devon village graveyards to churches with black magic associations.
It is delivered by Alex Graeme, Orestone Manor's expert tour guide. Alex’s great grandfather, Robert Duins Cooke, was a local vicar and expert on Dartmoor and presented Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with exact locations on the Moors to visit when researching the story.
The Orestone Manor Baskerville tour tells guests about the evil Squire Richard Cabell III, reputed to have sold his soul to the devil, and his ever-present pack of baying hounds. To this day his devilish dogs are thought by some locals to race across Dartmoor on eerily, dark nights.

* Pictured here are  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Squire Richard Cabell III's manor house

 

Author donates money to independent bookshops

Bestselling author James Patterson has announced the second round of independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland to receive grants following his pledge to donate £250,000.
More than £130,000 has already been allocated to 73 independent bookshops across the UK and Ireland following the first round of applications in September 2014.
The remaining grant allocation of £120,000 has now been allocated to a further 68 bookshops, enabling even more initiatives to get under way that will help get children reading.
Donations will be used to fund ventures ranging from refurbishment and expansion of children's sections, to organising a bedtime reading project and pyjama day, to creating a mobile 'book bus'.
James Patterson said: “It’s been very exciting to see the ideas from the first round in action. I have again worked to identify independent bookshops for whom this money may make a difference and I'm excited to follow their progress.”
Tim Walker, President of The Booksellers Association, said: “We are delighted that James Patterson is continuing to act on his love of bookshops and his appreciation of their vital importance to cultural and community life.”
More information is available at http://www.booksellers.org.uk/campaigns/jamespattersonlovesbookshops

Crime fiction course is under way

Crime novelist and creative writing tutor John Dean has launched an online Crime Fiction Course.

John, author of 12 novels published by Robert Hale, and the creator of DCI John Blizzard and DCI Jack Harris, also runs Inscribe Media Ltd, which is based in Darlington in North East England, which will be offering the course.

The online course, which runs in eight parts and can begin at a time and date to suit the student, will help writers to improve their technique and improve their chances of being successful, either in competitions or admissions to publishers.

When they enroll, students will be offered ongoing one-to-one feedback on their work, be it short stories or novels.

John, whose latest novel A Breach of Trust came out in January 2015, and who is a member of the UK-based Crime Writers’ Association, said: “Writing can be a lonely pastime and my aim is to help aspiring writers to improve their technique and improve their chances of being successful in a very competitive market.

“Crime fiction remains hugely popular and, hopefully, I can help aspiring writers to develop their ideas, and because it is online it does not matter where they live. In recent years, I have worked with writers from everywhere from Croatia to Australia and New Zealand.”

There is no official certificate of qualification at the end of the course, which will be led by John and features:

• Personal attention

• Exercises and practical work

• Discussions by email

• Because the tutor is on line, you can do the work at time and pace that suits you

Themes to be included are:
An examination of where ideas come from - what triggers ideas in writers?

Once you have the idea, how do you develop it? The course will look at the art of  plotting

How can you use places and landscapes to aid your story telling?

How do you pick characters to do the job? What are their functions in storytelling? This will include a look at creating villains

How conflict can be used to develop stories that assume a life of their own

That all important start to your story - how do you grab the reader right from the off?

Writing with pace - how do you produce a narrative that keeps your reader turning the page?

Pulling it all together - how to produce the finished piece of work.

Editing - how to make those changes that make all the difference.

Pitching to publishers and agents

The course costs £75. For further details you can contact John at deangriss@btinternet.com

Starting stories

Here’s some thoughts on starting stories.
The cardinal rule is to include most of the individual elements that make up the story. An opening paragraph should have a distinctive voice, a point of view, a rudimentary plot and some hint of characterisation.
You might be tempted to begin your narrative before the action starts but far better to begin at the first moment of something interesting happening, which is more likely to grab the reader‘s interest.
If you feel compelled to begin a story with dialogue, keep in mind that you’re thrusting your readers directly into a story in which it’s easy to lose them early on. So keep the dialogue to a minimum. One way around this is to begin with a single line of dialogue then offer some context before proceeding with the rest of the conversation.

John Dean

Literary spotlight in Arts Festival

Darlington Arts Festival, which runs between April 20-May 31 in the North East town, has plenty of literary events, including an appearance by yours truly.
You can check out the literary events at http://www.darlingtonforculture.org/literature-at-the-festival-2/
The site also has details of all the other events, almost seventy in all.

John Dean

Real characters

A lot of my teaching focuses on characters. They are, after all, our major tools as writers.

So how do you create them? Here’s some thoughts:
* Maybe base them on people you know but beware of the law. Don’t lift your local vicar wholesale and turn him/her into a cold-blooded killer! Make your characters composites of several people

*Describe their physical characteristics You can do it one bit or slot descriptions in as you go.   Describe their clothing etc but move beyond simple facts, try to capture their demeanour. How do they speak? Brusque, garrulous? How do they walk? Don’t overdo it, though, too much description slows down stories. I often think a line or two will suffice

* Visualise the person, think of small things which make them stand out

* Describe their views, their emotions, their thoughts

* Maybe come up with something that makes them different. A hobby, an odd phrase that they keep using

* If this is a major character get to know them particularly well. How do they react to things? Make sure they are strong enough to carry the story on their shoulders. And we must care about them - not necessarily like but care.

*Take care with minor characters as well as major, they’re important, not cardboard cut-outs.

Above all, ask yourself are your characters REAL?

John Dean

Writing course open for bookings

Creative writing tutor John Dean continues to run his popular courses at the Friends’ Meeting House in Skinnergate, Darlington, and is taking bookings for the Summer course, starting on April 28/29. The adult learning courses deal with all aspects of creative writing, focusing primarily on prose. More information is available from John on email deangriss@btinternet.com

Festival time

I am part of the team that co-ordinates the Darlington Arts Festival which starts on April 20 and has plenty of good literary events – if you live in North East England and fancy popping along, you can check it out at www.darlingtonforculture.org

John Dean

A word about the little people

Following on from my previous blogs on creating characters, a word about minor characters and the care you need to take when creating them.

But why, you may ask, spend unnecessary time on insignificant characters? Some may be so negligible that they won’t even get names: the servant who brought the drinks; the hotel maid who cleaned the room, the policeman who jumped out of the way of the speeding car and so on.

They deserve care because, although the reader isn’t supposed to care much about them, they still have a job to do. Their individuality may set a mood, add humour, make the story more interesting or complete. They may also reveal something about your main characters.

So it is worth spending a little time getting them right.

 

John Dean

What makes good writing?

What makes good writing? I think good writing is good writing because it triggers responses in its readers. Readers say ‘I have been in that situation, ‘I know someone like that’, ‘what a terrible thing to be faced with’ etc etc.

If readers feel like that, it means that they are being drawn into the story. They stand next to your characters, they fear for what is about to happen, they simply must know what is on the next page.

If a reader does not really care what is happening in the story then you have lost them and your story has failed but if they feel part of it, they are experiencing the sheer power of the writer.

That’s a terrific thing to achieve - and the way to impress publishers and competition judges.

* If you wish to find out about our online mentoring programmes and online writing courses at

http://www.inscribemedia.co.uk/writing-courses---bespoke-mentoring.html

John Dean

The X-factor

For me, there are plenty of examples of short stories which are well written - well-crafted and technically competent. Often, they are very, very good indeed.

But they do not always enjoy success, be it winning competitions or catching the eye of publishers. Why?

I suspect the reason is that they do not have that extra something, that something that makes the story truly live.

Whether it be the description of a place that makes you shiver because you feel the chill air coming off the hills, or a portrayal of a character so real they could easily walk in through the door and you would not be surprised, these are stories that have something extra.

Or it might be a new idea, or a twist on an old idea, that starts you thinking, or something that gets you wanting to shout for joy or roar with anger.

Whatever it is, it these are the somethings that take a story from the OK to really good. The somethings that mean that you simply cannot get the story out of your mind.

Years ago, I presided over the judging panel from another competition in which we were involved. At the end, the judges picked a superb winner, one that would stand toe to toe with the very best writing around. It was different, quirky, heart-rending, powerful, evocative, inventive, mesmerising - I could go on.

In agreeing their citation, the panel said they wanted to say that there was a lot of ‘competent’ writing out there. It felt like damning the other writers taking part with faint praise but the judges were absolutely right.

There was a lot of stories that were OK, but there were a few that were better than that and one that was absolutely superb. It stood out above all the others and still nestles in a corner of my brain, remembered and admired.

 

John Dean