Writing Tips

A few weeks ago, I attended the brilliant CrimeFest – a fantastic festival of crime writing held in the city of Bristol each May (www.crimefest.com/). One of the panels included former Police Chief turned crime writing advisor (and now respected novelist in his own right), Graham Bartlett (policeadvisor.co.uk/).
Something he said during the panel stuck with me. He described how police procedurals should be “Authentic not Realistic“.
That three word phrase beautifully encapsulates the balance that writers of crime fiction – in particular procedurals – need to strike.
Speak to any detective and they will candidly tell you that a real-life investigation is actually quite dull. A typical murder investigation will involve a huge team of officers, all with specific tasks, aided by a bevy of support workers, both police and civilian.
Even in ‘simple’ investigations, there is an overwhelming need to ensure that the case presented to the Crown Prosecution Service, and eventually the courts, is strong enough to secure a conviction. That means collecting and then scrutinising all of the evidence available – because if the prosecution don’t do that, you can be certain the defence will!
These days, that evidence can mean scores of physical forensic submissions from all of the associated crime scenes as well as trawling through hours (perhaps thousands of hours) of video evidence, mobile phone data and dozens of lengthy witness statements.
If one were to realistically portray that in a novel, it would involve huge numbers of characters spending hours in front of computer screens or performing lengthy scientific procedures.
Frankly it would be dull!
Instead you want to craft a pacy story with twists and turns that hook your reader, which skims over this detail yet feels authentic. In other words the procedural aspects of the tale are correct. They feel plausible and if you were to look at them closely are broadly accurate. But they are not presented in mind-numbing detail.
So how is this achieved?
First: Know your stuff.
Familiarise yourself with what would actually take place in such an investigation. Research the procedures and protocols that your characters would need to follow. Brainstorm all the steps that would take place in an investigation.
Second: Be selective.
You are not writing a manual for trainee detectives. Look at the above and decide what needs to be explicitly included and described and what can be referenced as having happened “off-screen”, or what can even be cut, given that your readers are probably broadly familiar with what goes on “in the background”.
For example. In reality hundreds of fingerprints will be taken from a crime scene. These will be found using a variety of different methods, will be of variable quality and will need to be compared to one another, to suspects and to existing prints. This will be largely automated, with varying degrees of human input. To describe this in exacting detail will likely send your readers to sleep. So unless there is something unusual in the procedure that adds to the story, you can push this to the background and simply have your detectives receiving the results.
Third: Over-write then cut back.
Editing is your friend! When writing a scene, I will often write it in extreme detail. This helps me visualise it and ensure I am accurate. Sometimes, it even sparks off new ideas that I wouldn’t have considered otherwise. But then the scissors come out. I strip the detail back to the bare minimum – remember, it is your duty to tell a cracking yarn, not impress the reader with your extensive knowledge. Kill your darlings! Remember every sentence has to earn its place – don’t just include it because it took you hours to research and write.
Four: Get it right! If you are going to include a detail about procedure, make sure it is accurate (or adequately justified). Many of your readers (and reviewers) are voracious readers of crime fiction. They have a pretty good understanding of what is and isn’t possible or likely and they don’t like it when you make errors (especially through laziness). Experts such as Graham Bartlett can give professional critiques of your work if you wish, but even if you don’t want to pay for their services, there is a wealth of advice out there on the web or in books (some of which I have reviewed previously Tip127, Tip130, Tip140). There are even Facebook groups such as Cops and Writers (it’s a private group, you will need to search and ask to join), where you can post questions and other writers or law enforcement professionals will make suggestions.
Five: Don’t forget you are telling a story. Novels (or TV for that matter) are a balancing act between the tale you want to tell and the detail you need to include. As narrator, it is up to you to control the pace of the story. The amount of detail (about anything, not just procedure) will dictate the speed of the story. Lee Child is extremely good at this. I vividly remember a fight scene in one of the earlier Reacher novels. It’s a heart-pounding, dynamic action scene, then in the middle he spends several paragraphs describing and explaining how a bullet leaves a gun. That sounds like madness, but it was genius. It was the literary equivalent of a sudden cut to slow motion, and when the action resumed it felt all the more frenetic. Therefore, think about whether you really need that detail, or if it enhances the reader’s experience.
Six: Don’t forget the red herrings! The reason readers love investigative crime fiction is that they are trying to second-guess the detectives and solve the mystery themselves. But they don’t like to be handed it on a plate. Keep them guessing. That applies not only to the culprit, but also to which pieces of evidence are crucial or which may become significant a hundred pages further on. The classic TV series Columbo told you in the opening scenes who the killer was. The joy was from trying to work out which detail becomes the clue that helps Columbo solve the case. So you need to conceal that clue or divert your reader’s attention. Therefore, you need to make sure that detail doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb. If your book is very light on detail and procedure, but you spend three paragraphs discussing how a smart speaker can record snippets of background noise, then your readers are probably going to guess that at some point the detective is going to listen to those recordings and recognise the killer’s voice!
Do you have any tips for writing authentically, rather than realistically? As always feel free to comment here or on social media.
If you are a writer with a tip to share, or fancy writing a fictional interview between you and one of your characters, please feel free to email me.
Until next time,
Paul