Writing Tips (#TuesdayTips)
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TuesdayTips135
Empathy For The Devil
This week’s #TuesdayTip is inspired, in part, by the epic conclusion of the BBC drama, Happy Valley. First off, rest easy that there won’t be any spoilers!
It occurred to me as I watched the series that one of the key strengths is the characterisation, in particular the way in which even the worst characters have qualities that make the readers empathise with them.
I’ve written before about how protagonists (the ‘hero’) and antagonists (the ‘baddie’) can often be two sides of the same coin, and how the same character can switch between the two (Tip#113). Today, I want to focus on the antagonist and discuss why the most memorable ‘bad guys’ have positive traits interwoven between the evil.
It’s very easy to write a pantomime villain – a character that is all bad. They have no redeeming qualities, and the audience loves to hiss and boo as they make their entrance. But I find that one-sided approach to be ultimately unsatisfying.
Human beings are complex creatures. We accept that no person is wholly good. We all have flaws, some big, some small. Dig deep enough into your personal heroes and you’ll find aspects of their personality or things that they have done that you disagree with. Similarly, the tabloid newspapers are experts at presenting killers and rapists as monsters with no redeemable qualities. But look beneath the surface (sometimes very deep, admittedly), and you will always find something that is good or likeable about that person. It doesn’t excuse their actions, but it is there.
Furthermore, it is this contrast that often makes them more scary. How often have you heard shocked neighbours describing the quiet man at number 42 who turned out to be a serial killer as ‘an ordinary family man’? Aside from the uneasiness from realising that evil-doers often hide in plain sight, the juxtaposition of a person who outwardly appears affectionate towards friends and families with an individual that is capable of great cruelty, magnifies the horror we feel at what they do. That contrast amplifies the impact of their crimes.
In Happy Valley, the writer Sally Wainwright, and actor James Norton, crafted a memorable antagonist that kept millions of viewers hooked for three seasons, spread over almost a decade. Tommy Lee Royce was capable of tremendous cruelty and violence. Yet in the final episodes he evolved from a wicked bogey monster to a complex, damaged individual. Many viewers were left discomfited by the fact that whilst none of his actions could be justified, they could be understood on some level. They found themselves feeling a degree of sympathy towards him, that means he will linger in their consciousness long after the series has ended.
Humanising The Bad Guy.
As writers, we want our characters to not only leap off the page through cleverly-crafted descriptions and memorable actions, but we also want our readers to experience emotion as they read about them. In the case of our antagonists, we want the over-riding feeling to be negative. But if we truly want them to feel authentic and to make them memorable, we need to tap into that inner contradiction that human beings are both good and evil. In other words, we need to humanise them.
Now first of all, humanising is not the same as condoning. Empathising with a character is not the same as forgiving them. Hitler was no less evil because he was a vegetarian who loved his dogs.
So how can we humanise our antagonists to make them more rounded, memorable and effective villains?
To do so, you need to give them traits that we can empathise with, or motives and desires that we can understand (and perhaps even agree with, even if we would never countenance how they set about to achieve them).
The first tranche of Marvel comic book movies built towards an epic showdown between the Avengers and Thanos, a god-like creature who, with a snap of his fingers killed 50{c03e90e2507f22ef5f62cd1eeda0c42982bdc22ea518448040efc371149673f6} of all living beings. Evil incarnate.
Yet look at his motives: to simplify greatly, he believed that the universe was being destroyed by over-population. His drastic solution was to halve the number of lifeforms. Few would agree with his methods, but his goal, the protection of the universe, was on one level laudable. Fundamentally, he believed he was making a sacrifice for the greater good. Add to that his love for his adopted daughters and you have a character that is a lot more memorable than at first glance.
Back on Earth, I was faced with a conundrum when writing The Common Enemy, the fourth full-length novel in my DCI Warren Jones series. The victim in this book was the leader of a far-right extremist party. Tommy Meegan was racist, homophobic and violent, as were his friends. However, I needed the reader to empathise with the victim, otherwise they wouldn’t care if Warren brought his killer to justice or not. They didn’t have to like him, or agree with him, but they did need to see him as a human being.
You can do this for your own characters in a number of ways.- Most powerfully, show that they are loved. Despite their failings, give them family and friends who enjoy spending time with them and miss them when they are absent.
- Show why they are loved. An easy way to do this is small acts of kindness or loyalty. Does your murderous, psychopathic serial killer do a bit of shopping for their elderly neighbour? Do they ring their grandmother or visit a dying relative every day without fail?
- Show that they can love. Maybe they have a family that they would do anything for? Or a beloved pet.
- Give them traits that make them likeable under the right circumstances. Ninety-nine per cent of the time, they are unlikeable. But do they have a sense of humour? Or everyday interests and hobbies and opinions that you or I may share? Hannibal Lecter is a charming, erudite and cultured individual. If it wasn’t for his murderous impulses, I dare say he’d be enjoyable company at a dinner party.
- Give them flaws that the reader can empathise or sympathise with, because the reader shares them or knows others who do.
- Give them a motivation that we can understand (or perhaps even agree with to a certain extent). Do they kill for revenge (they or a loved one have been hurt)? Are they so obsessed with always being in control because they had a childhood where they felt powerless? Do they commit acts of violence because that is the only way they were taught how to solve a problem? Do they just want to share their inner pain with others, so they aren’t alone?
How can you humanise your antagonist? Can you think of any good examples in fiction or real-life?
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,
All the best,
Paul
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TuesdayTips134
That’s Out Of Order!
Beginning At The End.
Today’s #TuesdayTip will be looking at the advantages of telling your story out of sequence. In other words, mixing up the beginning, middle and end.
If you are a keen reader or viewer of TV drama, you are already familiar with what’s known in the industry as in media res. This Latin phrase translates as “into the middle of things” and describes stories that open in the middle of the action, before going back in time to see what happened in the run-up to that scene.Unless you have figured out a way to thwart the laws of physics, time in the real-world follows a linear trajectory.
As you were probably taught in school, a story has a beginning, a middle and an end.
Beginning –> Middle –> End.
But this isn’t the only way to tell the story to someone else.
You can actually start in the middle of a story, then go back and fill in the details, before drawing to a conclusion.
Middle –> Beginning –> More Middle –> End.Or you can even start at the End, then go back and tell the entire story.
End –> Beginning –> Middle –> End (+ aftermath).So why would you do this?
The purpose of any story is to keep the reader engaged. Readers are a discerning breed, with no shortage of alternative ways to spend their time (and money). It is essential to hook a reader in the first few pages, or they will abandon the story (and perhaps not even buy it to read further).
By starting a book in the middle of the action, you leave the reader wanting to know more. You leave them with questions. Who are these characters? How did they find themselves in this situation? How will they resolve it?Let’s imagine a hypothetical scenario.
A character Jane lives in safe, middleclass suburbia. She is happily married. Over the course of several months, her relationship breaks down and one day she is murdered. An investigation takes place, and eventually the culprit is uncovered.
You can tell this story in a couple of ways.
First: You can tell it in strict chronological order. We tell the reader who Jane is and chronicle her happy life, then document its sad decline, leading to a murder about half-way through, then describe the investigation and conclusion.That’s fine and there are countless excellent examples of compelling stories told in this way. But what if Jane is very happy at first, and everything seems perfect? If you aren’t careful, that can be rather dull. Readers of crime fiction usually want something more substantial to get their teeth into and they are impatient. What appears to be the story of a woman’s happy married life may dissuade them from reading more than a few pages before giving up and reading something different. The cover and blurb has probably told them that Jane will be dead before the end of the book, but if it looks as though they have to wade through 100 pages to get there, they’ll abandon ship. You have failed to hook your readers.
The second way is to start with a murder, and then go back and describe what led up to it.
If you keep the details of the murder sparse, your readers will hopefully be left with questions that they want answered.
Who is the victim?
Why has this happened to them?
Who did this to them?
The only way to find out the answers to those questions is to continue reading.
The reader will also be more engaged. They have some knowledge of the murder that is coming, so they will naturally start looking for clues. Is there foreshadowing of the tragic events that will unfold? What about apparent contradictions? We know from page one that Jane was murdered by a man. So what is the significance of the blazing rows with her female best friend? As the story unfolds, the suspect list grows. Obviously the killer is her husband, as we see their marriage breaking down. But hang on, is he really the murdering type? And who is the person that Jane is texting late at night? Are they involved?
Exactly where in this whole, sorry tale, you start narrating the story depends on what sort of story you want to tell. You don’t have to start with the actual murder to hook your readers. What about an earlier incident? Your reader probably figures that Jane is not long for this world, so why not tease them by showing them something that shows her in danger, but don’t actually kill her? Maybe we don’t know if Jane is the character that is killed? Or, you could start almost at the end. Show someone being arrested, then tell the story of how we got to that point? If they are vehemently protesting their innocence, perhaps the reader could play along and try and decide if the police have the right person?What are your thoughts on starting in the middle? Have you got any really good examples?
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,
All the best,
Paul
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TuesdayTips133
Block Buster
Ideas To Thwart Writer’s Block
Carrying Someone Else’s Can.Today’s #Tuesday Tip is a fun writers’ block/practise exercise to get you started writing for the day.
A great opening line is essential to hook your readers. It needs to grab their attention and have them asking ‘what happens next’. There are tremendous examples throughout history. This website compiled by the publisher Penguin lists some terrific opening lines that have stood the test of time).I happen to be a big fan of Douglas Adams’ opening to The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.“The story so far: in the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
For this activity, either take a book off the shelf or search the internet for lists of opening lines.
Copy the first line (or two if needs be). Now close the book and write a short piece starting with that line. The object of this exercise is not to retell the author’s original story, rather to run with that opener and see what you can come up with instead.
For a real challenge, pick a book completely at random, or search the internet, and force yourself to use that opening. If that seems too daunting, feel free to flick through a few different books until you find one that sets your imagination on fire.
How did you find the activity? 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.
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TuesdayTips132
Block Buster
Ideas To Thwart Writer’s Block
Switching It Up.
Today’s writing activity/writers’ block exercise involves writing from the perspective of a different gender.Something that many writers find hard is writing convincing characters of a different gender to themselves, without resorting to cliché or producing cringeworthy results. I’ve looked previously at how sometimes male writers in particular can fall afoul of ‘the male gaze’ (Tip#84), producing embarrassing or awkward prose that objectifies their female characters.
Beyond that, it can sometimes be tricky just to write from another’s perspective. If you want an example of how a male author can write a realistic female character – in the first person, no less – you can do far worse than read Will Dean’s Tuva Moodyson series (check out Black River, the third in this terrific series). Not only does Will, a forty-something male, write a convincing young woman, he also made her hearing-impaired.Many writers today can feel nervous about ‘colouring outside the lines’ and writing about somebody else’s lived experience (see Tip#77 for a discussion of cultural appropriation and how to avoid it).
However, writing is like anything – you get better with practise.
So today’s activity involves switching the gender of a character.
First of all, take a piece of gendered writing (one where a character is clearly defined as a male or female) and rewrite it in a different gender. Notice that I don’t say the ‘opposite gender’, because gender is increasingly understood as a spectrum with an increasing appetite for characters that are non-binary or don’t conform to traditional gender roles and stereotypes. Try and go beyond just switching the pronouns (he, she, they etc) and consider how that person might regard a situation, or act or speak differently. Don’t forget their appearance.When you have completed the exercise, see if you can find someone else to read your piece. Ask them if the character sounds realistic? Have you inadvertently included stereotypes? Have you got carried away with your descriptions or simply overdone it? After all, the original piece of writing probably didn’t linger on the character’s gender, so try and be subtle.
What are your thoughts on writing different genders? Do you have any tricks or tips? 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.
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TuesdayTips131
Back It Up!
About fifteen years ago, I was asked to be a best man (he repaid the favour last year). One of the most important duties, after not losing the rings, is to deliver the best man’s speech after the wedding breakfast. For weeks, I slaved over my address, before finally finishing what I hoped was a suitably touching, amusing and not-too-impolite tribute to my closest friend and his beautiful wife-to-be.
A little under a week before the wedding, I returned home from work, where I had been using my personal laptop (I was just starting and had yet to be assigned my own work laptop). I went to turn it on … and nothing happened. Dead as a doornail! There was no hope of getting it repaired anytime soon, and I would need a new one anyway, so I forked out for a replacement. I successfully removed the hard drive, placed it in an external USB caddy and plugged it into the new machine to find that to my relief, there was nothing wrong with it. Except for one tiny problem. It was encrypted and I had no way of unlocking the files. It’s still in a box somewhere, encrypted and useless; I really need to securely dispose of it.
Mercifully I didn’t lose too much work, as I’d backed everything up onto CD-ROMs and DVDs (remember those?) but my best man’s speech was gone.
The moral of the story? BACK UP YOUR WORK.
Of course I’m not alone. The great, Jilly Cooper famously left her only paper copy of the manuscript for ‘Riders’ on a bus in 1970. She didn’t finish rewriting it until 1984.
These days, there is no excuse, given that most writers use a computer. Back in the 1980s floppy discs were the way to go. These were superseded in the 1990s by CD-Roms and USB memory sticks. If you had the resources, an external hard-drive could be used to keep a second copy of all your files.
These were fine, but not much use if your house burned down and both your computer and your backup were destroyed. As internet connectivity became more popular, some writers hit upon the idea of emailing a copy of their work in progress to themselves at the end of each working day. Assuming your email provider didn’t disappear overnight, it would be safely sitting on Microsoft, or Yahoo or LycosMail’s servers when you resumed work the following day.But the problem is that’s a faff. And you can still lose a day’s work if your computer crashes before you’ve sent your daily backup.
Now, with the ubiquity of online cloud storage which can be set to record incremental backups every couple of minutes, in theory you shouldn’t lose a single word.
Hah! That’s fine until you realise that you set it up wrong, or your tech giant of choice suffers a major data breach.These days, reliance upon one method for backup is not recommended.
What you should aim for is both a physical backup – e.g. an external hard drive or USB memory stick which can protect you if your computer’s hard drive should fail – and a remote, off-site backup in case your house catches fire. You could email it to yourself, but these days, cheap or free cloud storage systems are far more convenient.
I’m no computer expert, but I mix and match a couple of systems. I have an external hard drive that backs up my laptop’s hard drive completely and also saves all changes to files as I go along. In theory, not only does this protect my valuable data, it also contains everything necessary to completely restore my laptop and its software and settings, should it die an unexpected death.
My off-site back up is two different cloud storage systems.
Now before we go any further, I have no idea if this is a sensible set-up, and take no responsibility if it doesn’t work for you, but I’ve been happily using it for years.
The way it works, is to place one cloud storage system inside another.
I have a Microsoft OneDrive account that gives me 1,000Gb of space. I also have a Google Drive account which gives me 100Gb of space.
The folder that Google Drive syncs to is inside the folder that OneDrive syncs to. Anything that is really important, such as my writing or paperwork etc, is saved into a folder in the Google Drive.
Less important stuff is saved directly into OneDrive.
Everything in the Google Drive is therefore saved to both Google and Microsoft. I routinely access these files on other devices, such as my phone, tablet and an elderly mini-laptop, and the files are accessible whether I log onto Google Drive or OneDrive.
The only caveat, is to be patient when closing down your computer – give both the Google and Microsoft apps time to complete syncing.
You will also need to have at least one device that has both Google Drive and OneDrive running, and to use that device regularly, that way the files inside Google Drive will be synced to both cloud services.As for the best man’s speech – it was lost forever. Unable to rewrite it from scratch, I was able to remember the key points and jokes, and so wrote myself a bullet-pointed list of prompts, stayed off the booze just-in-case, and delivered it off-the-cuff. I’m told it was far more natural and relaxed than if I had read out a pre-prepared speech word-for-word, and I even ad-libbed.
Another bonus was that the one joke I forgot turned out to be the only joke that would have actually caused offence (entirely innocently; I had no idea it touched upon a slightly sore point with the groom’s mother going back to childhood – I told the groom the joke later and his response was ‘thank God you didn’t say that’.)Do you have any tales of woe, when it comes to losing work? Do you have any tips about how to back-up data safely?
As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
Until next time, keep you, your family and your data safe.
Paul
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TuesdayTips130
Book Review.
Murder Investigation Team:
How Killers Are Really Caught.
Steven Keogh
Welcome back, and a Happy New Year! This week’s #TuesdayTip is a review of a fantastic book I received for Christmas.
Murder Investigation Team – How Killers Are Really Caught – is a brilliant account from recently retired Scotland Yard detective inspector Steven Keogh.
Released in 2022 (and containing data up to March 31st 2020 when things changed somewhat!), this is an in-depth insight into the process of solving murders and taking them to trial.
Although it deals specifically with the Metropolitan (London) Police Service, who divide Greater London into autonomous Murder Investigation Teams (MITs) and thus might be operationally slightly different to the way other police forces deal with such crimes, most of it is generally applicable to other forces in England and Wales.Unlike some books, which are more like reference guides designed to be dipped into and out of, this can be read cover to cover (which I did over three days). I was really impressed with it, and heartily recommend it to authors writing British Police Procedurals, and non-writers who want to learn more about what really goes on. Keogh’s writing style is both personal and personable and very accessible, without feeling patronising for those with previous knowledge. It feels almost as if he has been invited to give a lengthy talk to a room full of interested laypeople. And I mean that as a compliment and endorsement.Divided into chapters, he first takes us through some of the technicalities of what is murder, how it differs from manslaughter and some of the potential defences or partial defences (ie when you would push for a murder prosecution, when you might decide no offence has been committed, and why a person might be convicted of manslaughter, rather than murder). He also describes the structure of an MIT (it might be subtly different in other forces) and the roles of individuals.
The remainder of the book is broadly chronological, dealing first with the crime scene(s). This includes forensics and what they are specifically looking for. Of particular note is the section on phone data. Keogh is fascinated by this and voluntarily took on this role in many investigations, so he has real expertise.
The next chapter is the longest and concerns the investigation itself, but is sub-divided. He looks at investigative thinking, lines of investigation and the arrest and interview of suspects. In this subsection, he describes how modern interviews are conducted. There is then a section where he answers some of the questions that people regularly ask.
Finally, there is a chapter describing a trial and the aftermath.Throughout the book, he illustrates his points with anonymised case files. As a mark of respect, he doesn’t name any victims or suspects, although afficionados of true crime will probably recognise some of the more well-publicised cases. He also has regular “Myth Busters” and “Did You Know?” facts. All crime fiction writers accept that the relating of an investigation in exacting detail would be rather less exciting than they hope for, but I’m a firm believer in the adage that to break the rules, you need to know the rules first. Knowing how your book needs to differ from real life for dramatic purposes can help you choose what liberties to take, whilst minimising the gnashing of teeth (and smart-arse Amazon reviews) of the armchair detective.
The book is refreshingly honest. Keogh is not afraid to admit to mistakes that he and his team have made, and the learning that came from them, and whilst the book is understandably very pro-police, he admits to failings. He is also quite happy to point the finger where necessary at the impact of government cuts, the sometimes cut-throat and often underhand or callous tactics of defence barristers, and the sometimes inexplicable decisions made by juries. Throughout it, he is clearly in awe of the dignity shown by victims’ loved-ones.
My wife, who is not a writer, commented that she is looking forward to reading it next because it looks really interesting. I think she’ll thoroughly enjoy it, and so will you.
Steven Keogh runs The Murder Academy website that looks at True Crime and the solving of crimes.
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TuesdayTips129
TV Review
24 Hours In Police Custody
For today’s #TuesdayTip, I have chosen to review a TV documentary series that I highly recommend for those seeking an authentic insight into UK policing.
If true crime is what you are after for your TV viewing, there is no shortage of programmes to choose from. There are whole channels that are devoted to it. But the quality varies enormously, from the down-right sensationalist to the truly insightful. Unfortunately, you can’t always be certain what you are tuning into. Some of the US series in particular are quite bad.
Furthermore, police procedure varies enormously between the US and the UK, so if you are looking to write a UK police procedural they are of limited use. That’s not to say they should be dismissed out of hand; I’ve certainly found inspiration for plot ideas over the years.
However, if you want an authentic UK-based series (specifically England and Wales – Scotland and Northern Ireland have slightly different justice systems), I heartily recommend 24 Hours In Police Custody. Aired on Channel 4 in the UK, many (but strangely not all) programmes are archived on the free All 4 streaming service.
The name of the show is something of a misnomer, and is why I was rather late to the party, only finding it during lockdown. It conjures up images of fly-on-wall scenes from cameras above the custody desk as an endless parade of drunken idiots are booked into the cells for the night – think Big Brother, but everyone is wearing a grey tracksuit. However it is far from that.
Based primarily in Luton, it follows detectives from Bedfordshire police as they solve serious crimes. Camera crews follow them from the initial 999 call right through the investigative process, including interviews with witnesses and suspects, candid discussions with the detectives and specialists involved, and occasionally victims’ loved-ones. Forensic specialists are shown going about their business and if necessary, the science explained. Sometimes body-worn camera footage is also shown. My wife and I sometimes joke that you can guess who is guilty, as they are the only person who hasn’t had their face pixelated for legal reasons!
An individual episode might span several years, with the programme only aired once all the legal proceedings are completed (and the outcomes are given before the end credits). There are a couple of special episodes that pick-up detectives revisiting a cold case many years after the original crime was committed.As a writer of police procedurals, I have found it invaluable. The interview scenes are especially useful. Conducted by trained interview specialists, the days of banging the table and trying to intimidate the suspect into a confession are long gone. In fact, most interviews are ‘no comment’. However, there is a real science to effective interviewing, plus a raft of legislation that has to be adhered to.
Equally insightful is the CID office and the team briefings. This is where you get a real sense of the scale of a major murder investigation. As writers, we tend to keep our cast of characters limited, so that readers don’t get confused with too many names, and all characters get a chance to shine. In reality there are dozens of police officers and civilian specialists, each of whom plays their part. You should aim to reflect this in your books, without swamping the story with detail and too many featured characters.
It also captures the sheer banality of most murders. Generally speaking, the victims knew each other, and it’s less about working out who the suspects are than figuring out what role they played in what transpired. Yet it is still a fascinating watch. Occasionally the investigations are more of a whodunnit, especially some of the special episodes that might have several parts.If you want your writing to be realistic, you would do well to watch a few episodes of this excellent show.
Do you have any recommendations for useful documentaries? Feel free to comment here or on social media.
Are you a writer with a tip to share? Don’t be shy, I’m always looking for guest bloggers or ideas for future posts.I am going on a brief hiatus for the holiday period. I’ll be back in the new year. Until then, happy holidays!
Paul
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TuesdayTips128
Editing – you either love it, loathe it or just see it as part of the process.
I’ve looked before at the issues surrounding editing before (eg #Tips48 for an outline of the basic process; #Tips72 for help chopping the wordcount), but for these posts, I want to share a few of the tips and tricks I’ve picked up over the years.A few weeks ago, I wrote a couple of posts about how to use descriptive section titles to help you navigate your document, either in Word (or similar) (#Tips124) or Scrivener (#Tips125). Today I thought I’d share some of the information I include in my descriptive titles.The purpose of a descriptive section title is to help you quickly navigate to a specific part of your manuscript so that you can edit it, without having to search. Whether you work in Word, and your manuscript is a single document, or in Scrivener, and your project is made of dozens of smaller documents, it can be a real chore finding the bit of your project that you want to add to, delete from or modify.
I therefore add a brief description (just a couple of lines) that tells me what happens in that section. By using styles I can use the navigation pane in Word to jump directly to that section. When the book is finished, it’s easy to delete all these section titles. Or, I can simply redact them so they don’t spoil the upcoming scene for my beta readers. (See Tips 124 and 125 for how to do this).My descriptive titles contain a number of pieces of key information.
First, I give each section a unique identifier; typically something like S1001, S1002 etc. These numbers aren’t sequential in my document (as I write out of sequence), but you may choose to assign one that is more reflective of the section’s position in the story, or perhaps group related scenes together. If I want to add another document that sits between S1001 and S1002, I usually append a letter eg S1001a.
The purpose is to give a very quick way to jump to a section. Eg, when editing a paper draft, I might make a note to ‘change the name of the garage in S2003b’. All I have to do is search for ‘S2003b’.
I then write a line or two that says what is going to happen in that scene. Eg S1001: Warren called to crime scene, or S3002: Warren discovers name of killer (no reveal yet). This will appear at the beginning of the scene, and since I have applied a heading style, can be clicked in the navigation pane. In Scrivener, I also make sure to use this in the document title, so that it appears in the Binder.But there is more information that you can add. I find it useful to include the date that the action is taking place. This means that I keep track of timings more easily, and is really helpful if I move scenes around in a story. If I move a scene two days earlier, for example, I can easily spot unchanged dates within the text when editing – eg a phone call now takes place on a Monday, rather than a Wednesday, so I need to change the line “The victim’s brother phoned six days after the murder” to “The victim’s brother phoned four days after the murder”.
In Scrivener, you can include a custom metadata tag. All my documents have the custom metadata fields ‘Story_date’ and ‘Day_Number’. By including (<$custom:Story_Date>) Day (<$custom:Day_Number>) in the descriptive section title, when I compile the output document it will include the date and the day number. Custom metadata is easily changed within the Outliner if you move things around.
Thus a typical section title might look like.
S1003: Warren visits murder scene (Tu 05/11/22) Day (3).
In Scrivener it would look like S1003: Warren visits murder scene (<$custom:Story_Date>) Day (<$custom:Day_Number>), changing to the above when compiled.One last suggestion. If you switch between Word and Scrivener – for example, you write your document originally in Scrivener, compile and export it to Word, then do edits in Word before importing it back into Scrivener for major changes – your individual documents will be merged into one long document.
You can avoid this by adding an abnormal character in front of the title. Eg ~¬S1003: Warren Visits Murder Scene. When you import your Word document back into Scrivener, choose Import and Split and tell it to split the document using the abnormal character (I add a couple of abnormal characters, so I can do this repeatedly). Hey presto, you get all your subdocuments back!Do you use descriptive section titles? Do you include additional information to help you navigate your document easily?
Feel free to comment below or on social media.
Until next time.
Paul
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TuesdayTips127
Book Review.
Crime Writing:
How To Write The Science.
Brian Price
Buy From Amazon.Today’s Tuesday Tip is a book review – Crime Writing: How To Write The Science by Brian Price.
Brian Price is the author of the DC Mel Cotton series. He is also a retired environmental chemist and biologist. In this gem of a book, he sets out to provide a manual to help non-scientists write science in a compelling and accurate manner.
I picked up a copy of this book some time ago, and have been dipping in and out of it since I bought it. It is a fantastic resource, and one that’s well-worth the investment.
The breadth of topics covered is exceptionally broad. As one would expect, there is a lot of forensic science, but the book goes well beyond that. For example, the first two chapters cover poisons. This is an area in which Agatha Christie was famous for her in-depth knowledge, however Price goes beyond slipping someone a mickey or poisoning their cream tea. He covers a wide-range of toxic substances, including some common industrial and environmental poisons. A third chapter deals with ways of inducing unconsciousness.I hang around on a number of writers’ forums and how to render a victim insensate is a frequent source of both discussion and frustration. You’d be amazed how many people still think that a bash to the back of the head will produce temporary unconsciousness, from which the hero will awaken, sometime later, with a sore head and ‘a mild concussion’. He discusses a number of different substances or methods to stun someone, and dispels the many myths perpetrated in crime fiction.
Later chapters deal with explosives and firearms, methods for killing a person and the all-important disposal of the body and (hopefully) getting away with it.The reason I recommend this book so highly is its accessibility. Price makes no assumptions about the reader’s prior scientific knowledge. Sections are short and snappy, and he includes copious mini case-studies, from both fact and fiction. He also includes practical and legal issues – for example, it’s all very well coming up with a fiendish and scientifically plausible way to murder your character, but have you considered how likely it is the killer will actually get their hands on a controlled substance that only medical professionals have access to?
The book is designed as a study guide, and so there is an extensive bibliography at the back pointing towards original sources and further reading, and it is fully indexed.
This isn’t a book designed to be read cover-to-cover, rather it is for dipping in and out of, and picking up as a quick primer on a topic; if nothing else it will give you the necessary keywords to search the internet in more detail. It’s primary purpose is to introduce the basics and dispel some myths, hopefully helping writers avoid mistakes or perpetuating misconceptions. As a teacher, I would heartily recommend this book to students for its clarity, and as an author, would recommend it to any crime writers, fledgling or experienced.One last thing. As a science teacher and experienced writer, much of what was in the book wasn’t entirely new to me. Yet I still found it a source of inspiration. Flicking through the contents pages, I found myself drawn to random topics or fascinating case studies. And you know what, I wouldn’t be surprised if my next books have some plot points inspired by what I’ve read!
You can learn more about writing science accurately and contact Brian Price at www.crimewriterscience.co.uk. You can read more about Brian’s writing by visiting his website https://www.brianpriceauthor.co.uk/.
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TuesdayTips126
Conversations With Their Creations
Author Stuart Field in conversation with Ronin Nash
Today’s #TuesdayTip is another #ConversationsWithTheirCreations.
The premise is simple – an author conducts an interview with one of their characters. I leave it up to them how they wish to interpret that brief.
I am thrilled to invite back thriller writer Stuart Field to chat with his latest creation, Ronin Nash.
A former soldier, Stuart now works as an armed security guard. He was born in the West Midlands, and is married with one daughter.
A busy man, he is the author of the John Steel series, soon to number six entries, the new Ronin Nash series, and has just published the first in a new, two-book series, A Friend Of The Family. My name is Stuart Field, and I am here with Special Agent Ronin Nash. Today we will discuss his life and his latest case, which was documented in my latest novel, Nobody’s Agent; Ronin Nash, thriller book 1.
Me: So, Ronin, tell us about yourself.
Nash: Hi Stuart, thanks for having me today. Well, my name is Ronin Nash, and I work for a new government agency which is called the Interagency Investigation Bureau. I was born in Edinburgh, Scotland but didn’t stay there long. My father was in the British army, and we moved around a lot. He was in the Black Watch regiment. My mother was born and grew up in Manhattan, New York. Apparently, they got together after a fling they had when he was on R&R from an exercise in Canada.
We finally moved to Manhattan when I was in my teens after my dad retired from the army and bought a bar in Manhattan. Mac’s bar is called. Anyway, I went through college and finally joined the army. After a few years, I joined the Rangers. I was happy enough there, but after a friend was murdered and I investigated, I got snatched up by CID. Things went ok there until a joint op with the FBI; then, I got snatched up by the feds.
Me: Sounds like an exciting life you’ve had. So how come you are with the IIB?
Nash. There were some problems with my last year in the Bureau, namely one of my work colleagues was a dick. There was an incident, and I left. But after about a year, my old boss, soon to be my new one, asked me to join the IIB on one case, and I guess I just decided to stay afterward.
Me: I see you don’t like to dress like the other agents. Is there a reason?’
Nash: I was never much one for rules I felt were…unnecessary. The whole Brooks Brothers costume was not my thing. For one, it made you stand out. Criminals could see you coming a mile off. Besides, I knew it irritated the hell out of people, so it was a win-win in my book. I like to dress practically, that is why I prefer jeans or chinos to suit pants. Work or military style boots to shiny shoes. When I dress for an investigation, I don’t want to worry if I’m gonna get my pants dirty or scuff my shiny shoes. And you tried running in those shoes? You get blisters.
Me: So, tell us about the case in, Nobody’s Agent.
Nash: It is set in a small town called Finchley. This is in upstate New York near Albany. The sheriff had discovered three bodies, and it was my job as an IIB agent to go there and assess whether it was a case for the cops or the FBI or, indeed, just an accident. As it turned out, there was more waiting for me in Finchley than I first thought.
Me: Well, unfortunately, that is all we have time for. So thanks to Ronin Nash, and to find out more, check out: www.amazon.co.uk/Nobodys-Agent-Stuart-Field/dp/B09ZCSW3BMYou can find out more about Stuart by visiting his website, following him on Twitter or Instagram, or visiting his Facebook Page.
As always feel free to comment here or on social media. If you are a writer with a suggestion for a #TuesdayTip, feel free to email me at DCIJones@Outlook.com.
Until the next time,
Paul.
