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This course will introduce you to a range of
basic crime fiction techniques, including writing powerful beginnings,
creating plot, location and building suspense. You will be encouraged
to read and analyse extracts from the work of published crime writers,
such as Sara Paretsky and Janet Evanovich and will be given a range
of exercises to stimulate and develop your own ideas for a crime
or mystery story plot. Suitable for both beginners and the more
experienced. The first week will take the form of a self-paced tutor-led
induction course.
The tutor: Susan Richardson
 Susan
Richardson is an experienced tutor of creative writing, currently
based in the Centre For Lifelong Learning at Cardiff University.
She has held several writing residencies, in both the UK and Australia,
and has also run a series of writing therapy programmes in hospitals
and hospices. Her short crime fiction has been published in Panorama,
the in-flight magazine of Ansett Airlines, and she has both been
shortlisted for a Scarlet Stiletto Award and received second prize
in the Tom Howard Crime Fiction Competition. She is also a widely-performed
playwright - her work has been seen in the UK, Australia, Canada
and Finland - and her first play, Two Of Me Now, was published by
Cecil Woolf in the Bloomsbury Heritage Series. Most recently, she
has been working for the Welsh Academi as Project Manager of 'The
Great Cardiff Poem', writing - and inspiring others to write - poems
about the city to support Cardiff's bid to be the 2008 European
Capital of Culture.
This course is 10 weeks including a FREE Induction
Week.
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Register for this course
| Series |
Starting Date |
Early Bird
Booking Deadline
(Price £140 ) |
Booking Deadline
(Price £160) |
Ending Date |
| to be announced |
The aims of this course are:
- To introduce students to the various categories/
sub-categories of crime fiction such as the whodunnit, the police
procedural, the suspense thriller, comic crime
- To encourage students to write their own crime fiction by focusing
on plot, location, suspense, beginnings.
- To discuss the work of published crime writers and analyse
both the positive and negative qualities of their writing
Contents
- The different categories of crime fiction and the different
writing techniques required for each.
- Writing gripping beginnings.
- The character of the detective - voice/point-of-view.
- Creating/developing plot.
- Location/ atmosphere
- Writing suspense - how to sustain it, then offer relief.
Typical Reading
Books referred to will be:
Toxic Shock - Sara Paretsky
Sharkbait - Susan Geason
One For the Money - Janet Evanovich
F is For Fugitive - Sue Grafton
Learning Outcomes: By the end of this
course you should be able to:
- produce a powerful beginning of a piece of crime fiction, which
grips the reader and encourages him/her to read on.
- produce a short piece of suspense writing.
- draw on all of the topics covered (point-of-view/ plot etc.)
and write a complete short crime story
Typical assessments
- Produce a powerful beginning to a piece of crime fiction.
- Produce a passage of suspense, which includes a number of the
suspense writing techniques discussed.
- Produce a complete crime story, building on all of the topics
covered during the course. (approx. 1,500 words)
Pre-requisites for this course
You will need to:
- be able to use Word, WordPerfect or other
word-processing program
- be familiar with use of a browser
- be able to write and understand English
reasonably fluently
- have some experience of writing fiction at a basic level
- have a basic knowledge of/familiarity with contemporary crime/mystery
fiction
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