Program Overview

Further Adventures in Writing Crime Fiction

This course is designed for individuals keen to write engaging, plot-driven crime fiction. It explores strategies for structure, the role of twists, the power of setting, shaping secondary characters, and using narrative time.

Course Overview

Developed as a continuation of Writing Crime Fiction and also as a standalone for more experienced writers to hone their craft, this course gives students the opportunity to build a portfolio of new writing and develop synopsis-writing skills useful for publication. It caters to students who already have an idea for a novel-length crime story, providing strategies to take this work forward, and to those who wish to develop their crime writing skills but don't yet have an idea in mind, helping generate new plots.

Learning and Teaching

The module is delivered through ten workshops, including regular peer and tutor feedback. Class sessions are supplemented by resources available via Learning Central.

Syllabus Content

• The relationship between place and plot: how setting shapes, drives, and reflects action
• Plot structures: rising and falling tension, twists vs. reveals, endings
• Devising detectives in response to plot themes
• Secondary characters: who are they? What do they do?
• Strategies for using narrative time: flashbacks, real time, summary
• The challenge of exposition: how to convey the 'facts' of a case
• Selling our stories: researching the marketplace, pitching work to agents and editors

Coursework and Assessment

To award credits, evidence of the knowledge and skills gained or improved is required. The most important element of assessment is that it should enhance learning. Methods are designed to increase confidence and are enjoyable and suitable for adults with busy lives. For assessment, students produce approximately 1800 words, made up of two 600-word fiction extracts and a 600-word synopsis. Work is graded to a numerical scale.

Reading Suggestions

• James, P. D., Talking About Detective Fiction (London: Faber, 2010)
• Rzepka, Charles J., Detective Fiction (Cambridge: Polity, 2005)
• Scaggs, John, Crime Fiction: The New Critical Idiom (Abingdon: Routledge, 2005)
• Symons, Julian, Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel (London: Penguin, 1992)
• Winks, Robin W., Detective Fiction: A Collection of Critical Essays (Prentice-Hall, 1980)

Library and Computing Facilities

Students are entitled to join and use the University's library and computing facilities.

Accessibility

The aim is access for all, providing a confidential advice and support service for any student with a long-term medical condition, disability, or specific learning difficulty. Services include one-to-one advice, pre-enrolment visits, liaison with tutors, material in alternative formats, arrangements for accessible courses, assessment arrangements, loan equipment, and dyslexia screening.