This is a course for writers of crime or suspense fiction who understand that crime is not the low-brow inferior of literary fiction, but is, rather, a genre ideally suited to the finest fiction any writer is capable of producing.

What priorities ought a crime novel to have that other kinds of fiction might not?  Crime is a popular but crowded genre - how can you make sure your novel stands out from the crowd? Do we still need a strong sense of black and white, or good and evil, in contemporary crime fiction? How have the parameters of the genre changed, how would we like them to change in the future, and how can we contribute, with our writing, to that change?

This course will cover, among other things: approaches to plotting and character and the balancing of (and the misconceived idea that there is an opposition between) the two; mystery, the driving force behind crime fiction, and why it's so important both to our lives and to our writing and reading; how to avoid cliché and add unpredictable elements to your story; how to surprise your readers without cheating; identifying the point at which imaginative becomes implausible; how to structure and plan your novel while keeping your writing process as dynamic as possible; how to make sure your writing, on a line-by-line level, is as taut and tense as your story. We will also look at the practical side of being a crime fiction writer: how to find the right agent and publisher.

Tutor profiles

Sophie Hannah writes psychological crime novels and poetry.  Her thrillers are international bestsellers, published in 22 countries, and are being adapted by Hat Trick Productions for ITV1.  The first was broadcast in May 2010 as Case Sensitive, starring Olivia Williams, Darren Boyd and Rupert Graves, and a second adaptation is currently in production. Sophie lives in Cambridge, where she is Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College.  Her website is www.sophiehannah.com.

Lisanne Radice was one of the co-founders of the Gregory and Radice Literary Agency, and is now an independent editorial consultant specialising in crime fiction. As a literary agent, she discovered and edited writers such as Val McDermid, Minette Walters and Mo Hayder. Lisanne has also published a book called The Way to Write Crime Fiction (Elm Tree Books).  Her website is www.lisanneradice.com.