I have recently been advising an aspiring crime writer on how to improve her work so that she can prepare it for submission to a publisher. One of the things we corresponded about was dialogue and I thought I would reiterate some of my thoughts on the subject.

Dialogue is crucial to any novel. Good dialogue lifts a story, bad dialogue wrecks it. However, writing dialogue isn’t about replicating a real-life conversation. It’s about giving an impression of it. The role…

I am fascinated by the way the writer’s mind works and particularly how creativity comes about. It may sound odd to say it but sometimes creativity is sidelined in the writing process. Writers get so involved in the craft of writing, pace, point of view, the correct use of words, grammar etc etc that somehow creativity gets bundled to one side.

One of the things that can aid creativity is planning. I have always thought that the time spent thinking in advance of beginning to write is…

It’s May – and that means its national Crime Reading Month! Due to the virus restrictions, the event has gone online this year and you can find a number of crime writers, including yours truly, talking about everything from surviving lockdown to seeking inspiration,…

I think that one of the golden rules of writing is that every word should do its job and it can make for a brutal editing process for the writer. It’s a process I have recently finished with the latest DCI John Blizzard mystery.

Over the years, I have found my novels becoming shorter. Not because I am not inspired by the stories and the characters that drive them - you wouldn’t put in all that work if you weren’t - but because I am acutely conscious that words must earn their place on…

A little reminder that the latest DCI Jack Harris mystery is out and riding high in the Amazon Kindle bestseller charts (it’s also available in paperback).

The Killing Line is published by The Book Folks and is my nineteenth published crime novel. In the book, a schoolgirl is found dead after taking drugs, the second death in a few…

The second DCI Jack Harris boxset has been published by The Book Folks in Kindle format, including books four to six in the series.

DCI Jack Harris loves the peace and solitude of the rolling hills of the Pennines in the north of England. So, when criminals interrupt his quietude, he makes no qualms about catching them,…

I am delighted to be one of the crime writers supporting this brilliant initiative.

The month of May sees the return of National Crime Reading Month (NCRM), a unique, UK-wide literary festival designed to connect authors and readers and promote the crime genre.

The festival, which is a major annual initiative co-ordinated by the Crime…

Britons are turning to books in lockdown, with one in three reading more since Boris Johnson told the country on 23 March to stay at home, according to a new survey.

The survey marks the annual World Book Night tonight (Thursday April 23) and saw the Reading Agency question more than 2,000 people in the UK, finding that 31% were reading more…

I am fascinated about the writer’s ideas process. It is something that I include in my online creative writing courses and, as part of the research, I came across a quote from American crime writer Patricia Highsmith, who when asked where her ideas came from said: “Ideas come to a writer, a writer does not search for them. Ideas come to me like birds…

One of the key things that I tell my creative writing students is that the opening lines of their stories are crucial.

Why? Because harassed publishers, overworked agents and readers with a mass of choice all need grabbing within moments of picking up the book/short story/manuscript.

It is like the writer reaching out of the page, clutching the reader by the lapel and saying ‘don’t you dare go away, this is going to be good!’

The first rule of opening lines is that they…

A reminder that, in addition to the various free things I do with writers, one of the paid-for services I offer is one that supports writers through online mentoring.

But why should you hire a professional writing mentor? Isn’t it enough to attend a class/workshop or a writing group? Well, yes, it can be but not everyone can get to a group,…

I am working on the latest DCI John Blizzard crime novel for those excellent people at The Book Folks at the moment and the story is full of people falling out, each fighting their corner, defending what is important to them.

That is how it should be but why is conflict important in writing? Because stories need things to happen and that usually comes out of conflict - characters argue, fight, feud etc. It is through seeing characters in conflict that we see them at their…

Young people falling foul of drugs, dealers who don't care, a hill town in turmoil, it all adds up to a testing case for DCI Jack Harris, who has already got plenty on his mind as tough memories start to crowd in on him. You can find out more in the latest in the…

In addition to my crime fiction, I make the occasional foray into other genres, including humour. But how do you write humour? Well, here are some suggested rules:

The first thing to remember is that humour is subjective. What is funny to one person may easily leave another cold.

The best approach is write in your own style in the way…

Congratulations to author Keven Shevels, who is donating proceeds from sales of his comic novel The Haddock Flies at Midnight to St Teresa's Hospice in Darlington, County Durham, to help it through these difficult times. An adult comedy, the book recounts thirty days in the life of a town hall housing official in the north of England who joins forces…

Every writer is obsessed with keeping their reader engaged, and rightly so. That’s what keeps them turning the page.

But what allows you to do that? Well, I think that good writing works because it triggers responses in its readers.

I think writing works best when readers say ‘I have been in that situation, ‘I know someone like that’, ‘what a terrible thing to be faced with, I remember when…’ etc etc.

If readers feel like that, it means that they are being drawn into the…

My lockdown is being spent at home with my family plus a cast of characters from the latest DCI John Blizzard crime novel that I am writing for those fine people at The Book Folks.

Indeed, the challenges of being restricted to a hillside in Scotland during these testing times have given me more opportunity to write.

What has emerged from…

Novelist John Dean is running an online mentoring and writing workshop programme for aspiring authors, ideal for people seeking something to do under current virus-related restrictions.

John, who is based in Dumfries and Galloway, has had nineteen crime novels published and is with London-based The Book Folks, said: “Writing can be a lonely enough pastime as it is, even without the current restrictions on people’s movements. With the new restrictions, digital learning will be even…