Making life difficult for your characters

[John Dean]

At the heart of every crime novel is a strong story. But how do you put it all together? Well, at the heart of any interesting story is the way characters overcome obstacles through their own skills and abilities.

The key is to keep the story moving, which is why writers pile as many problems as them can on a character then have them do things to do to get out of the situation.

It is worth having sub plots – yes, a detective is solving a murder but there’s also a series of baffling seemingly unconnected burglaries, or perhaps something is happening in  their private life. These keep things fresh. Also, some can be red herrings to throw the reader off the scent.

However, the key is to keep the main story going. As you go along have peaks of drama, an arrest, a revelation, another murder etc and build up to the final climax. 

Some writers opt for the beginning, middle, end approach, a traditional and proven format which has served authors well down the decades.

Others go for deliberately confusing the reader, creating stories which are not clear at the start but which slowly reveal themselves.

They may do it by concealing where the action takes place, or perhaps who the central characters are. Or keeping back the salient piece of information the reader needs to make sense of everything.

Some writers go for the flashback approach, beginning the story with an incident then working backwards to explain how we arrived at this moment. Knowing what happens at the end can make the events that unfold that little but more poignant.

However you start your story, the beginning should have The Question, something that hooks your reader. You need to grab them from those first lines.

One way do to this is intrigue the reader. For instance, “Bill Bloggs was dead” may give the end away but the readers wants to find out why he died and if he deserved it.

The dropped introduction can also work: “Betty was a pleasant woman. She would do anything for anyone. Everyone liked old Betty. A true angel, they used to say. Which was why it was such a shock when she was killed by a Mafia hitman.”

Whatever you do, remember that all stories begin in the middle - the people you write about have already plenty of history. What you are doing is catapulting the reader into their life.