Tackling the tough subjects

[John Dean]

One of the big challenges for writers is the way they tackle difficult subjects and it has come to my mind once again as I work on my next Blizzard novel which has at its heart a theme set around the victimisation of the vulnerable.

There are various reasons why writers need to tackle the tough themes, not least because a story about people getting on really well for 60,000 words can tend to be a touch on the boring side!

Introduce something spiky into the narrative – conflict, victimisation, exploitation - and your crime story comes alive.

Another reason why writers tackle tough subjects is because their words can have an effect on those who read them. They can trigger a response, be it anger, empathy, distress, and once you have the reader reacting you have them caring about what happens in your narrative and wanting to keep turning the pages.

It is not the same for every writer in every genre, of course, - some stories are there purely to entertain, to make the reader laugh, to make the reader smile, without challenging them at all but for the crime novelist, the tough themes come with the territory.

For those who do tackle difficult subjects, there is one rule above all: keep it real. It makes sense to write about what you know. If you have not got that experience, research your subject before you start writing. Crime fiction readers are remarkably adept at seeing through authors who do not know what they are writing about!