Taking stock of what you have written

I am preparing to carry out the final edits on my latest DCI John Blizzard crime novel before sending it to those fine people at my publisher The Book Folks in the New Year - and that means taking as objective a view as I can manage of what I have written.

But what exactly does that mean? Well, for all authors, it means comparing what they have in front of them to what they set out to write all those months ago. To write a good crime story, I think you need to have:

* Created a strong story with plenty of twists and turns

* Created a strong sense of place - the reader must be able to visualise where the action happens

* Created strong characters – you should not have strayed into cliché but have made your characters real people

* If you have created a sidekick, make sure they have a job to do - passing on information, allowing your main character to react so we learn more about them etc

* Made the villain real, not some clichéd baddie you saw in the movies. The best thing is for them to have appeared earlier in the story so that the reader knows them and for you to have given them a good reason to commit the crime - secrets, secrets, always secrets

* Grabbed the reader from the first line

* Kept the story moving - nothing holds a reader better than tension created as the pace develops. You should have kept it driving on relentlessly

* Produced a strong ending - surprised the reader and included some drama, a chase, a fight, a killing, a dramatic revelation etc

* Possibly, if this is your thing, you will also have made the reader think - maybe you want to cast light on human nature, or perhaps a problem in society. You should not have preached but have allowed the idea to come through in your story.

But how do you know that you have met all these competing demands when you are reading your draft? I always think that if I get so wrapped up in the story when I am editing that I forget that I wrote it and that I am supposed to be checking technical elements then I have got it right.

Views: 15

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of John Dean Crime Novelist to add comments!

Join John Dean Crime Novelist

Latest Activity

John Dean posted a blog post

Crime writers to sign copies of newly-published novels

A book signing due to be held by author John Dean as part of Kirkcudbright Book Week has been expanded to include fellow crime writer Ryan Stark.John, who lives in Dumfries and Galloway, will sign paperback copies of his recently-published novel The Meek Shall Inherit (The Book Folks), which will be available to purchase during the event at Feast Café, 32 St Cuthbert…See More
Feb 26
John Dean posted a blog post

Lead me to the keyboard

This is where writing comes perilously close to madness but I am a strong believer that fictional characters, if allowed their head, can tell their own stories and all the author has to do is type!It does not happen every time you write, which is why authors must value it when it does, but it happened to me today when writing an account of a Zoom conversation between…See More
Feb 20
John Dean posted a blog post

At the top of his game

Book Review The Red Shoes Mystery by David Pearson David Pearson continues to delight his many fans with his latest crime novel, in which his investigators O’Shea and Maguire face their most challenging case yet—the mysterious death of Maria Hyka.As Maguire and her team dig deeper, they uncover connections to a shadowy underworld and, as ever, with David’s books, it is…See More
Feb 12
John Dean posted a blog post

A welcome addition to the crime fiction canon

Book Review - Murder in the New Forest by Carol Cole (The Book Folks).It’s always a moment laden with anticipation when a new crime series emerges onto the scene and Carol Cole does not disappoint with Murder in the New Forest (The Book Folks).At the heart of the novel is a new central character, DI Callum MacLean, newly arrived in Hampshire from Glasgow and plunged into…See More
Feb 5
John Dean shared their blog post on Facebook
Feb 3
John Dean posted blog posts
Feb 3
SEO Services Philippines updated their profile
Jan 25
John Dean posted a blog post

Bestseller chart success

I am delighted that two of my crime fiction works are this morning in the top 100 Organised Crime Kindle charts on Amazon.The DCI John Blizzard box set containing the first seven novels in the series, (The Book Folks) for just 99p - now if that is not an outstanding offer, I do not know what is -  is at number 43 (it is already topping various anthology charts).My new…See More
Jan 20
John Dean posted a blog post

Grant award helps develop crime fiction programme

Organisers of the fourth annual Kirkcudbright Book Week have been awarded a £1,750 grant from the Robin Rigg Community Fund to help them develop the crime fiction component of the festival.Kirkcudbright Book Week is designed to celebrate the growing literary scene in and around the South West Scotland town and crime fiction has proved to be a popular genre with audiences…See More
Jan 17
John Dean shared their blog post on Facebook
Jan 14
John Dean shared their blog post on Facebook
Jan 14
John Dean posted blog posts
Jan 14
John Dean shared their blog post on Facebook
Jan 13
Capping Machine updated their profile
Jan 8
John Dean posted a blog post

The way authors work

A few years ago, I ran a creative writing course and, at the beginning of one of the sessions, I asked my fifteen students how they worked.The result was fifteen different answers –one author wrote everything by hand then typed it onto their computer, another wrote it all in note form then linked the notes together, one did not edit anything until everything was…See More
Dec 29, 2024
John Dean shared their blog post on Facebook
Dec 27, 2024

Videos

Members

© 2025   Created by John Dean.   Powered by

Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service