Course Description for

Crime Novels and Short Stories

with John Paxton Sheriff

Registration Fee and Course Length

Prerequisites

Standard course: $180 / 6 weeks. Click here to register.

WritersCollege - Crime Novels and Short Stories

No prerequisites.

Course Contacts

Course Description

Week One: What is crime fiction

The crime short story
The crime novel
Crime fiction divisions or sub-genres
The traditional, or 'cosy
Private eyes
Police procedurals
The series character
Partnerships
How to begin
Analysing your crime fiction interests
Assessing your capabilities and qualifications
Choosing a suitable modus operendi
Murder by shooting
Death by knifing
Poisoning
Miscellaneous murder methods
Homework: Send a sample (if you have it) of your fiction writing. Work with your teacher to decide which type of short story or novel you wish to write.

Week Two: Developing a crime novel or short story concept

Where to get ideas
Select the sub-genre
Confirm your choice of crime, victim and criminal
Test the idea - short story or novel?
Create brief character studies
Victim
Investigators/detectives
Suspects
Other characters
Plan the crime scene and settings
Location
Interior/exterior
Main town - real/imaginary
Decide on the general style and tone
Homework: For this and the remainder of the course, work with your teacher on whatever you are writing.

Week Three: Fleshing out villains, victims and investigators

Create complex villains and victims
Police personnel
Morse
Frost
Dalziel
Private investigators
Supporting characters
Using stereotypes
Character strengths and weaknesses
Dominant traits

Week Four: The main plot

Work backwards from the crime
Incorporating a crime sub-plot
Compelling, but subordinate
Linking plot and sub-plot
A sub-plot for light relief
Using a second but minor crime
Create vivid, tension-building scenes
Chapter breaks
Hooks and cliff-hangers
Clues and red-herrings
Motives, opportunities and alibis

Week Five: Modern investigative techniques

Police organisation
UK
USA
Interpol
Crime scene procedure
Determining the cause of death
Post-mortems
Estimating the time of death
Fingerprints and DNA
Surveillance skills
Interrogation and interview techniques
Inquests

Week Six: Creative Revision

Reviewing the completed first draft
Double-checking continuity and chronology
Ensuring plausibility
Selecting incidents that need foreshadowing
Polishing your vocabulary
Strengthening the climax

John Paxton Sheriff was born in England. After Fifteen years in the British army he and his family moved to Australia where he first started writing and being published.

"In Australia, my short stories took off. Some general stories were published in the top glossy magazines for women, short crime stories were published in Adam, a pulp magazine for men."

Sheriff returned to England and continued writing. By 1986 he had moved from fiction to writing articles for national magazines and two newspaper groups.

"I was writing short feature articles for them, as many as ten, 500-word articles a week. I had to be economical with words, and I'm sure that economy with words helped me when I began writing short Western novels. One thing I do know is that writing short Western novels helped me when I turned to crime writing. And now it's working the other way: creating complicated plots for crime novels means that my Western novels are becoming more complex – and so far, fingers crossed, that's a good thing."

Sheriff's work includes:

Short stories in magazines such as: Australian Women's Weekly, Australian Woman's Day, Adam (Australia) , Woman and Home (UK), Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (New York)

Western Novels: Thirty-three published in the past 15 years, three more due out by early 2011.

Crime Novels: Seven published in the past 5 years. Two series, one featuring PI Jack Scott, the other featuring female PI Penny Lane ( I like writing in the first person!).

Teaching: In addition to the above, for ten years Sheriff has been a tutor, teaching novel writing, short story writing and article writing by correspondence.