Marc's A-Z of Crime Fiction

Decisions:

When writers start to write their masterpieces, the first decision that needs to be made is from all the snippets of information they have gained which idea are they going to expand into a Novel/Program.



So the BIG IDEA has been made and now the small decisions need to be made: Characters, Heroine, Plot, Setting, Names, Narrative, Signposting, Beginning, Middle, End!! Well, I could go on and make the smaller decisions and the more in depth parts of a story.

My hardest decision is pacing, pace you choose to excite or relax your readers can be very important in making your novel work. If it's nearing the climax, you better speed up your pace: make your sentences and paragraphs short to create urgency, make us breathless with anticipation, then let the literary axe fall so we can gasp for air and cheer the hero or heroine for a race well run.
But from beginning to end, your novel is likely to have several different paces. It generally won't be all fast, nor all slow. A good mix is essential.

The last Big Decision is knowing when to stop- Don't over do it, if you feel that the book is done at Novella stage or even short story...then is done!!

Death:

"Death is the permanent termination of life after the ceasing of biological function in a living organism"

Death comes in many forms: Old Age, medical conditions, accidents or trauma. From these 4 categories in  Fiction, you will not see many deaths from Old Age so we will leave that one.

Medical Conditions:

I have recently read 'Freaks' by Tess Gerritsen, a short story found on Kindle Store. A girl has died in mysterious circumstances after being found in a church, screams have been heard from the building and a homicide had already been decided until Maura Isles gets involved. Strangle marks found on neck, mouth gaping and limbs have been flaying from a struggle. Death has been determined as a bite from a Black Widow spider, medical conditions of heart attack has been diagnosed due to the weight of the body.



Accidents:

Here I have a large choice of deaths. I am going to choose Car Accidents and my choice is 'Still Life' by Joy Fielding, this is not quite a death but the story gripped me. Casey Marshall lives a happy married life and is suddenly struck by a hit and run driver. She is left comatose and after months in hospital, she is allowed to go home but still she remains unconscious. In her comatose state she can still hear the voices around her and realises her happy marriage was all about her inheritance and her husband was the driver!



Trauma:

Blunt force trauma, sharp trauma, head trauma, hangings. My choice for trauma is 'Blind Eye' by Stuart MacBride. Polish Community members are being found with their eyes gouged out and Logan McRae has Operation Oedipous to manage, the investigation takes a turn for the unexpected when a non-polish is found with his eyes gouged out.


Dan Brown:

I was going to do DA VINCI CODE for my 'D' and after some thought I knew that I was only going to talk about Dan Brown as writer.

Dan Brown has produced best selling books again and again, Da Vinci Code started off the domination of the Fiction market, Da Vinci Code is one of the biggest selling novels of all time. It started an obsession with the Early Christian History and a whole new genre was created of Historical Fiction along with people finding the lost scrolls of somewhere or the never before seen paperwork of someone.
Dan Brown has been seen as "the person keeping the publishing industry afloat" TIME Magazine stated.

So what makes Dan Brown so good:

• The debates that he creates, eg Da Vinci Code went to court in 2005 for plagiarism after it was found that some of the ideas from the book had been copied from another book and then in 2006 he went to court for similarities to HOLY BLOOD HOLY GRAIL.
• The other debate is his writing, his prose is very clumsy and the details he has put into his books are not always accurate.

At the end of the day, it does not matter. He has a winning formula and he should continue it!