{"id":440,"date":"2017-10-31T13:02:33","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T13:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lynnfraser.com\/?p=440"},"modified":"2017-10-31T13:02:33","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T13:02:33","slug":"killer-women-killer-weekend-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lynnfraser.com\/wp\/?p=440","title":{"rendered":"Killer Women Killer Weekend 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lynnfraser.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_0002.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-443\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lynnfraser.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_0002-300x88.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"88\" \/><\/a>I was lucky enough to win a ticket to the Saturday of the Killer Weekend, an event that I would not otherwise have been able to attend (thanks Killer Women and Mslexia). It only seemed right to spread the good fortune by sharing some snippets. So here are a few points I took away from the workshops and master classes I attended.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Intro to Crime Writing with Kate Rhodes<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Frinton-on-Sea is a genius location for crime (but someone is already doing it).<\/li>\n<li>Even really good, successful writers had to write more than one novel before they got a deal and still have unpublished novels under the bed.<\/li>\n<li>It starts with character.<\/li>\n<li>I want to read Kate\u2019s new book \u2013 Hell Bay \u2013 and it comes out in January 2018.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Creating Characters with Henry Sutton<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Character and plot are one.<\/li>\n<li>Menace comes from character.<\/li>\n<li>You need to know what your character wants more than anything \u2013 and this might be something outside of the line of duty\/work.<\/li>\n<li>Setting enhances character \u2013 it doesn\u2019t exist independently because it is seen through character.<\/li>\n<li>Know your characters\u2019 relationships.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Book recommendations:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>James Woods \u2013 How Fiction Works<\/li>\n<li>David Lodge \u2013 Consciousness and the Novel<\/li>\n<li>David Lodge \u2013 The Art of Fiction<\/li>\n<li>Patricia Highsmith \u2013 Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Changing Crimescape (Katherine Quarmby, Matthew Blakstad, Imran Mahmood, Vaseem Khan)<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Be aware of what is \u2018in the air\u2019 &#8211; #metoo, technology, diversity, global locations.<\/li>\n<li>Listening to writers talk about their books can distract you from learning from their experience (opps \u2013 sorry).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Creating Suspense with NJ Cooper<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Suspense is about withholding.<\/li>\n<li>Make readers wait for payoff, in the novel, in the chapter, in the paragraph, in the sentence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Plotting with Julia Crouch<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pantsing lets you go with passion and intuition, but plotting is more efficient.<\/li>\n<li>Find a way to plot whilst keeping the passion and intuition.<\/li>\n<li>Conflict is the source of all plot.<\/li>\n<li>Plot is what happens and why.<\/li>\n<li>Plot demands the intelligence and memory of the reader to make connections.<\/li>\n<li>Use the tools out there to help \u2013 structures from books, types of plot, software, and corkboards and post-its.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Book recommendations:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Anne Lamott \u2013 Bird by Bird<\/li>\n<li>James Scott Bell \u2013 Plot and Structure<\/li>\n<li>Alexandra Sokoloff \u2013 Stealing Hollywood<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Pitch to the Panel (Mark Billingham, Joel Richardson, Felicity Blunt, Karen Sullivan)<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you put your name in a draw to pitch, bear in mind that you might get a slot and you might have to go first (so maybe write a pitch in advance).<\/li>\n<li>Mark Billingham is the crime writing world\u2019s Dermot O\u2019Leary and very soothing on the nerves.<\/li>\n<li>Highlight what makes you and your novel interesting and different.<\/li>\n<li>Some subjects are so dark that they will put people off \u2013 if you must write them, think about how you present them, in the novel an the pitch.<\/li>\n<li>If you are writing something that has done before, think about what makes your story different.<\/li>\n<li>There <i>are<\/i> characters\/subjects that agents are looking for.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>In conclusion:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Character, character, character.<\/li>\n<li>Think motivation and conflict.<\/li>\n<li>Get it written and then get it re-written.<\/li>\n<li>Crime writers are lovely.<\/li>\n<li>Getting out in the writing community is re-energising \u2013 do it when you can.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was lucky enough to win a ticket to the Saturday of the Killer Weekend, an event that I would not otherwise have been able to attend (thanks Killer Women and Mslexia). It only seemed right to spread the good fortune by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[84,87,86,85],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnfraser.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnfraser.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnfraser.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnfraser.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnfraser.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnfraser.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445,"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnfraser.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions\/445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnfraser.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnfraser.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnfraser.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}