Writing Crime Fiction

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Writing Crime Fiction

Genre focus

Length

6 weeks

Location

Online

Writing Goal

Start writing

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Writing Crime Fiction

Draw your readers into a web of intrigue that will keep them guessing till the final page.

Tutor

Vaseem Khan

Length

6 weeks

Location

Online

Writing Goal

Start writing

Exclusive video lessons from the chair of the Crime Writers’ Association.

Genre focus

Sherlock. Marple. Poirot. Bosch. Reacher. Precious. Rebus. Crime fiction is now so popular that its leading protagonists are household names around the world.

Writing Crime Fiction taught me how to plant plausible red herrings and write fully fleshed-out suspects driven by their own desires and motives.

Emily Critchley
Author of One Puzzling Afternoon

The incredible range within the genre means that there is a niche for everyone. Whether you want to write a nail-biting detective series, cosy mysteries or carefully plotted police procedurals, we will teach you the fundamentals.

Bestselling author Vaseem Khan will guide you through the essentials of writing crime fiction. You’ll learn how to create memorable detectives, write suspenseful investigations, construct the perfect murder, and make good use of research in key areas such as forensics to make your story more real for the reader.

Vaseem will share everything he wishes he’d been told when he was writing his first novel, and along the way, he’ll help you apply the lessons to your own work.

Tutor

Vaseem Khan

Vaseem Khan is a former Chair of the UK Crime Writers' Association and the author of several award-winning crime series including the Baby Ganesh Agency novels, set in modern Mumbai, and the Malabar House historical crime series, set in 1950s Bombay. His debut, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 40 best crime novels published in 2015-2020, and has been translated into 17 languages. Midnight at Malabar House, the first in the Malabar House series, won the Crime Writers’ Association Historical Dagger. Vaseem is also the author of The Girl in Cell A, a psychological thriller set in small town America, and, most recently, Quantum of Menace, the first in a series featuring Q from the world of James Bond.

WHAT DOES THIS COURSE GIVE YOU?

Video modules: Work through six modules comprising teaching videos from Vaseem. Topics range from the building blocks of crime fiction, to what makes a memorable lead character, to devices to mislead and mystify your reader.
Writing tasks: Weekly tasks will help you explore and understand the teaching topics as you progress with your novel.
Resources & notes: You’ll get access to comprehensive teaching notes and reference materials, including multiple case studies from Vaseem’s bestselling novels and other specially chosen books.
Professional feedback: An expert CBC editor will give brief written feedback on several of the students' practical assignments every week, with all students receiving feedback on one of their writing tasks. Students are also given the option to purchase additional end-of-course feedback from our expert editors.
Student forum: Find your writing community on our private student forums. Upload your completed writing tasks, give and receive peer-to-peer feedback, and discuss the week’s topics with your fellow students and the CBC team.

COURSE SCHEDULE & DELIVERY

Our online courses are designed for flexible learning. Allocate your own study time and take part from wherever you are in the world. Each week, we recommend spending at least four hours on the course. It’s also important to be planning and working on your novel throughout the six weeks.

WEEK 1
Building blocks of crime fiction
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WEEK 2
Heroes & villains
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WEEK 3
Mysteries, puzzles & clues
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WEEK 4
Plot & pacing
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WEEK 5
Bringing your setting to life
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WEEK 6
Investigative procedure
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ADDITIONAL FEEDBACK

All students will be given the option to purchase feedback on their final task from a CBC editor.

CBC report: For an additional fee of £155, you can obtain a detailed 500-word report on your work (of up to 3,000 words) from one of our CBC editors.
CBC report + tutorial: For an additional fee of £260, you can obtain a 500-word report from one of our CBC editors and have a 30-minute video or telephone tutorial with them to discuss your work.

Do you want to know more about the contents of our end-of-course reader reports? Click the button below to download and read an example report.

View Example Report

GIFT THIS COURSE

Encourage your writerly friend or loved one to get creative! We have £230 digital gift vouchers available, enabling you to buy any six-week online course as a present.

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Start Date

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Refund guaranteed if requested before course starts

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Writing Crime Fiction

Start Date

Package

Writing Crime Fiction

Length

Location

Writing Goal

Writing Crime Fiction

Draw your readers into a web of intrigue that will keep them guessing till the final page.

Tutor

Length

Location

Writing Goal

Sherlock. Marple. Poirot. Bosch. Reacher. Precious. Rebus. Crime fiction is now so popular that its leading protagonists are household names around the world.