Plotting fantastic crime

One of the most difficult things about plotting crime fiction is the fact that you often have to take yourself to some rather dark places in the process. People who write crime novels are not murderers (well, I hope not), yet have to deal with the idea of people who are as a matter of course.

And when you’re dealing with something you’re not – especially something that is likely to be so far removed from who you are – it can be hard to go to those places you need to go to in order to make the work compelling and believable.

It’s undoubtedly a challenge, but it isn’t one we should shy away from. Unpicking the ‘why’ of crime thrillers is one of the great things about the genre; as readers, we don’t just want to know what and who and how, we also want to know why things happen. Why did that guy kill that guy? What happened to make that character the victim and that one the criminal? Are they really all they seem?

There is no end of potential material for novels that deal with questions such as this, and while it can be difficult, as crime writers we have one big advantage when it comes to answering questions about why and what makes someone become a criminal: morality.

With any luck, as a crime writer, you’ll be coming from the point of view of a good, upstanding citizen with a fairly settled, good view of what’s right and what’s wrong. This dichotomy of right and wrong is one of the key drama points in crime novels, and our own views of things can be a great way to examine the actions of characters, making them believable and interesting to read about.

Of course, there is far more to plotting fantastic crime fiction that just ‘who we are’, but it seems to me that this as good a place as any to start. But what do you think?