Fundamentals of fiction and experiments in style

These two workshop-based modules encourage you to explore and develop your skills in the key elements of novel writing:

• working practice - ensuring your novel gets written
• research - all novels benefit from context and reality, especially crime writing, which places a high demand on credibility
• structure and plot - arguably the most important (and most often forgotten) element
• description - when is it useful, when does it get in the way?
• creation of narrative momentum - you have to make the reader turn the page
• characterisation - story is crucial but you can't tell a story without character
• dialogue - some people find it easy, some find it tricky, everyone needs it, and it's absolutely crucial for crime thriller fiction
• thinking - to make sure you write the right novel for you  you will practise responding critically to your own and other students' writing
• suspense is a key component of crime thriller fiction and techniques and devices for enhancing this will be fully explored.