Creating the PERFECT CRIME
The basic building blocks of crime fiction, explained by creative writing tutor Henry Sutton, aka author Harry Brett
Henry Sutton, Harry Brett
Plot
There is an often misquoted line from F Scott Fitzgerald that goes: ‘Plot is character and character is plot.’ What Fitzgerald actually said is: ‘Plot is character in action.’ It’s worth thinking about this if you want your novel to move with pace, determination and energy. Who controls the plot? What is plot? This is another often misunderstood concept. Plot is not an event. It is why an event might happen and what impact that event has on a character or characters. EM Forster was very good on this. John Le Carré wasn’t bad either. He came up with the definition: ‘The cat sat on the mat,’ is not the beginning of a plot, but ‘the cat sat on the dog’s mat is.’ There is an equation I use, borrowed from a Russian Formalist, which runs: Story + Conflict = Plot. What is conflict? Can be internal or external. It might or might not be an inciting incident. The easiest way of thinking about this is by having a character want something and then contemplate what might be in that person’s way.
Character
As Kurt Vonnegut said: ‘Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.’ But if that character wants a glass of water, make them very thirsty indeed. Characters drive novels – some very quickly, some achingly slowly. Crime novels have to have pace, and purpose. A chase needs a point, which comes down to conflict. Where is someone running to? Why is someone running away? Why is someone coming after you? The more motivation you can give a character, and thus a situation, the more a reader will sit up. But don’t get too hooked up on too many characters’ dilemmas. Point of view comes into this. Keep it tight. How many characters’ perspectives do you want to have? Commonly, first or third person subjective? And do we care enough about their problems, either as victims or perpetrators, or witnesses? Give us something by which we’ll identify with and remember them by. That something could very well be the one thing they want very, very badly – which brings us back to plot.