Through the course of my current degree I was focused on writing crime. This is because I love reading and watching crime. I have a number of crime writers that I adore.
I probably first discovered crime fiction as a teenager in Secondary/High school. I’m pretty sure my friend told me about a book she read by James Patterson called Jack & Jill. She lent it to me and I was hooked. So I read a number of James Pattersons Alex Cross novels.
The great thing about good crime fiction is that it’s almost always turned into a Movie or TV series at some point. I remember reading The Sculptress by Minette Walters a couple of years ago because as a child – probably aged 10 or 11, I watched The Sculptress ITV adaptation. Being so young and unfocused on TV I didn’t quite grasp the storyline. Especially because I think it was one of those 3 part dramas. However I always remembered the name of the show.
I always loved crime shows. I remember that I used to watch CSI New York and CSI Miami on my tiny bedroom TV. I loved Mac and Horatio. I used to watch The Bill when I was younger too and my interest in crime has always run deep.
I think I’d be a great detective. I have good instincts about the criminals. When I watched these TV shows I’d always offer a suggestion on who the killer was but not always why they were the killer.
As an adult, Crime Fiction is my first go to for books and when I find an author whose book I love, I then pretty much read whatever I can get my hands on by them. I especially love recurring characters. It started with James Patterson and his Alex Cross series. I’ve also read quite a few of Agatha Christies Miss Marple, I also adore Angela Marsons DI Kim Stone series. Currently I’m binging Cathy Reichs Temperance Brennan novels. You may recognise Temperance Brennan from the TV show Bones.
This is exactly why I wanted to write a few chapters which would hopefully lead to a crime book for my assignment for Genre Fiction at university. Unfortunately or fortunately – I can’t decide, but a few weeks ago I had a lecture regarding science fiction. Sci-fi is something I’ve never been very interested in. However, my tutor set us a task where we had to write/discuss something that was very close to our heart but integrate it into one of the many facets of Sci-fi.
I picked an issue which is very important to me and surprisingly I managed to turn it into a full plot and used my imagination to get it out there. As a result, I decided to write about the issue and integrated it into the contemporary Sci-fi genre. I began writing and did around 2000 of a 6000 word count. I then had my tutor read it and offer me any suggestions he may have had. I got great feedback and was pretty ecstatic at his comments.
In the afternoon that same day. A couple of hours after the feedback, we had a Guest Lecture with Nick Walker who is a TV crime writer. This was a Contemporary Crime lecture and just before the lecture I spoke to my brother who is my best friend. I told him I had a feeling that this lecture was going to sway me back to writing crime… I was right. The lecture was absolutely excellent 👌🏽
I asked Nick some questions and I guess maybe 20 minutes into the lecture I had decided that I was going to write crime fiction. I think it was evident to my fellow students that I had been turned. The lecture was excellent and very informative. There was loads to unpick and it was a little overwhelming at some points but it reinforced my need to write crime fiction. I guess this is the story of how a lecture actually caused me to change my mind when I was so set on something prior to it.
