Whether you’re a budding author or a seasoned pro, Crafting Crime Fiction by Henry Sutton is your key to creating tales that will leave readers on the edge of their seats! Henry Sutton unmasks some of the secrets to creating the perfect crime fiction story in our exclusive author interview.
Your book is a comprehensive guide to writing crime fiction. What inspired you to write this guide?
Iâve been teaching crime fiction for many years, along with creative writing. Iâve been writing crime fiction for years too â seeing what I could do with the various sub-genres and indeed pushing those parameters. Iâve been a literary critic as well, and have been extremely fortunate to interview many of the worldâs leading fiction and crime fiction writers. I really felt all this experience and resource, all this practice might be off use to others. I love teaching, as well as crime fiction, and I wanted to try to inspire and enthuse others about this extraordinarily wonderful genre. Itâs not always easy writing on your own, and I wanted this book to be a helpful companion, as well as an entertaining read.
What do you believe sets apart a gripping crime fiction story from others?
Pace and fluency. And craftsmanship. Or if you like, exceptional practical understanding and application. Then there are other factors, principally character, followed by plot. But for many â and the book talks about this at length â character and plot are much the same thing. I always consider two concepts when writing, and indeed teaching: pace and purpose; menace and motivation.
In the realm of crime fiction, plotting is paramount. What advice can you offer aspiring writers about crafting a compelling plot?
So, aside from my answer to the above question, I think itâs vital to have a really good idea of the story before you begin. Key to this is motivation, and from strong motivation comes momentum (or pace). Again, motivation is bound up with character, which is intertwined with plot. I donât think super complicated âplotsâ, with endless twists and turns and red herrings, are necessarily that compelling. As readers, invariably we follow and connect with character most strongly. Many crime novels have what I call subsidiary plots â the tricksy stuff where things happen, or donât, and which can fool and mislead readers in seemingly very clever ways. But this stuff, while often being intrinsic to a type of crime novel, is not always the most memorable. We remember the people, the characters, then perhaps the setting.
Could you share a quick tip for maintaining suspense throughout a crime fiction narrative?
This comes courtesy of Lee Child. Ask a question and delay the answer. As you build your novel, ask smaller questions under the umbrella, or umbrellas of the larger questions. Make these questions, or dilemmas, vital, life-threatening. The skill then is to answer them before your reader loses patience, or feels they are being overly manipulated. Mystery works in much the same way, but is not necessarily bound up with menace, jeopardy, fear, risk.
What piece of advice would you give to someone who is thinking about writing their first crime novel?
Plan as much as you can. Resist the urge to begin, until you feel you know enough. Crime writing is not about writing for yourself, itâs not automatic writing as you try to find a voice, a theme. Itâs about story, about engaging and entertaining the reader. Sure, it can be highly insightful, shocking, revelatory, political, structurally innovative. But itâs about planning, control, ultimately knowing what you want to say, how you want to say it, and, conceivably, who you want to say it to.
Can you share your top five favourite crime fiction authors of all time?
I can give you 10 for now (but could easily add another 10, 20 . . .):
- Raymond Chandler
- Patricia Highsmith
- Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
- Chester Himes
- Elmore Leonard
- Megan Abbott
- Gillian Flynn
- Denise Mina
- Attica Locke
- S A Cosby
