Writing crime fiction is really difficult

Behind-the-scenes of writing a weekly serial

Since 2016 I’ve worked in various capacities on the Noirwich Crime Writing Festival. Yes, that’s Noirwich. Because it’s a crime fiction festival that takes place in Norwich.

No, it’s not a typo. Don’t be that guy.

Each time the festival rolled around I had a growing urge to try my hand at crime writing, which I finally indulged earlier in 2021 when I started planning what would become Tales from the Triverse. Because I’m me, it of course turned into a genre mash-up, building science fiction and fantasy elements around a police procedural framework.

SF I can do. Fantasy I’ve done. I feel confident working in both those arenas. Crime fiction has proved to be harder than I’d anticipated and I now have even more respect for the authors I’ve met during Noirwich. In today’s newsletter I want to get into some of the thornier challenges I’ve encountered while writing Triverse, as well as the ways through and around them.