Crime Vault Live – Podcast

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crime-vault-live/id1036177474

Are you interested in crime fiction? Then search for The Crime Vault Live and download the podcasts. Mark Billingham and Michael Carlson are hosts and in the last two editions they have interviewed Val McDermid and Ian Rankin. It’s good to hear the writers themselves, because it can give you the courage to reflect on advice confidently. One major thought of mine is that writing must have interesting characters and a compelling plot, but within the story, beneath its surface, you should be stealth-bombing your reader with moral dilemmas. Both Val McDermid and Ian Rankin clearly declare their writing has a purpose beyond mere entertainment.

In a draft of my story Missing Targets I added physical descriptions for some characters – descriptions that I really thought were irrelevant. It was heartening to hear Ian Rankin say he has never described Rebus because he is looking out at the world from through the eyes of Rebus – he is not looking back at Rebus with the eyes of the world. I describe physical appearance when it supports the story, but I think, as a writer, you do that when it serves your story naturally and leave it out if it doesn’t. Trust your reader’s imagination.