Crime - Truth and Fiction Exercise

My favourite crime show!

My writing centre (QWC) and the talented Meg Vann hosted another amazing writer's workshop - Research for Crime Fiction. This one was made even more special by the setting - The Queensland Police Headquarters, which hosts the Qld Police Museum. What a perfect place to study crime research!

All writers went along with a brief outline of the crime novel they would like to work on. My crime fiction is Warracknabeal Kids: 

In the summer of 1939, a freak fire tore through the Warracknabeal Racetrack, destroying the decrepit clubhouse, but nothing else. This was suspicious enough, as the insurance payout would fund a much needed rebuild. When the town scallywag, 13yr old Harry Conner, finds a dead body in the burnt-out ruins, there's no doubt this is foul play. But the body disappears and no one believes him, not even his father, the local sergeant. Harry is on his own solving this case and he's wondering if it has anything to do with his own mother's disappearance two years ago. Perhaps his father knows more than he's saying. Meanwhile, across Victoria, the state is experiencing the worst bush fires it has ever seen.

My story was inspired by learning the clubhouse really did burn down in 1939 and the circumstances were suspicious (locals said the insurance payout was the most luck that track had ever seen). I decided to add a body and a town full of quirky characters. Real life provides plenty of prompts for murder mysteries, just watch the news or read the papers. But if a real crime inspires you, how can you go about using it for a novel without offending people involved?

One exercise we tried was to mix up events, characters and locations from different eras and crimes. We walked around the Police Museum taking note of the crimes and artifacts that interested us. This is something you could try using online resources for your news articles. Here's the steps we took and my responses:

1. Choose one person (victim, investigator, witness, etc) and record three details about that person: Eileen O'Donnell was one of the first women officers in Queensland, joining the force in 1931. She was good at catching bag snatchers. Women could not make arrests, but mostly did typing or chaperoning male officers when they arrested young women.
2. Choose one setting and record three details (from a different source): A vet surgery was the setting for Brisbane's notorious cat-lady murder. Found inside was the body and blood samples from two people, one belonging to the victim. Smell of ammonia and cat urine. Smooth linoleum floors. Very violent struggle.
3. Choose one incident/event: 1977 string of rapes and murders. Victim found in apartment by boyfriend. He had been at night classes at local TAFE before discovering the body.

The next step is to change any names (people and locations) and mix the elements together for a story idea. This is what I came up with:

   'Step back love, don't want to taint the crime scene.' Officer Robert Hacker put an arm out in front of officer Joyce Malloy, as if protecting her from stepping into traffic. 

   He'd already warned her several times on the way to this scene that it might be brutal and she could wait in the car if her stomach wasn't up to it.

   Joyce let out a 'humph' and stepped around Hacker's arm. She'd been on the force since 31. Her and Louise the first women officers in Queensland. Five years. Hacker had not yet served six months and he was giving her orders. 

   In her time on the force she'd seen robberies, assaults, wife-beatings, but, as she peered into the doorway of the veterinarian's office, she acknowledged she'd never seen anything this bad. Through the stench of feces and urine wafted ammonia, and in crates cats howled for release.

   Joyce stepped over the dead woman's extended arm, taking care not to tread in the glossy dark blood spread across the otherwise dull linoleum. 

   Another one dead. Women in men's professions. This one a vet, the last a lawyer. The knife used to rip the life from the deceased left by the body, just as the report had said about the previous victim.

   'Woah, you're a bit keen there Joyce.' Robert stomped in and for a moment almost lost his balance, slipping in the menacing fluid.

   He looked down, up at Joyce, back down, then threw up over the body.

Think you'll give this a try? It's a worthwhile exercise, you never know what you'll end up with!

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Setting Rules Story

Snoopy's world was limited in space, but imagination meant anything could happen!
Click on the picture if you want to get this as a wallpaper

Setting is often a key element in our story. Sometimes it can even be a character in the story like the big old house in Tim Winton's Cloudstreet. But often new writers overlook this and just have the setting as somewhere for stuff to take place.

I have an exercise I do with students when I run creative writing workshops for kids, it helps them to understand how setting can affect our story. I thought I'd share it with you now. Try this exercise with the setting to your WIP, but first use a few of the random ones suggested here as a warm up. We did this exercise in my writing group today and there were some interesting writing prompts from it.

If you're in a group, write these settings down on scraps of paper (add some of your own if you like) and disperse randomly. Otherwise, pick out two or three to work with.

Possible Settings:

• Pirate ship
• Prison
• Australian bush
• Homeless gathering
• Skyscraper
• High school
• Space
• Fantasy land
• Ski lodge
• Police station

Now you simply write two lists. 

One list is for plot ideas or motivations that can be generated from this setting, e.g. in a Prison, escape, trying to stay good for parole, guard might on their last day because they're quitting for a safer security job, governor or head of the prison might be trying to meet budget cuts or there could be an alien invasion on earth and the prison is the safest place from land attacks. 

The second list is all the threats that setting presents. In the Prison it could be knifing, drugs, vicious guards, attack dogs, lockdown and left without food in your cell (as all the guards have been killed off by the aliens), riots, lack of empathy from outside community, or losing your sanity.

Once you have a few lists, pick a plot idea and at least one threat then write for 10-15 minutes and see what you come up with, you might find yourself with a decent piece of flash fiction or the start of something bigger!

Now you've warmed up properly, pull out your own setting and see if you can find more threats or possibilities that could strengthen your WIP.

I'm currently working on a story where the little sister of Isis is resurrected in New York City 5,000 years later. So my setting is split between Ancient Egypt and New York City. Here's my list for Ancient Egypt:

Plot ideas

• Mummification
• Prophecies
• Secrets and plots
• Gods
• Superstitions and religion
• Afterlife
• Amulets and protection magic
• Came race

Dangers

• Mummified alive
• Cobras
• Assassins
• Rabid Camel
• Crocodiles
• Heat, sun exposure
• Dehydration
• Floods (The area by the Nile was not a desert but quite lush back then)
• Evil Gods
• Sacrifice
• Sentenced to death

If you try it out I'd love to see some of your suggestions for plot ideas or dangers for setting.

This post is part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group, challenges are posted once a month, you can sign up to join in here (or click on the picture). Now there's a few hundred participants, so it'll take me a while to get around to everyone, but I'll certainly try before the next challenge!

Realised, I should mention my writing insecurity! Mine is when I've finished that first draft and got all the plot details down, I won't be able to figure out that magic ingredient that adds life and pop to the book, it'll end up a bit bleh. What I do about it is exercises like this one to strengthen different elements of the story.

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6 Reasons to Try Writing Exercises

When you have a manuscript you're working on, it can be easy to assume writing exercises will just take away valuable time from that WIP. Why waste a thousand words on random things when you really need to get that scene down with the alligator and the microwave?

There's lots of reasons to try writing exercises:

1. Perfect one aspect of your writing. Especially when you are starting out, you can separate each learning tool and perfect it until you move on. This mastering method works well with school children and can be good for us too. For example, dialogue was something I struggled with at first and so I didn't have a lot in my work. I've done so many workshops on it now that I feel a lot more confident (but still find new ways to tighten it!).
2. Free your mind up to explore new ideas for your WIP. Writers are usually not short of ideas, because we a strong on the imagination side, but sometimes weak on the structure jobs. Ideas are great but they can be a big jumbled mess. By trying different exercises you can clarify those ideas and develop a complete plot (or maybe come up with a great sub-plot for your WIP). Free writing is  a good one for this, or clustering.
3. Find out the true motivation of your characters (they're sneaky, sometimes they lie to you at first). We have our story idea, we know what happens, but sometimes there are parts where our characters perform a necessary act for the story, but lack an appropriate motivation. By trying exercises and using your character in them, you can get a feel for why they do the things they do, and again might come up with more material for your WIP.
4. Give yourself a break from your WIP. It can get draining working on the same thing, especially if your piece is something that requires a lot of research or hits an emotional nerve. If you're writing about a tragedy, you might just need to try a short comic piece to pull you through the slump.
5. Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Try a different genre or writing style. I've taken courses on genres I don't write. I even signed up for a class to write sizzling sex scenes - and I never use those. It doesn't matter, it helps me see things from a different angle (which could be quite disturbing in a sex scene). I freely admit I suck at romance. So what if I never write a romance novel? Some of my characters are teens and romance is still an important element. I intend to try and learn more about that genre to help me in my genre.
6. Connect with other writers. Blog challenges are a great way to try something new and see how different writers approach the same prompt. Why not sign up to try a Haiku or flash fiction? There's always plenty of exercises online to try.

So wether you sign up for a class, try a blog challenge, read a book on writing exercises or just sit down to write in your journal, it all helps, nothing is wasted. Today, I'm having a go at romance! Want to have a go? Go sign up at Romantic Friday Writers here's the prompt:

And here is my piece:

The Tune of Love

Country ballads? He shrugs. What about Kenny Rogers? He picks biscuit crumbs from his polo shirt.

  Sinatra, or Elvis, older Elvis? His only reaction a cringe.

  Meatloaf then? Demis bloody Roussos? His figure leans forward, but only to reach the remote. 

  His CD collection gives her no clue. An almost random compilation of artists, common only by the fact that they are all gifts. Each one revealing something about the giver but not the receiver.  She remembers crying and yearning to so many different ballads over the years. Has he never felt that passion?

  She accuses him of not liking love songs. He answers that he doesn't not like them. She thinks he never really wanted to get married, he just didn't not want to. Maybe he just doesn't not love her. She puts this to him, but he doesn't react. She suddenly realises, after all these years, she can't remember seeing him cry or yell or belt out a really hearty laugh. 

  She asks if he likes any songs from The Carpenters. This is a trick. He says he doesn't know. She reminds him that he sang Close to You on their first date. It was as a joke, but it should still matter. He is quiet and she thinks he won't remember ever loving her. She gasps when he jumps out of his chair and yells, "Yes!"

  He dances her around the living room, lifting her feet from the ground and kisses her forehead many times. She smiles. She is loved. Elation as she leaves the room, he is hers. Close to You will be their song.

  He sits back down deep into the sofa, still grinning as he watches the horse he backed in a trifecta being led to the winner's circle.

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