Writing Crime, Mystery and Thriller Novels

We are really looking forward to welcoming you to ‘Writing Crime, Mystery & Thriller Novels’. Over six weeks, you'll work with writer Angela Clarke to take your crime writing to the next level.

Dream of writing the next unputdownable crime thriller? This six-week course is your opportunity to transform that dream into reality. Whether you're a complete beginner with the spark of an idea or already wrestling with a first draft, bestselling and critically acclaimed crime novelist Angela Clarke will guide you through developing compelling plots, creating unforgettable characters, and mastering the tension and pacing that defines the genre. You'll learn what today's agents and publishers are looking for, receive expert feedback on your work, and join a supportive community of fellow crime writers—all while making real, tangible progress on your idea and manuscript. This course welcomes writers at every stage who are ready to elevate their story and take their crime writing to the next level.

This course includes:

• A six week course with five online sessions and one dedicated writing week. Each online session is 1.5 hours in length, for a maximum of 20 students.
• Practical workshops with takeaway exercises to be applied to your own work to prepare for the next session
• A private Slack online forum, to share discussion and writing with your fellow writers attendees throughout the course
• A copy of the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook 2026
• A copy of Gone Girl
• Recordings of each session which you'll have access to throughout the course and for two weeks beyond it, so you can catch up with any sessions you miss 

COURSE OUTLINE

Prep: Come with an idea – or a couple of ideas - for a novel you’re ready to share with the group. Encapsulate each idea in no more than two to four sentences.  

Week 1. A Cracking Start: Genre, Idea, & What If’s?

How do you know if an idea has legs? How do you take an idea and develop it into a story that others will want to read? Or publish? Do you have all the ingredients of a winning crime, mystery or thriller novel? Angela will answer these questions and more, covering genre expectations, the fundamental elements of story, and the promise of the premise. This first session will contain actionable steps to help you both stress-test your idea, and develop it into a strong story that will both run the length of a traditional novel and appeal to readers. You’ll be amazed at how far we can move even the most tentative idea within 90minutes! Attendees will share their ideas with the group, and get immediate feedback from Angela and fellow students. 

Homework: Write a short scene where your lead character wants something (150 – 800 words). 

Week 2. Main Character Energy: Character & Dialogue

Who’s your protagonist? Why them? What are they going to do now?! During our second session Angela will look at how to craft memorable characters, avoid tropes and cliches, and give you tips, tricks and tools to make your characters sound like real people on the page. You’ll complete in-class exercises which will elevate your character and dialogue skills (building on the scene you wrote for your homework). By the end of week two, you’ll know how to write compelling characters readers root for, and who drive the action and your story on. Your protagonist’s in the driving seat: strap in!

Homework: Read (or watch the film adaptation of) Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. 

Week 3. Hook Them In: Plot & Structure

Welcome to the attention economy – can story math help you write a banging book?! Week three will pull the curtain back on plot and structure. We’ll touch on Three Act Structure, Five Act Structure, and a number of models in-between. What are emotional, and story beats? How are these rhythms recognisable within existing stories? How can you use them in your own writing? Do all published writers plan and write according to structural beats? Why, how, and where should you include cliffhangers, reveals, and twists? How can story structure help us both write, develop, and edit our own novels? Prepare to never read a novel or watch a film in the same way again: you’re going to love it. And it’s going to transform your own novel.  

Week 4. The Write Stuff: Writing Week 

Instead of having class this week, you’ll have the chance to write your 1,500 word submission for next week. This is the moment to take all we’ve covered, and to craft or edit as much as you can. You’ll be submitting your writing for feedback from both Angela and your classmates.

Homework: Submit your 1,500 word (max) extract in advance. And read and be ready to share constructive feedback on your fellow writers’ submissions in Week Five. 

Week 5. Level Up: Workshop & Keeping Going

Angela will give feedback on your 1,500 submission within group, so we can all learn from the exercise. We’ll discuss accomplishments – what everyone loved - and how to improve. It may feel scary at first thinking about sharing your work, but this will be a safe, constructive space within which to gain confidence in receiving editorial input and developing your work from there: a vital skillset for any professional writer. Week Five’s Workshop is a real chance to see how much you’ve evolved as a writer over the last few weeks, and make a plan for the future. We’ll discuss any challenges or concerns you may have, how to continue, how to develop writing schedules, and how to finish your novel! 

Homework: Thinking back over everything we’ve learned, please write a title, specific genre, and a logline for your novel. Please also think of two comparison titles for your book.  

Week Six. In It To Win It: Submission Guidelines & Reaching Readers

Angela will share insights into how the publishing industry works, and how best to give yourself and your manuscript the best shot at success. She’ll give clear guidance for what to include to maximise your submission package - including slush pile tips, hooky opening chapters, how to write the dreaded synopsis, and just what – and what not - to include in your accompanying letter/email. Covering both tradition and self-publishing routes, Angela will explode myths around gatekeepers, dealbreakers, and what it takes to be a working writer today.

During the session you’ll have the opportunity to share your title, genre, logline and comparison titles with Angela and the group to receive immediate feedback, and rounds of applause! You’re well on your way to having your own page-turner.  

BONUS ONE-TO-ONE SESSION

Added extra available for £50: Submit up to 2,000 words of your original novel (a one-page synopsis can be included), and receive a 20min private feedback session with Angela (a recording of the zoom conversation can be provided after for your notes). 

The key details of the course are below, as well as the link you’ll need to join each session. 

When: Tuesday 3rd February - Tuesday 10th March, 7:00pm-8:30pm, Online (UK Time)

Where: Online

Joining Link: Writing Crime, Mystery and Thriller Novels | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams

PREP

Come with an idea – or a couple of ideas - for a novel you’re ready to share with the group. Encapsulate each idea in no more than two to four sentences.

SLACK

We will be using Slack during the course, which is a free, easy-to-use platform that enables everything related to the course to be stored in one place. Please click on the below link to gain access to the Slack workspace that we’ve created for this course:

https://join.slack.com/t/writingcrimem-9na2258/shared_invite/zt-3oc75tnhc-myPmdGIP4cOcNEc_daxMxA 

When you arrive in Slack you’ll see the workspace is called ‘Writing Crime, Mystery & Thriller’, with several channels within that workspace. A quick bit of guidance on how these different channels will work:

• Course Etiquette: We’ve put together some course etiquette guidelines. Please have a read and comment to confirm that you’ve seen them.
• General: This is a general discussion board. We will all have access but it’s mainly a space for you guys to chat amongst yourselves, discuss, share advice and book recommendations! A great way to start would be to introduce yourselves, share info about your writing journey so far and let the rest of the group know what you’re working on and why you’re here.
• Writing Crime, Mystery & Thriller: We will be sharing the homework, recordings and pre-session videos in here each week.

Everyone involved in the course will have access to all channels by default. It’s therefore important to make Slack work for you, so please take a bit of time to manage your notifications. You can do this by right-clicking on the channel and then selecting ‘Change notifications’.

Myself and James will also be available via email so if you’d prefer to reach out to us via email then please do get in touch.

Finally, as part of your course fee you receive a complimentary copy of the Writers & Artists Yearbook, which is full of advice articles, and agent and publisher listings. Plus we’ll also send you a second hand copy of ‘Gone Girl’ which you’ll be reading and discussing the course. Please do send us your address by 26th February when you can so we can get that in the post to you!