Antony Johnston is the New York Times bestselling author and creator of Atomic Blonde. He also writes both the Dog Sitter Detective mysteries and the Brigitte Sharp thrillers. A former vice chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, for more than twenty years he’s written books, graphic novels, non-fiction, videogames, and screenplays. Much of it has been done with a snoozing hound curled up in his study.

Antony says, 'In the past I’ve written Marvel superhero comics, chart-topping horror videogames, and cyber-spy thriller novels. But currently I’m focused on my new cosy crime series, The Dog Sitter Detective, starring a retired actress who takes up dog sitting and keeps stumbling across murders…! If you want to know how I fit all this in, I also wrote a productivity guide for authors called The Organised Writer.'

Antony's Tip:
We all struggle with distraction while writing. While some can resist the internet’s siren call for a few hours, many of us find that once we’ve gone online, it’s difficult to get back into focusing on our work. Our heads fill up thinking about emails, tweets, and Facebook posts we’ve seen, what we think about them and how we’re going to reply.
If that sounds like you, my recommendation is simple: don’t go online until you’ve finished writing for the day.
Even if that means you don’t check your email until very late, or you don’t look at Twitter until the evening, it’s worth it. Humans are social, conversational creatures – which means that once we’ve read something that expects a reply, we often can’t settle down until we’ve got it out of our system.
So many writers feel they should ‘deal with their email’ before writing, which sounds fine in theory, but in practice can be a disaster. It’s all too easy to think, ‘I’ll just send this reply first, and then I’ll start writing’… only to look up several hours later and realise you still haven’t cleared out your inbox, but now you’ve run out of time and it’s too late in the day to get any real work done.

Instead, try this. Wake up; deal with family/life obligations; then begin to write with a ‘clean mind’, free of intrusive mental pollution from the real world.
It’s easier said than done, I know. It takes willpower, and discipline. But I’ve been working this way for more than fifteen years, and I can tell you it definitely works. I wrote The Dog Sitter Detective during the first Covid lockdown, which was a time when I really didn’t feel like writing anything at all. But using the ‘clean mind’ method I was able to get the first novel in a brand new series finished in just a few months.
So why not give it a try?

​The Dog Sitter Detective is out now. If you want to learn more about Antony’s process, check out his author’s productivity guide The Organised Writer.

The Dog Sitter Detective: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0749029943/
The Organised Writer: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472977181/

You can learn more about The Dogsitter Detective at https://dogsitterdetective.com. Or follow him on social media, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Today's #TuesdayTip is another writing exercise/writers' block buster and we return to the favourite topic of Point of View (for other exercises involving POV try #TuesdayTips 110 132 137 ).
For this exercise, we're going to try and rewrite a scene from a novel in a different POV to the one that author originally used.
Pick a book that you are familiar with and choose a scene that you like.
First of all, which 'Person' has the author chosen to write the scene in?
First Person: The reader is the narrator.
I did this. I thought this. I said that.
Second Person: The narrator is describing what the reader is doing.
You did this. You thought this. You said that.
Third Person: The narrator is 'omnipotent'. They are describing what the character - or characters - are doing.
Kevin did this. Claire thought this. Sam said that.
Now try and rewrite the scene in a different person.
Tip:
1st to 3rd person is probably the easiest.
3rd to 1st person will require you to choose which character to narrate (assuming the scene has more than one) and you'll need to decide what to keep from the original narration and what to cut (or add).
If you want a real challenge, try changing to 2nd person.
Remember the rules:

• Set yourself a time limit.
• Write without stopping, editing or overthinking.
• Write whatever comes to mind and don't worry if it doesn't make sense.
• It doesn't matter if it has nothing to do with the scene that you are stuck on.

If you are a writer with a tip to share, or fancy writing a fictional interview between you and one of your characters, please feel free to email me.
Until next time,
Paul.

With a bumper crop of bank holiday's coming up, you have a choice to make: Mow the lawn or sit on your bum and binge-watch boxsets (not during the coronation, obviously, that would probably be treason). Assuming you choose the latter, this week's #TuesdayTip is another TV recommendation.
In Tip129 I reviewed the fantastic 24 Hours in Police Custody. Channel 4's incredible documentary series that follows the investigation of a major crime from the 999 call to the outcome of the court case.
Night Coppers looks at the other side of policing. This time, Channel 4 are following the uniformed response officers who are policing Brighton's nightlife. Unlike 24 Hours in Police Custody, this isn't about investigative techniques. It won't directly help you craft your detectives. However, policing is a collaborative effort and all detectives came originally from the street, so it's important not to neglect or dismiss your non-detective characters as faceless 'uniformed officers'.


The series largely showcases the challenges of policing drunks in a city renowned for its nightlife (my wife and I refer to it as 'Brighton's Biggest Bell-ends', given some of the idiots that these poor officers find themselves dealing with). However they also get called out to crimes in progress, and are the first on scene at serious incidents that may require detectives at a later date.
For me, the show is full of little nuggets of detail. From the way the officers address each other and chat, to the equipment they have on their belts and the strategies they deploy to de-escalate a situation and hopefully avoid the need to arrest. The show can be extremely funny at times, with some of the officers genuinely witty. Other times we see the grind of the job and the toll of years of chronic under-investment by the government, not only in the police, but other key services.
They say that the police are the service that 'can't say no'. The officers find themselves dealing with the fallout from a failing mental health service and the people they meet are a mixture of the mad, the bad and sometimes just sad.
It's well worth a watch.
Select episodes are available for streaming on the All4 service from Channel 4.
Visit https://www.channel4.com/programmes/night-coppers for details.
What do you think? Do you have any recommendations for shows that are worth watching for crime writers?
As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
If you are a writer with a tip to share, or fancy writing a fictional interview between you and one of your characters, please feel free to email me.
Until next time,
Paul 

Today's #TuesdayTip is another writing exercise/writers' block buster.
This is just a quickie you can do to get warmed up before starting for the day.
Describe a person you know really well. Physically, temperamentally, character traits etc.
Now describe their opposite. Try and be creative. Go beyond if they are short, make them tall, skinny, make them fat. Try and think about how they might be emotionally different. How would they react to an event compared to the person you know really well?
If you have a bit more time and fancy a stretch, write a conversation between the original character and your new creation.
Remember the rules:

• Set yourself a time limit.
• Write without stopping, editing or overthinking.
• Write whatever comes to mind and don't worry if it doesn't make sense.
• It doesn't matter if it has nothing to do with the scene that you are stuck on.

If you are a writer with a tip to share, or fancy writing a fictional interview between you and one of your characters, please feel free to email me.
Until next time,
All the best.
​Paul

For the last couple of weeks, I have spent longer than I should hanging around on Star Trek Facebook forums. A couple of topics for discussion got me thinking about how a strong ensemble cast can make all the difference between a successful show and one that doesn't quite work. The same is true for a novel, especially if your book is centred around a team, which a lot of police procedurals are.
First of all, I'm not talking about how good the actors are. Rather, I'm looking at it from the storyteller's perspective. In previous posts, I've spoken about character development, especially the need for rounded characters with a broad range of traits. This is even more important for an ensemble, where different characters can take on different traits and roles. In a good ensemble cast, none of the characters are superfluous. Their importance to a particular story may vary, but they bring an essential component, such as a skill or a perspective, that the storytellers would struggle without
Star Trek has always been at its best when the ensemble is balanced.
Using the original Star Trek as an a example:
At the centre is the 'triumvirate' - Kirk, Spock and Dr McCoy. These three characters bring contrasting and complementary character traits that allow for a broad range of stories to be told.
Spock is cerebral and logical with a cool head. He can think through situations without allowing emotion to cloud his judgement.
McCoy is emotional, and wears his heart on his sleeve. He is incredibly intelligent but often prefers to go with his gut than his head. He and Spock are two sides of the same coin.
Captain Kirk balances the other two men. As Captain, he weighs up what others have to say and makes a decision. He brings a physicality and willingness to accept risk.
Between them, these three men have sufficient character traits to tell a broad range of stories. Importantly, you need all three of these characters to exist if you want to keep on telling new stories that don't get predictable. If Spock wasn't there, Kirk and McCoy could be goaded into doing what feels right at that moment and missing some subtle clue. If McCoy is absent, Spock would tend towards ruthless logic, perhaps persuading Kirk to strictly follow the rules, rather than bend them to achieve a compromise that means everyone wins. In the absence of Kirk as mediator, Spock and McCoy would argue endlessly about the best course of action and no decisions would be made.
This doesn't mean they have to be in all stories - in fact, some of the most interesting episodes involve one of these three being temporarily unavailable. In that case, we see how the others struggle without the traits of that character. However, long-term, all three of these characters need to exist for the series to work. A car can limp on for a short while with one of its wheels missing, but pretty soon it is too badly impaired to continue. Ensemble casts are the same.
Who does what in an ensemble can change.
The catalyst for these thoughts came from a different star trek series, ST Discovery. Someone started a discussion about one of the characters, Ensign Tilly. Some posters like her, others want to see the back of her. However, I argue that Tilly is an integral part of the ensemble cast. She starts as the most inexperienced of the main cast, and thus she acts as a bit of an audience substitute, explaining everything for those of us at home. She also brought an infectious enthusiasm and loyalty, and an endearing naivety. She was also willing to admit to being terrified on occasion (something earlier Star Trek series tended not to show). Over the course of the four seasons to date, she has evolved into a more confident and mature character. Which means that some of those original qualities have had to be redistributed to a degree between other characters, both new and existing, to maintain that breadth of character traits.
Not all members of an ensemble have to be likeable.
And now I continue to my favourite of the Star Trek series, The Next Generation, and its most recent incarnation, Star Trek Picard. Without giving too many spoilers away, ST Picard is set two decades after the Next Generation cast (always a strong ensemble) finished their run on TV and the big screen. This third and final season delivers what all us fans have desperately been waiting for - the reunion of the beloved original cast. However, this ensemble is joined by other characters; some previously established in other trek series (eg Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager), some unique to ST: Picard (eg Raffi) and others invented just for this season.
The biggest marmite character of the lot is Captain Liam Shaw, commander of the USS Titan, the ship on which much of the 3rd season adventures take place.
Abrasive, rude and sarcastic, some viewers really dislike him and would rather see the back of him. I can't disagree more strongly. Shaw is a stroke of genius. The Next Generation crew are shipmates with 35 years of shared history. They may disagree sometimes, but they are bonded and love each other deeply (off-screen as well, apparently). Many of the rough edges that caused narrative friction during the TV series have been smoothed away. Shaw is the grit in the oyster that leads to the pearl. Without his contrariness, the reunion of the Next Gen cast would be too comfortable. The story would plod along and we'd enjoy it, but it wouldn't be the magnificent spectacle that is currently showing. Time and evolution have sanded down some of the contrasting character traits from the TV series and so Shaw and other characters add those traits back to the ensemble.
So what does all this mean for your stories?
Essentially, I am suggesting that you should craft your ensemble of characters the way you craft an individual. Who is the character that the audience relate to? Who is the audience's 'explainer'? Is there a character who brings optimism to situations? Are they balanced by someone who is pessimistic (and can you flip these characters for an unexpected emotional punch?). Who brings the heart, who brings the intellect?
What happens if the ensemble becomes unbalanced temporarily by the absence of a character?
If characters leave permanently or join how do you compensate? Do you redistribute character traits, or balance it by making other changes to the cast?


What do you think about ensembles? What character traits do you think are essential for a strong and versatile cast - what traits do you think need to be balanced out by more than one character?
As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
If you are a writer with a tip to share, or fancy writing a fictional interview between you and one of your characters, please feel free to email me.
Until next time, live long and prosper!
Paul

"Tax needn't be taxing" was the slogan when the UK government introduced the online filing of Self Assessment (SA) Tax Returns, yet it has become almost a tradition that as the deadline looms for filing tax returns, my social media feeds become filled with writers groaning about this annual chore. I'm posting this today, as the new tax year starts tomorrow (April 5th). So why not get off to a good start?


Now before we go any further, I AM NOT A TAX EXPERT. Seriously, I cannot emphasise enough that I am not giving tax advice here. I am not qualified to do so. However, I have been filing my SA return for the better part of a decade and I have learned a couple of things that can make your life easier. Namely how to keep basic records and hopefully not be presented with an unexpected demand for money that you haven't prepared for. Furthermore, tax expert Lindsay Henson very generously read through the draft of this post and corrected and clarified several points. You can visit her website for more tips https://lindsayhenson.co.uk/blog/

Many writers choose to seek advice from professionals or engage the services of an accountant, and I heartily recommend both options. However, if you feel your tax affairs are relatively straight-forward, and you are confident in filing your Self Assessment yourself, then I have a couple of tips to get things going. You can also use these tips to get your affairs in order before engaging the services of a professional.

Important caveat: This applies only to the to the UK, specifically England & Wales, where I am based.
For the purposes of this article, I am going to assume that you are treating money from writing as income, you are self-employed as a writer (even if you hold down another job) and are simply going to pay Income Tax and National Insurance on it. If your affairs are more complex (eg you have set up a company etc), then you need more specialist advice and to file accounts and pay corporation tax.

The Basics:
In the UK, there are two ways to pay your taxes (and National Insurance).
If you are employed, your employer will be deducting the appropriate amount of tax and National Insurance directly from your pay. This is called Pay As You Earn or PAYE. In this case, you probably don't need to file a Self Assessment Tax Return, unless you are a higher rate taxpayer or receive benefits in kind eg a company car etc.  Your tax is properly deducted and paid over to the tax authorities (HMRC) by your employer, who operates PAYE, by applying your tax “code number”. At the year end (the 5th April) - you will be given a form P60 so check it to ensure you’ve paid the right amount of tax! If you leave mid-year you’ll get a P45!
Always check the code number as it is your responsibility to correct it if it is wrong! You’ll always receive a notice of coding from HMRC to check. As long as you are receiving pay slips and having tax deducted you are classified as an employee for tax purposes.

If you are self-employed, (eg earning money from your writing, such as royalties) you need to file an annual tax return (known as Self Assessment). You may wish to use an accountant or do it yourself, using the government's website at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs.
As a writer, you may still be employed (paying taxes via PAYE) as well as earning additional money through writing (self-employed). In which case, you will need to file a tax return, on which you will also declare the PAYE figures.

This sounds horrendously complicated, but the good news is that things are pretty joined up these days. When you file your self assessment - your total (worldwide) income is declared and tax calculated on the global amount' offset by a credit for tax that you’ve already paid under PAYE. Essentially this leaves only the tax from writing being due and payable (you won't be charged twice!).
HMRC actually calculate how much tax you owe once you have completed your tax return and ask you to pay that sum by certain set deadlines, so don't worry if the thought of complex calculations scares you.

Remember, at the end of the tax year, your employer will issue you with a P60. Hold onto this, as all of the information that you need for filling in the Employment supplementary pages is on this slip. If you leave a job, you will be issued a P45 which contains similar information.

You must register for SA by strict deadlines once you start receiving self-employed income and will be sent a ten digit Unique Taxpayer Reference number a UTR - this is basically the ID that stays with you for life, allowing you to file a return and for HMRC to retain all  your tax records in one place on their system
Remember, unlike other jurisdictions, The Tax Year runs from April 6th to April 5th each year.

Everybody's tax circumstances are unique - I am not going to touch upon that. But we all have tax-free personal allowances, details of which you can access yourself along with lots of valuable information on HMRC.gov. A word of warning — Class 2 and  Class 4 NICs (National Insurance Contributions) are also payable by the self-employed!

Don't Let Your Tax Bill Be A Nasty Surprise.
One of the strengths of the PAYE system, is that your employer deducts your tax and national insurance directly from your pay. Your Gross Pay is how much you are paid each month (eg if your annual salary is £24,000 pounds, your monthly TOP LINE pay will be £2,000).
However your Net Pay is your 'take home pay' - in other words, how much money is paid into your bank account after taxes etc are deducted by your employer. Because the money you owe in tax never actually reaches your account, you can't accidentally spend it.

But If you are self-employed, it's a little more complicated. For example, your royalties may be paid to you Gross directly via your publisher, through your agent (after their commission) or from the platform you publish on eg Amazon. If this is the case, you need to make sure you don't accidentally spend all that money and then get a shock at the end of the tax year when HMRC ask you to pay what you owe.
So I recommend that whenever you receive a payment you put aside a chunk of that money and don't touch it, so it is waiting for you at the end of the year. A very simple way to do this is to open a savings account and transfer the appropriate amount (perhaps 20/30%) into that account each month. Then, when you come to pay your tax bill you pay it out of this savings account.

So How Do You Know How Much To Put Aside?
Working this out can be as complicated or as simple as you want. The important thing is to make sure you put aside at least as much as HMRC are going to charge you. Anything above that is a bonus.

The simplest way of doing this is to simply calculate how much tax is owed on that sum of money (in 2022/23 this is 20% for lower rate taxpayers, 40% for higher rate - check the rates on the HMRC website) and how much NI you will owe (9.73% this year for self-employed, plus £3.15 per week.)

If you received £1,000 in royalties this month, put aside £200 tax and £97.30 National Insurance. Plus £3.15/week (For ease of use that's £13.65 per calendar month). Do this each month. If you receive no royalties that month, unfortunately you still need to pay the £3.15/week.

The benefit of this system is that you shouldn't ever find yourself short of money when you receive your tax bill. The downside, is that it doesn't take into account your personal tax-free allowance or any expenses allowable against your tax, so you may be putting aside more money each month than you need to (unless you have a second job and have used up your tax-free allowance). Of course, hopefully you still have this money, so you can think of it as an easy way of building up some savings.
This was how I started, and it worked very nicely. As I am a proud geek, I have tweaked this method to take into account more factors so it is more accurate, but the principle remains the same. We won’t get into the minefield of allowable expenses in this post but there’s info online that’s far more reliable than the man in the pub!

You Only Pay Tax On Your Profits.
As a self-employed writer, you are essentially a small business (known as a sole trader). Therefore, your net income is essentially your profits. That is, what is left over after you have deducted reasonable tax-deductible expenses. You should visit HMRC or seek professional advice for a list of what is currently regarded as a legitimate business cost (things change, so I am not going to detail them here).
Why is this significant? Well you can save yourself quite a bit of money if you deduct these costs from your profits.

Here is a very simple example.
(I am ignoring any personal tax allowance here, and assuming you are paying tax and National Insurance on your full profits at the standard 2022/23 rates of 20% and 9.73%).

Let's say you earn £20,000 from writing.
You need to pay 20% tax on that (20%x£20,000 = £4,000) and 9.73% NI (9.73%x£20,000= £1946). Your tax bill would therefore be £5,946.

However, let's assume that you clock up £1,000 of reasonable tax-deductible expenses.
Your profit is therefore £20,000 - £1,000 = £19,000
20%x£19,000 = £3,800 and 9.73%x£19,000 = £1848.70 - your tax bill is therefore £5,648.70 - you've saved £297.30 on your tax bill!
Caveat: Don't forget however, that you have spent £1,000 on expenses, so you are still out of pocket. Just less than you would be if you hadn't claimed and paid the £1,000 outright.

Now HMRC won't just take your word for it. They have the right to insist upon seeing receipts and royalty statements etc to ensure that you are paying the correct amount - basically, they can audit you. Audits are called COMPLIANCE CHECKS or the old-style tax investigations, and whilst they are pretty rare and not at random, but targeted, you still need to be prepared just in case. You need to retain all business records  for at least 6 years.

So here are a few basic things you should do to make sure that you are ready. It can also act as a checklist of what an accountant might wish to see.

• Record in a spreadsheet or accounting software all of your income, along with the date received. Record any legitimate expenses.
• Retain any royalty statements etc. I personally prefer electronic (back it up!), but paper is fine.
• Retain any receipts or invoices (as above).
• It's worth considering having a separate bank account solely dedicated to your writing (and imperative if your income becomes regular or substantial), so that you can easily cross-reference the date on your royalty statements or receipts and invoices with the date on the bank statement. Perhaps even consider a writing-only credit card?
• If you get into the habit of dealing with everything at the end of each month, it isn't such a big job in January!
• Do your tax return early! The deadline for electronic filing of your SA is January 31st after the end of the tax year. You can file the tax return from April 6th (the day the new tax year starts). That is almost 9 months, so why do it so early?
• First, you don't have to pay any money until the January 31st deadline. Knowing how much that bill will be will let you plan and make sure you have the money ready. Second, it might take longer than you think - so why stress yourself out at the last minute? Third HMRC will be very busy as the deadline looms, so avoid hours in a queue listening to bad music, and phone them for advice earlier in the year. Fourth, you get to feel really smug when January rolls around and everyone else starts panicking.
• One final reason is a rather nasty little surprise that HMRC might have for you. Known as 'payments on account', whereby they will also demand half of next year's tax bill (with the rest to follow in July). They do this by simply assuming you'll pay the same tax next year as this year. Doing your taxes early makes it easier to plan for this delightful surprise.
• Just in case you're worried about paying twice, this money is basically credit against the following year's tax bill, so you will only have to pay the balance then (plus the following year's 'pay on account'). If you owe less tax next year, the difference can either remain as credit on your account or you can be refunded it.

Remember. The above information is NOT TAX ADVICE, and I certainly can't answer any questions. But if you have any thoughts about ways to make this annual chore easier, please feel free to share here or on social media.

If you are a writer with a tip to share, or fancy writing a fictional interview between you and one of your characters, please feel free to email me.

I will be taking a short break over the Easter holidays, after which I will be back.
Best wishes,
Paul.

They say that familiarity breeds contempt. That might be a little harsh, but humans are famous for their ability to see what they expect to see, and when you observe the same thing every day, you stop noticing the little differences.
An acquaintance of mine started a job in a new organisation. A few days after they started, the police started an investigation into a serious incident that had taken place, unnoticed, on the day they started work. They interviewed my friend, who warned them that they were new to the role. The police were delighted; whilst their colleagues struggled to remember anything out of the ordinary, or even exactly which day the event took place, my friend recalled every detail. It was all new and exciting to them and so they remembered even small things. We never did work out if they saw anything useful to the investigation, but the police were very grateful to them.
With that in mind, today's writing exercise is a practise in description.
Take a notebook and travel somewhere new. Perhaps a coffee shop you've never visited before, or a new part of town? Once there take notes. Copious notes. Describe the layout of the area and the decorations. Are there people there? Try and use all your senses: sight, hearing, touch and smell (don't lick anything unless it's socially appropriate or safe to do so). Then delve deeper. How does the place make you feel?
Now, return home and write about a character visiting this place. Place yourself in their shoes. If it is an existing character you already know, how would it make them feel. What would they notice? A parent in a coffee shop might automatically clock where the toilets are and if there is a good selection of juices and snacks suitable for small children. A police officer might notice the two shifty-looking characters in the corner, or feel exasperation toward the woman so absorbed in her mobile phone she's oblivious to her purse poking out of her handbag.
How did you find the exercise? Did you notice things you might not otherwise? As always feel free to comment here or on social media.
If you are a writer with a tip to share, or fancy writing a fictional interview between you and one of your characters, please feel free to email me.


Until next time,
Paul.

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Today's #TuesdayTip is another book review. This time it's the brilliant "The Real CSI. A Forensic Handbook For Crime Writers", by Kate Bendelow.
Bendelow has the unusual distinction of not only being a currently serving forensic scientist with Greater Manchester Police, but she is also the author of two novels featuring CSI Maya Barton. Because of this, the handbook is very much geared towards writers.

I was really impressed with this book. Although it has been around for a few years (2017), it's still going to be pretty much up-to-date for a few more years yet, and of course a lot of things don't change. These sort of books tend to fall into two categories - what I call 'dippy books', where you dip into or out of them using the extensive index to find the specific topic you want to read about, and 'cover to cover' books, where you sit down with a cuppa and read from the beginning to the end.

Unusually this book is both. The first chapter, 'A day in the life of a real CSI' is a chapter to be read in one sitting. As are the next couple, 'Dealing with death' and 'Crime scene preservation'. After then, the book is divided into more broad chapters with lots of subsections, such as Fingerprints, DNA, Footwear, Trace evidence, Fire scenes, Drugs and toxicology, and Firearms. You can either read the whole chapter, or home in on a subsection, such as "issues affecting fingerprint quality".

​The science is well written and detailed and aimed broadly at a general audience. Those who haven't studied science since they were at school may find themselves Googling the odd term that they aren't familiar with or accessing the glossary at the end, but generally speaking it's pretty accessible.
Another advantage that this book has over some in the field, is that Bendelow is still working as a CSI, rather than looking back on a career or observing from afar. This is real boots-on-the-ground stuff and helps dispel the myths as portrayed on TV or in fiction. Obviously, as writers we are more concerned with telling a story than 100% accuracy, but it's always best to learn what the rules are before you decide to break them.

One of the things I like about this book is that the writing is very personable, with plenty of examples of true life cases. Both infamous tales that you may have heard of, and those that Bendelow has encountered personally in her day job. What demonstrates that Bendelow is herself a writer, is that almost every section ends with thoughts about how a writer could use what she has just described or things to be careful of.

Overall, I was very impressed and very much recommend it to both writers and those who just want to know a bit more. And to quote the wonderful Lynda La Plante 'Every crime writer should have a copy of this book on their desk.' Who am I to disagree?

If you are a writer with a tip to share, or fancy writing a fictional interview between you and one of your characters, please feel free to email me.

Until next time,
All the best,
Paul

Tomorrow sees the release of the ninth full-length entry in the DCI Warren Jones series, Web of Lies. So this week's #TuesdayTip is going to examine the process of writing the quickest novel I have written to date.
Web of Lies wasn't the book I was planning on writing. A couple of years ago, when I signed my latest 3 book contract, I gave my publisher three loose outlines for the next in the series. The first, about an unidentified dead body found in a ditch, became 2021's Out of Sight. The second, a blood-soaked serial killer novel, became 2022's Time To Kill. The third was an idea about homeless victims. The basic premise for each pitch was little more than a couple of paragraphs (regular readers of this blog will know by now that I rarely plan much in advance), although I had sketched out the character arcs for my series regulars.
Like many writers, when I am coming close to the end of the current novel I am writing, my mind starts to wander and I begin to think about the next book. This time, as I was coming to the end of Time To Kill, I started to realise that my proposed third book had too many themes in common with Time To Kill. As I mulled over what to do about that, I happened to be watching a true crime documentary. I can't for the life of me remember which one, but my attention was caught by an interview recording. The set up was unremarkable: a couple of police officers off-screen, a suspect in the obligatory grey tracksuit, and a solicitor, face blurred, diligently taking notes.
And an idea started to form. Nothing to do with the crime for which the man was being accused, rather the set up. And a really interesting 'what if?' scenario.
I did some research, and then reached out to a fellow crime writer, Lesley Jones and her husband Chris, who I had enjoyed the company of at a CWA conference dinner a few years previously. They are experienced solicitors, and so I proposed the central premise of my novel. To nobody's surprise, what I suggested would be legally questionable, ethically dubious and unlikely to happen in real-life. But it was still a good idea. So with their help, I worked my way around the problem and came up with a scenario that would work. I then placed it to one side and carried on working on the book I was supposed to be finishing. But of course, now that the idea had taken hold, other thoughts started to form.
For years, I have fancied writing a missing person novel. The attractions are obvious - from the very start of the novel, there is a ticking clock. Rather than starting with a dead body, which in some ways can be almost routine, the investigative team is immediately thrust into a high-stakes race against time.
By the time I had finished the first complete draft of Time To Kill, I was desperate to start writing my new book. According to the time stamp on working draft version 1.0 for Book 9 (the working title for Web of Lies) the document was created on July the 1st 2021.
One of the things about being a writer under contract is that you always have a couple of books on the go at different stages of development. Time To Kill was far from finished; I had sent copies to my trusty beta readers, Mum, Dad and my then fiancée Cheryl. After a few weeks, their notes came back and I stopped writing Book 9 to incorporate those changes. I then had to go through the manuscript again, looking for places to trim and shorten. Eventually I submitted Time To Kill to my publisher and started writing Book 9 again .
Over the next few months I took time out for a brief holiday and to supervise some building work. The first complete draft of book 9 was finished on the 12th of October. Subtract the time when I was doing other things, and I estimate that initial draft took less than three months. This is less than half the time taken usually.
Why it was so quick, I genuinely have no idea, and if I could bottle whatever it was that caused the words to flow so quickly, I'd be a very happy man!
Maybe it was the weather and the summer months? I wasn't tutoring over that period, which helps, and the weather was warm enough for me to work in the garden. I've found that using my tiny little writing laptop that doesn't even have  email installed helps me maintain focus. In the winter months, I tend to work in my office on my proper laptop. This has a double screen set up, and whilst it is undoubtedly more efficient and easier to work on, perhaps that is off-set by having more distractions? Perhaps I need to exercise more discipline and close my email and put my phone away? Alternately, maybe I should move somewhere that I can work outside all year around?
Or perhaps those are just excuses. Maybe I just bottled a bit of lightning this time and it all came together.
I'll let you know next time…

If you are a writer with a tip to share, or fancy writing a fictional interview between you and one of your characters, please feel free to email me.

Until next time,
Paul.

For this week's #TuesdayTip, I am going to explore the difference between TV and novels.
My wife and I enjoy a good mini-series. The sort of thing that consists of 4 to 6 episodes, each 45-60 minutes long. Sometimes they are adaptations of novels and other times original stories.
Now, before we start, I am a novelist NOT a screenwriter. I have no direct insight into the world of TV making, so these are purely my own uninformed observations.
I Don't Remember That Happening.
A common complaint made of TV adaptations of existing novels is that the TV show differs from the original.
Common variations include:

• Parts of the original novel missing / new material added.
• The casting of actors that don't resemble the character as described (this can be explicit, where they have openly contradicted the description in the book, or more subjective where readers had an impression of what a character was like and found themselves surprised at the casting choice).
• Changing the dialogue.
• Excising/adding/merging characters.
• Changing parts of the plot.
• Re-ordering the plot.
• Changing the ending.

Opinions vary on whether a particular TV adaption is better or worse than the source material, or just a different way to enjoy the story. Typically it's subjective and a matter of opinion. The only comment I'm prepared to make on this thorny topic is that Amazon Studios' Harry Bosch and Jack Reacher adaptations are in my opinion excellent. They aren't slavish retellings of the original novels. They aren't better or worse than the books. Instead they are their own version and I can enjoy both the books and the TV series alongside each other without feeling it necessary to compare and contrast.
Speaking to friends that have had books adapted for TV, the author rarely gets much of a say. Some big-name authors such as Michael Connelly may get to help executive produce the series, but most authors don't.
Some authors actually adapt the book themselves. But again, you will usually find differences.
The reason is quite simple: TV and books are very different forms of media. TV productions are constrained by budget, time available to broadcast the story, availability of suitable actors and what can be practically shown on screen. Furthermore, there is a need to split a TV series into discrete episodes, each roughly the same length and each with a cliff hanger. Although novels have turning points and cliff hangers that serve as natural breakpoints, where a reader can put the book down but is keen to return, they are rarely conveniently spread out. I notice that some streaming services have experimented with different lengths for each episode, so that the story's telling isn't dictated by the need for an ad break or the length of a TV slot, but I think it'll be a long time before that becomes the norm, if ever.
There are also other, less tangible differences. For example what about inner monologues or character's thoughts? The Jack Reacher shown in Amazon's Reacher series is rather more chatty than the one portrayed in Lee Child's original novels. He has to be, because Reacher in the novels rarely speaks out loud. Instead we get a running commentary of his thought processes. That's easy on the page; for the small screen, we need either a voice-over or another character that he can speak with. What about conversations via phone messages? Some TV shows do this really well, others make a bit of a mess of it, with viewers struggling to read the messages on screen, and thus missing important information.
Another difficulty faced by TV series, is that it is sometimes easier to hide something on the page than on the screen. I recently read a book where a whole chapter appears to be told from the perspective of a particular type of person. The big twist at the end of that chapter (and it is a stroke of genius) is that it is actually being told by a completely different type of person. I can't see any way of filming that without giving away that twist within the first two seconds of the camera panning across. If it is ever made for the screen, that scene will have to be rewritten or cut (fortunately, there's enough in the rest of that book to make it worth filming anyway).
That's Not How I Would Have Done It.
One of the things about being a writer is that you often find yourself analysing another writer's choices. I can't stress enough that it is rarely about thinking, "I could have done that better". Rather it is about the direction that your own imagination went at a crucial point in the story, and how it differed from the author's. In fact, sometimes it's the exact opposite to feeling superior. I've lost count of the number of times I've read or watched something and thought "Damn, that's good! I'd never have come up with that in a million years".
When watching TV, I often have that feeling and I realise that it's probably because I am thinking as a novelist. If I was writing the story, I would have my character go and do X or think Y. But then, when I think about it, I realise that the decision made by the screenwriter is far better suited to the screen than my idea, which would work better on the page.
Don't Diss The Screen.
Looking back over the previous two sections, I am uncomfortably aware that what I have written fuels those who smugly proclaim "of course books are always better than TV". I've never been happy with that argument. TV and novels are both complementary and discrete forms of entertainment and you can't make such a sweeping statement.
So to redress the balance, here are some of the advantages that TV has over novels.

• Description. A good novelist can fire the imagination with beautiful descriptions of a scene, a landscape or a character. They can conjure up images in the reader's mind. But they need to do so concisely to keep the pace brisk and they can't keep returning to that description without becoming repetitive or slowing things down. Furthermore, a surprising number of people have a condition called aphantasia - an inability to visualise images in their mind's eye. TV on the other hand is a visual medium. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and it's undoubtedly true. A skilled cinematographer can convey a whole scene with a single sweep of the camera, freeing up the screenwriter to get on with telling the story.
• Sound. Again, TV is also an aural medium. Dialogue is more than just words, and whilst a good novelist can describe the nuances of speech it can be difficult to convey the subtle undercurrents. In the second episode of season three of Star Trek: Picard, there is a huge revelation (I'm not going to spoil it). The entire scene is communicated with nothing more than the changing expressions on the actors' faces. The viewer experiences the same dawning revelation as the character. It is a sublime piece of TV. In a novel, the revelation would have to be explicitly stated on the page. It could be done of course, but I feel it would have been a poor second best.
• Atmosphere. A good writer can conjure atmosphere. But again, a skilled cinematographer and sound designer can convey in just a couple of seconds what a novelist might need two paragraphs for. Well-chosen music can manipulate the viewer's emotions, and isn't that manipulation what it's all about?
• Background. By this I mean what's happening behind a character, perhaps something they are unaware of. In a book, we need to tell the reader everything that happens. We are often told as writers 'show don't tell'. TV can often have an advantage here. Imagine a scene in a restaurant, where two characters are having a private conversation. That conversation is overheard by someone at the next table and then used against them. In a book, the writer has to figure out how to tell us that happened. There are a dozen ways to do this of course, but they require an explicit acknowledgment of what took place. In TV, the characters can finish their conversation and the camera can zoom out and reveal the eavesdropper with a cunning look on their face. Obviously there are situations where a novelist has the upper hand, as they can delay revealing that there was a third person there until later in the book. This is another example of where the two media can have different strengths and weaknesses when telling a story, and how the same story may need to be told differently on the screen and page.

What do you think about the screen versus the page? Can you think of any examples where the same story is told differently, yet both are as good as one another?
As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
If you are a writer with a tip to share, or fancy writing a fictional interview between you and one of your characters, please feel free to email me.
Until next time,
Paul.