This week I am delighted to welcome Fiona Veitch Smith. Fiona is the author of the Poppy Denby Investigates novels, Golden Age-style murder mysteries set in the 1920s. The Jazz Files was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger (2016), while subsequent books were shortlisted for the Foreword Review Mystery Novel of the Year and the People’s Book Prize. She worked as a journalist on Cape Town newspapers in the 1990s before returning to the UK to work on regional magazines in NE England. Thereafter, she spent a decade lecturing creative writing at Northumbria University and journalism at Newcastle University. She is now the Assistant Secretary of the Crime Writers’ Association. She lives in Newcastle upon Tyne with her husband and teenage daughter.
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Fiona's #TuesdayTip.
Find your OWN writing rhythm. You will hear writing gurus (many of them famous authors) telling you that you must write every day to be a ‘real’ writer. That you must set yourself a word count. That you must carry on writing and not go back over what you’ve written before you reach the end of your novel. Well, I do none of those things. Due to caring duties and other work commitments, I only write three days a week, for only a few hours at a time. I rarely set myself a word count. I always go back over what I have written before I move on. And yet I have managed to write a novel a year for the last 10 years as well as a couple of dozen children’s picture books and hundreds of magazine and blog articles. If the ‘write every day, never go back over what you have written, and set yourself a word count’ style works for you then stick to it, but if it doesn’t, don’t be scared to work to your own rhythm. The important thing is that you write. Your way and in your time. And that it brings you, and hopefully others, some joy. Happy writing.
​(c) 2021 Fiona Veitch Smith

The Poppy Denby Investigates novels are Golden Age murder mysteries set in the 1920s dealing with issues of social justice while sizzling with jazz-age style. Poppy, dubbed the 1920’s most stylish sleuth, works on a London tabloid and solves murders on the side.
The first in the series is The Jazz Files and is available on Amazon.
The latest, The Crystal Crypt​ has just been released and is available here:
To find out more about Fiona and Poppy Denby, you can visit her website www.poppydenby.com and Facebook page or follow her on Twitter @FionaVeitchSmit and Instagram @fionaveitchsmith_author.

The first in an occasional series of #TuesdayTips looking at ways to beat writer's block.
Ugh! We've all been there. The term writer's block is such a dramatic term, conjuring up images of tortured writers moping around like the world is about to end.
It's not usually quite that bad - and try explaining it to your non-writer friends who all have 'real' jobs, and see how much sympathy you get!
Sometimes it can be little more than the desire to do anything other than write. Other times it can be staring at a blank screen awaiting inspiration, whilst knowing that it isn't going to come. At its worst it's the paralysis caused by an upcoming deadline.
(Side note about punctuation here. All writers suffer this, but it feels incredibly personal and even isolating, so I have decided to go with the singular possessive writer's block, rather than th plural writers' block).
Either way, we need to bust that block (credit to my partner for the cringeworthy blog title).
Today's Tip.
Write something different.
It sounds trite and easy, and it is one of those rare occasions where writing out of sequence, like I do, is a bonus, not just a colossal headache of rearrangement at the end of the book! But I think it is something that even those who plot their books to the nth degree can do.
Sometimes the words just won't come. The scene that you are trying to write just will not flow. It's not necessarily that you don't know what you need to write - for some reason, today you just can't.
For me, switching to a different scene often solves the problem. I had this issue recently with my current work in progress. I had been writing a scene where my team were investigating a particular incident. I knew what needed to happen, the actions that the team would be taking, and who would be involved. I even had some snatches of dialogue that I wanted to use. I could bullet point the scene if needs be. But for whatever reason, I just couldn't  get into the groove.
So instead, I started working on a different part of the book. It was almost like starting a fresh story, and before I knew it, I'd banged out a thousand-odd words.
That's one less scene to write. My writing day had turned from what could have been a bit of a write-off (no pun intended) to a pretty productive one. A couple of days later, I returned to that original scene. Nothing had changed, but I finished writing it in a couple of hours. No drama, the words flowed as they always do, and when I went over it the next day, the prose was exactly what I wanted.
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Stay tuned for more tips, including some exercises that can kickstart your day's writing and get you into the groove.
Do you have any tips on how to overcome writer's block?
Feel free to comment here or on social media.
Happy writing,
Paul.

For this week's gues blog post, I am very excited to introduce Candy Denman. Candy is not only a novelist, but has also written TV scripts and therefore has a special insight into characterisation.
Candy writes a series of crime novels about forensic physician and part-time GP, Dr Callie Hughes. The first in the series is Dead Pretty​ and can be bought from Amazon. 
It is not unusual for Callie to see a dead body, but this time, the young woman’s corpse rings alarm bells. Her medical knowledge gives her unique insight into the killer, but convincing the police is a challenge. 

Candy's Writing Tip
When writing both scripts and novels, getting the ‘voice’ of a character is critical. Just as the reader/viewer has to believe in the story, it is just as important that they believe in the characters and what they are saying or how they are acting. Once the reader loses that suspension of disbelief, they lose interest in the story.
So how can a writer make sure they get the voice right and that they make the different characters sound sufficiently different? This isn’t about just giving them different accents, it’s more about making them distinct from each other.
When I write the back story and character traits for each character, I find it helpful to do it in the first person, so that each character describes themselves to me and give me their own potted history.
It might sound bonkers, but it works.
I’m a young lad, not bad, but I don’t take any shit, know what I mean? I didn’t mean to do it, it just sort of happened.
I’m not complaining, not really. I haven’t had an easy life, but nothing is as hard as this being on your own.  Sometimes I might not see anyone for weeks in a row and I find myself talking to my cat, what was her name? Tiddles. That’s right.  My long gone, dead cat Tiddles.
I do about half a page on each, depending on how big a character they are in the story and save them for reference. This is particularly important if you are writing a series, to make sure you get them right each time. A character can develop and change in time, depending on what has happened to them, but their overall voice will remain the same.
(c) 2021 Candy Denman

Candy trained as a nurse, and worked in the NHS almost all her life, until managing recently to disengage herself in order to become a full-time crime writer. She has also written a large number of scripts for such highly-acclaimed TV series as The Bill and Heartbeat which gave her the idea to write a crime series that also includes medical stories.
You can learn more about Candy by visiting her website www.candydenman.co.uk​ or Facebook Page and by following her on Twitter @CrimeCandy or Instagram @CandyDenman.

Three weeks ago, I finally bit the bullet, took the plunge, threw caution to the wind (insert cliché of choice) and installed Scrivener.
For those unfamiliar with this piece of specialist software, Scrivener is a writing package sold by Literature and Latte that is raved about by writers, both professional and amateur. In addition to being a word processor, Scrivener has a number of really useful features that make organising the writing process easier. For example it acts as a binder for all the notes and research etc used in your project, and has a virtual corkboard that allows you to easily reorder scenes within your book.
Despite the glowing testimonies of friends, I held off installing it for a couple of years for purely pragmatic reasons. First, I have already been writing my DCI Warren Jones series for several years. I have  cobbled together a somewhat clunky, but effective, system using MS Word, MS OneNote (for my research and ideas) and MS Excel (for my timelines etc). Whilst I was keen to improve my method (for example, Word is a pain if you write out of sequence), the system worked, and I didn't think switching mid-project would be sensible.
The second is that version 3 for Windows was repeatedly delayed. Scrivener was originally written for MacOS. Version 2 for the Mac was ported to Windows (and confusingly called V1). Version 3 for Mac was released a couple of years ago. There are big improvements in V3, and so I didn't fancy installing the available Windows version, and then having to upgrade and relearn everything for V3 (they decided to skip the label V2 for Windows). But more importantly, I'm a proud Windows user and I'm buggered if I'm playing second-fiddle to Mac users. 🤣. The software is also available for iOS (I know writers who use it exclusively on an iPad), although it doesn't look as though it will be coming to Android anytime soon, which is a shame.
Installation and Setup:
Installing the software is a doddle and a cheap, single licence (which will last for the lifetime of the product) can be used on multiple machines (although you'll need separate Windows/MacOS/iOS licences if you want to mix and match). I was pleased to see that it works very happily on my portable "writing laptop". That has just 2Gb of RAM, a basic processor and a tiny hard drive. As long as the machine has a minimum 1024x768 screen resolution it works fine.
The software automatically creates backups and autosaves on close. I simply saved the Scrivener working folder to my Cloud account, so that it is more secure.
Important tip: You can only have a Scrivener project open on one machine at a time - which is sensible, it stops versions of the same file getting corrupted. Therefore, when closing a project on one computer, give your computer a few moments to synchronise to the cloud before switching it off. Then, when switching on a different computer, again, make sure that everything has synced before opening Scrivener to stop it clashing. From what I can tell, as soon as you open a Scrivener file on one machine, it makes a temporary lock file that blocks any other machine trying to open it. When you close, that file is deleted - hence the need to wait for your cloud account to sync.
A rather nifty function allows you to save your preferred layout for that machine or setup. I have a layout saved for when my laptop is plugged into my large screen and a different one for when I'm working on my little laptop - it saves having to resize windows etc.
Things I Like About Scrivener.
A project is simply a set of related text files. This means that whether you are writing a single document, have a separate document for each chapter, or separate documents for each section/scene, you are catered for.
Reorganising Sections Is A Doddle.
If, like me, you write out of sequence, then Scrivener allows you to easily reorder your scenes. You can do this either by dragging and dropping on a virtual corkboard (as if you have a board on the wall with each page pinned to it). This comes with a number of different ways to visualise the layout, including on a series of parallel lines, which allows you to see a visual representation of your book - for example, looking at pacing, is chapter one really busy, but chapter two very empty?
There is also a linear 'outliner' that allows you to reorganise sections by visualising the metadata or keywords etc.
Another useful feature, is the ability to group documents in  folder. I often write subplots consisting of several sections, that will then need to be threaded throughout the story. Having them all together in one folder - from which they can be easily dragged out of - makes life very easy.
You Can Add MetaData To Each Document.
Metadata is information that essentially adds tags to each document that isn't included in the final draft, and is invisible to the reader. Scrivener allows a wide-range of different types of information, ranging from keywords, links, pictures, dates and custom labels (which can be different colours). You can also define your own metadata. I have added some custom labels to mine (eg "To Write"). You can also write notes, and even a synopsis for the document. This is great for organising and searching your project, as well as sketching out what a document will contain (for example a list of things that need to be revealed in an interview or dialogue ideas). I have added characters as keywords, so I can see at a glance if there is a clash, where a character appears in two different scenes that take place simultaneously.
Word Count Function and Daily/Project Targets.
Each section you write will have its own wordcount. However, Scrivener also tracks the total number of words in the full manuscript. It also has a deadline function and you can set daily targets, or a total project target. This is really useful. I generally aim for about 120,000 words. I have set myself a rather ambitious target of completing a first draft by the end of the year. I've told Scrivener that I will write Monday to Friday. Scrivener has calculated how many words I need to write each day to hit 120K by December 31st and will update this if I have written more or less on a particular day. You can easily see how many words you've written that day, and there is something especially satisfying when the notification to tell you that you've hit today's target pops up on the screen!
Writing Tools.
Scrivener has a rather nifty name generator that is very customisable, and it will also open highlighted words in Wikipedia or Google with a single click. It also supports comment and review functionality, similar to Word.
Keep Your Research To Hand.
You can import a wide-range of research documents into your project, so that you can easily access what you need. For example, I have imported some PDF maps and reference documents; no need to go hunting around my hard drive for where I saved the damn things!
You Can Make Templates.
If you simply add a blank document, Scrivener defaults to a strange font I've never heard of. I found the best thing to do is create a series of template documents that are formatted how I want. I have a basic section with my preferred font, line spacing etc, and a number of more specialised ones, such as page or section breaks (I have three asterisks separating sections) plus New Day and Title pages. The advantage of this, is that you can give these new sections their own default labels, which makes organising them on the corkboard easy.

Limitations Of Scrivener.
No software is perfect. The word processor is a perfectly acceptable piece of software, but obviously it lacks the refinements of later versions of Word. It has a spellchecker that underlines miss-spelled words (and can be set to UK English), but I've yet to figure out how to easily upload my custom dictionary from Word. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the proprietary grammar checkers etc that Microsoft have spent millions of dollars developing. I've become somewhat reliant on these, over the years, which means that I will need to export the completed document to Word and do a big edit.
I have also had some small issues with page breaks. I think that's something I will either have to play with, or just fix in Word.
Unfortunately, it doesn't come with a thesaurus. Instead, it links out to the Thesaurus.com website. That site is US-based and it isn't as easy, or user-friendly as Shift-F7 in Word.
I have only had a brief play with exporting a completed document. Scrivener supports a wide-range of document types, including PDF, Word, RTF and open-source formats. However, there are a lot of options for when you "compile" your document. I had some very funny results when I tried. I suspect I'll need to spend some time fiddling to get what I want.
Some HotKeys are different to what you may be used to. I know many of the keyboard shortcuts in Word. However, Scrivener is very customisable, so I spent some time changing the shortcuts to what I am used to. It's my own copy, so it's not like it'll confuse anyone else.
I have also yet to find a timeline function. You can add dates and times to documents, so there are work arounds, but there's no simple way to plot out the order of events like I used to do in Excel. I may have to revert to that old method.

So, it's been three weeks or so, and thus far I'm pretty happy. The very well-written manual hints at lots of other functions that I may or may not find useful. I am a novelist, but it also caters for scriptwriters and those writing reference works.
I might write a follow-up to this in the future if I learn enough to justify a blog post.

What are your thoughts on Scrivener? Do you have any tips that you think are worth sharing?
As always comment here or on social media.
Happy writing!

Welcome to this week's #TuesdayTip. 
Today, I am delighted to welcome Laraine Stephens as a guest blogger.
I am a writer of contemporary police procedurals, so I am especially excited to feature a writer of historical crime fiction.
Laraine lives in Beaumaris, a bayside suburb of Melbourne, Australia. After a career as a teacher-librarian and Head of Library, she decided to turn her hand to the craft of crime writing. She is a member of Writers Victoria, Sisters in Crime (Australia), the Australian Crime Writers’ Association and the Crime Writers’ Association of the UK.
Laraine’s debut novel, The Death Mask Murders, is the first in the Reggie da Costa Mysteries series. It was published by Level Best Books in June 2021. Her second book, A Dose of Death, is due out in May 2022.
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Laraine's #TuesdayTip
CREATING AN HISTORICAL SETTING
If you are writing an historical novel, it is important to create an authentic and accurate depiction of the period you have chosen. A writer should evoke a sense of a particular time and place, weaving information seamlessly into the narrative and dialogue. 
In researching The Death Mask Murders, set in Melbourne in 1918, I used digitised newspapers from the time, which were available through the National Library of Australia’s archive, Trove (free). In the United Kingdom, there is, for example, the British Newspaper Archive (pay) and in the United States, the Newspaper Archive (pay). 
From these sources, you can gain a wealth of information on the social, political and economic circumstances of the time, including specific events. Another advantage of using digitised newspapers is discovering whether a word or expression was in common use at the time. For example, when was ‘meal ticket’, ‘serial killer’, ‘dodge a bullet’, ‘tuxedo’ or ‘boyfriend’ (in the romantic sense) first used? Advertisements and even the Classifieds will provide information on subjects as diverse as stage shows, entertainment, cars, prices, product brands and clothing. Without this resource, Reggie da Costa, The Argus’s senior crime reporter, in The Death Mask Murders, would never have worn his impeccably cut linen suit, high-collared cream shirt, and green striped tie from Wallace, Buck and Goodes of Queens Walk. Nor would he have driven a 1917 Dodge Roadster, a flashy, two-seater automobile with a wooden steering wheel, black paintwork, and shiny large headlamps, which was his pride and joy. 
I finish with a word of warning. When it comes to writing, historical background and detail should never overwhelm the plot. Our readers buy novels with the expectation that they will enjoy a cracking, good story, rather than drowning in a reservoir of information.
(c) Laraine Stephens 2021.
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Laraine Stephens is a writer of historical crime fiction. Her novels are set in Melbourne, Australia in the early years of the twentieth century. Her debut novel, The Death Mask Murders, is available from Amazon
You can learn more about Laraine by visiting her Website or Facebook Page.

For readers of UK-based crime procedurals, 'Lawyering Up' is a somewhat irritating Americanism. But unfortunately, 'Duty Solicitoring Up' doesn't have quite the same ring. However, that isn't the only difference between US-based procedurals and UK.
My partner and I are big fans of true crime documentaries, and one of the most bizarre things when watching US documentaries is how many suspects - even those under arrest for very serious crimes such as murder - don't have a lawyer when being interviewed. Just as in the UK, arrested suspects are read their rights. In the UK, the correct term is 'cautioned'. In the US, these rights - enshrined in the Constitution - are often referred to as 'Miranda' rights after the legal precedent that established them (hence the verb 'Mirandized'.) But unlike in the UK, these rights are often 'waived'.
I have no idea what our poor neighbours must think, as we yell "Shut up! Stop talking! Where's your lawyer?" at the TV.
It seems to be absolute madness. Why on Earth would anyone in their right mind forgo the services (free if you can't afford it) of the only professional in the room looking out for your best interests? The police are trying to secure a conviction, and all too often it seems, anyone will do. They aren't your friend!
Because of this, it is not uncommon for US police to appraise a suspect of their rights (as they are legally obliged to do) and then seek to persuade them not to exercise them. Phrases such as, "we can deal with this quickly now" or "if you get a lawyer, I can't help you" even "why do you need a lawyer, are you guilty of something?" are common.
In one documentary we watched, a young woman was accused of murdering her lover. She asked repeatedly for a lawyer. Her interrogators deflected the request several times. Eventually, she folded her arms and simply kept on repeating "Lawyer. Now." Sensible woman. However the police in the interview room, the talking heads, and the documentary voiceover artist, all used this as proof of her lack of cooperation and criticised it.
From a writer's perspective, the attraction is obvious. The wily detective can run verbal rings around the suspect, teasing the truth out of them, until they finally confess or condemn themselves by their words. A lawyer would just tell them to button it and 'no comment'.
But if you want to write a procedurally accurate UK-based procedural, forget what you've seen on US TV. There are a plethora of true crime documentaries featuring actual recordings of interviews. I heartily recommend Channel 4's 24 Hours in Police Custody. But steer clear of doing your research using 'recreations', no matter how good they claim to be.
Some key differences with the US:
In the UK, 'lawyer' might be used colloquially by the suspects, but the correct term is 'solicitor'. The word attorney is rarely, if ever, uttered on these shores.
All suspects (including those who haven't been formally arrested) are interviewed under caution. (See TuesdayTip#63 for the rules regarding how long an arrested suspect can be detained.
Detainees are entitled to a solicitor. If you don't have one, all police stations have access to a pool of free, independent duty solicitors, that can be called upon night or day.
These days, police officers rarely try to encourage a suspect to waive their right to a solicitor. In fact, police officers have been known to plead with a suspect to take the offer of a solicitor. There are several reasons for this:
Interviews are recorded. If a suspect is ultimately charged and it comes to court, then the defence team may try to use this as evidence that the interview wasn't properly conducted, and so seek to have any testimony dismissed.
Solicitors keep everything on the straight and narrow. This protects not only the suspect, but the prosecution also. The rules surrounding interviews are strict and if the police break them, the interview can be deemed inadmissible in court. Even with the best will in the world, officers can and do make mistakes: in pointing them out to protect their client, the solicitor is also safe-guarding the prosecution.
No solicitor looks bad to the jury. The jury will expect there to be a solicitor and will want to know why there isn't one present. Anyone who has watched Making a Murderer will be familiar with the infamous Brendan Dacey interview. In it Dacey (who is a minor, with learning difficulties) is interviewed at school with no lawyer or responsible adult present. It is toe-curling and even heart-breaking. One can debate whether or not he is guilty of the crime; but one thing is certain - he didn't get a fair trial.
​But aren't No Comment interviews a bad thing?
The first thing that any good solicitor usually does is tell their client to sit tight and no comment. At first glance this can be seen as an impediment to justice. If you're not guilty, be as open as possible and let the police see they are barking up the wrong tree. If the suspect is guilty, then no commenting unquestionably makes it more difficult for the police to build their case, and draws out the whole process.
Nevertheless, the police are duty bound to ask the questions that they want answered. Even if the suspect starts an interview by stating that they will not be answering any questions, the police ask them anyway. Doubtless the repeated 'no comment' is frustrating for both parties. But by asking those questions, the police are fulfilling the essential principle that the accused must be given the chance to reply to any accusations. And of course the facial reactions and body language of the suspect can indicate if the detective is on the right track.
Is it good or bad for writers?
As with anything, it depends on your story. It could be argued that a US-based novel, where the writer has a narrative choice between their suspect having a lawyer or waiving their rights, is more flexible. But I have grown to love the constraints of UK procedure. In fact, a no comment interview can be very dramatic. Including a solicitor also introduces a third party into an interview scene, and whilst they generally don't interrupt proceedings, a couple of well-timed interjections can ramp up the dramatic tension.
What do you think of 'lawyering up'? Is it good or bad for a fictional story?
As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
Paul

For this week's #TuesdayTip, I've decided to tackle another thorny issue - cultural appropriation.
For those unfamiliar with this term, which has only really seeped into the public consciousness over the past few years, it is described by Oxford Dictionaries thus:
"The unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.”
As this is a writing blog, I will be steering clear of hot-button topics, such as white people wearing dreadlocks or sarees etc. Instead I will focus more on the stories that we tell. In this context, cultural appropriation is more about the issues surrounding writers telling stories about, or featuring, cultures other than their own.

First of all, I am a white, middle-aged, middle-class, heterosexual, cis male.
I have no first-hand experience of living life as a black man, or a person of Asian descent. Nor for that matter, have I had to live as a gay/bisexual/asexual/pansexual person in a society that still assumes, for the most part, that most people are heterosexual. I am also a cis male, and so haven't see the world through the eyes of a female, trans person or non-binary individual.
Now the immediate counterpoint to that argument is 'So what? You're a writer, make stuff up! Use your imagination. You're not a far-right extremist, but you've written a book about them.'

And of course this is true. If I were to write characters that solely reflected my personal experiences, then for a start I wouldn't be able to write detective stories. And my books would be entirely populated by lefty, white, cis males. I was once a young man and a child, so I could write about those characters (although I'd have to set them in the 80s and 90s - having never experienced life as a teenager in the social media era, I could hardly be considered an authority on many of the modern stresses experienced by today's young people).
Because of this, there are those who immediately dismiss the very notion of cultural appropriation in stories as nonsense. Just another reason for people to get upset.
But that kind of misses the point. It seems to me, that what people object to is telling someone else's story with authority and not acknowledging it. And what really upsets people is not putting the time in to do the research.

I will be the first to admit that in many ways, I have it easy. My central character, DCI Warren Jones, is a thinly-veiled version of myself. The stories that I tell are about Warren and the people he meets. These characters are basically seen through Warren's eyes (and thus, by extension my own). I only need a broad appreciation of the stories and lived-experiences of these people, as the book's perspective is from the outside looking in.
Where it gets tricky is when you start to write from the perspective of a character radically different to yourself, especially if that character is from a section of society less dominant to your own. For the purposes of clarity, I basically define that as they are less privileged than the writer in that situation. For example, that might be a white man trying to write from the perspective of a black female, when race or misogyny is an element of the story.

Of course, even in books written in my style, there are times when I need to look at the world through someone else's eyes. I might have a chapter following DC Moray Ruskin, a gay Scotsman. Or Karen Hardwick, a young, single mother. If I transcribe their thoughts, feelings and emotions, rather than just their actions, then I need to put myself in their shoes. How does Moray Ruskin feel and react when interviewing someone who is openly homophobic? In those cases, I have to rely on empathy - can I empathise with their situation?
I personally don't feel that I am able to sustain that level of empathy for an entire novel. Perhaps one day, but not yet.

But there are many exceptional writers who do manage it. There are many female writers who confidently write from the perspective of male characters and vice versa (although it should be pointed out that there are also some male writers who think that women spend hours in front of the mirror examining their body, and then relay their inner-monologue in the most toe-curling manner). For centuries, gay men have been forced to write about straight men, and I'll bet we were never any the wiser. A lot of authors choose to conceal their gender behind their pen name - you'd be surprised how many writers of 'chick lit' or steamy, female-orientated romances are actually middle-aged men. I know several... I can also think of several thriller writers, whose books largely appeal to a 'traditional male demographic' who use initials or gender-neutral first names; many of their readers wouldn't consider picking up a book by a woman, but will gravitate towards the guns and explosions on the cover and happily read them without ever realising who wrote it.
And let's not forget that many non-white writers have been forced to write for a white audience to stand any chance of being published. 
Many of these books haven't aged well.
But many are still perfectly good reads today.

So how do they do it?
In my inexpert view, to write and not be accused of cultural appropriation you need to consider several things.
Empathy:
You need to know how these characters would feel and react in situations. This is important for all writers, but especially when you are colouring outside the lines, so to speak. So read about these characters. Watch documentaries. If possible talk to people.
Consider Your Source Material:
There's little point trying to gain a perspective on inner-city black culture by watching films from a white director who grew up in leafy Surrey. Seek out independent directors from those communities. And read the reviews - what are people saying about the portrayal? Try YouTube as a source of independent films.
Know Which Lines You Shouldn't Cross:
Quentin Tarantino famously has lots of black characters using the N word regularly. If you are not black and aren't Tarantino, just don't! The chances are you'll fall flat on your face and offend. Just as it's no longer acceptable for white actors to wear dark makeup and portray people of colour, it's rarely acceptable to gleefully chuck around racial slurs with the excuse 'that's how they speak to each other'. Remember, your book will likely be hanging around in some form for years to come. There are already TV shows from the early 2000s that are awkward to watch.
Know Your Limits:
I don't mean in a censorious way, and I firmly believe that writers should stretch themselves. But also ask yourself if this is your story to tell - or more importantly, should you be telling it in this way? Do you have the skills to do so? 
To put it bluntly, if I want to tell the story of a 12-year-old Afro-Caribbean girl who is bullied every day at school because of her hairstyle, then that is my right. But it would be foolish of me to attempt to write a novel in the first-person from her perspective. But perhaps I could tell a story about this girl. I could have some short, first-person introspection - perhaps using my own experiences to describe universal human feelings, such as dreading going to school or the fear as the bullies approach - but some of the feelings unique to this specific set of circumstances are probably beyond me as a writer.
Try To Avoid Stereotypes:
This is a good rule to follow for any writer, regardless of whether they are writing outside their own experience or not. I started my career as a research scientist. In many ways I personally tick a lot of the 'traditional' characteristics of the public perception of a scientist. Yet I am bored of seeing these same old depictions, because actually, when I think back to the diverse and varied people that have populated the laboratories I've worked in over the years, there weren't actually that many folks that looked like me!
To show how easy it is to avoid these stereotypes, which range from the merely irritating, to the down-right harmful, I just Googled "what stereotypes about black people really annoy you?". There are a huge numbers of articles, ranging from the personal, to the academic. A bit more finesse with my search terms would focus this even more.
Keep It Universal.
Given all of the above, it can be tempting to think 'you know what? Writing characters from a different background is too dangerous - who wants to be this week's Twitter target for folks with nothing better to do'? 
And that's fair enough. But if the characters in your novel are a homogenous mass, then everyone loses out. So why not play it safe? Stick with universal themes that are separated from specific cultural themes. I am never going to know what a twelve-year-old black girl being bullied about her hair is going to feel about what it says about her personal identity. But I can describe the steady rise of dread as the bus draws closer to the school, and I start praying that the bullies are absent that day.
Get Feedback:
If you are writing about a culture radically different to your own, then perhaps seek out someone from that section of society to give you some honest feedback. If your circle of acquaintances doesn't include any suitable individuals, look online. There are plenty of internet and social media forums populated by folks who will be happy to read and critique and give advice.
Be Respectful.
To be told that what you have written is culturally-insensitive, offensive, or just plain wrong, is hard to hear. And unlike disagreements over style or plot, ignoring advice or concerns and 'going with your gut' can be fraught with danger. It may come back to bite you on the arse. In this case, it is better to engage constructively. The person objecting may have specific points that you can fix in the next draft. We all make mistakes when writing; the trick is to make sure they don't make it into the finished book. Nobody, other than my beta readers, will ever know some of the howlers that were in early drafts of my various novels. This is no different.
Develop A Thick Skin:
And finally, sometimes you have to accept that as a writer, you are going to get it wrong now and again. There are also those who simply won't accept that you should be writing such stories. Be humble, apologise where appropriate, and block where they are being unreasonable!

How do you feel about cultural appropriation or writing about other cultures? Do you have any recommendations for writers to avoid the pitfalls?
As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
All the best,
Paul

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First of all, I have to start this book review with a bit of confession - I don't read Stephen King!
The reason is quite simple, I'm not a fan of the horror genre. I have nothing against it; I'm not squeamish. I'm certainly not a snob. It just doesn't do anything for me. 
Yet I have the utmost respect for Stephen King, and his peers, such as Dean Koontz; craftsmen who can hook readers into their novels and leave them begging for more. King is an acknowledged master of the genre - but more importantly, he is a master of writing. Full stop. We can all learn something from him.
And so I dove into this book keen to learn more about this fascinating man and his remarkable talent.

The book is a hybrid - part memoir, part tutorial.
The first half of the book is autobiographical.
King grew up in small-town America in the fifties and sixties; the story of his early life and burgeoning love of writing - any writing - is a candid and insightful view of what made him the man he is today. That tale alone is worth reading. Unfortunately, despite what it says on the cover image at the top of this page, the edition I have is the original from 2000, rather than the newly updated 20th anniversary edition, so only provides a snapshot of the first twenty-odd years of his career.

The second part - on writing - is why this is a #TuesdayTip, rather than a #RecommendedRead.
King is a leader in the field and this book is his own unique perspective on how to go about writing. It's told as a narrative, with an almost folksy approach. Rather than a text book (although it is used in degree courses all over the world), it is as if King is sitting down chatting to you about what he's learned over the years. King taught high school English, and so even the most technical discussions about grammar, pace and structure are explained clearly for the non-specialist. The only assumption he makes is that you want to be a better writer.
The chances are that you won't agree with everything in this book. I certainly didn't. Some of the rules that he has found work for him, won't work for you. But that's OK. In fact it's a good thing. Every writer is different - do what works for you. But exposure to diverse ideas is essential when honing your craft. I know that there are things that I have subconsciously absorbed when reading this book that will help me in the future.
An interesting and controversial view, that King states forcefully, is that too much plotting makes for a bad book. Many of his peers would vehemently disagree, and have produced masterful examples that disprove this theory. Yet it gives hope to those of us for whom plotting is a chore. But don't let that put you off if your outline runs to hundreds of pages. There is still much to be valued in here, and reading about different approaches can help you hone your own method.

Perhaps one of the nicest things about this book is the way that King's love for his wife Tabitha - Tabby - runs throughout it. They met at college, and she has been his cheerleader, sounding-board, and fiercest critic throughout his career. In 2021, they celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary and it's heart-warming when reading a book set twenty years ago to know that they are still going strong today. 

The book finishes in 1999, a significant year in King's life, after a careless driver nearly killed him. The final chapters describe the horrifying accident and its aftermath in a frank and detailed manner that befits a man who has made a career of torturing imaginary characters. Because of the endpoint, we don't get to hear his views on eBooks, the rise of Amazon, self-publishing or the ubiquity of social media.

For that reason, I will endeavour to read the twentieth anniversary edition at some point, and continue the story of Tabitha and Stephen.      

I'm not a plotter.
I've said this before. I start a book with only the most basic of ideas about where it will be going and some key scenes. I also write out of sequence, typing scenes as they come to me, before stitching everything together in a logical order at the end.
Because of this, I don't start a book with a detailed timeline - how could I? I have no idea what's going to happen, let alone when!
But the keyword here is start I don't start a book with a timeline, but I invariably have several by the time I have finished.
Why are timelines essential for police procedurals?
My books are split into sections with a day and date for each section. This is my personal stylistic choice and it works very well for me. Other writers may not mention the date at all; you have to start reading that next chapter for clues that a new day has dawned. Again, it works absolutely fine. However, even though that author has not explicitly written the date or the time, they probably have a pretty good idea when that chapter takes place. They may even have a detailed timeline.
Timelines serve multiple purposes.
They help you keep track of what different characters are doing.
Is DC Blogs doing three things simultaneously, whilst DC Doe hasn't been seen or heard from for two days - an absence apparently unnoticed by all of the other characters (but most certainly noticed by Amazon reviewers)?
They maintain the story's internal continuity.
One of the most useful things about timelines, is that they help you see at a glance logical inconsistencies. For example, your SIO can't receive detailed forensic results for a crucial piece of evidence before they've found it and submitted it to the lab...
They make timings realistic.
I've written before about the custody clock (TuesdayTips#63) and alluded repeatedly to the time taken for results to come back from the lab. If you want to write an accurate police procedural, you need to keep timings in mind. Custody clocks start ticking the moment someone is arrested and they are inviolable, so make certain that your story takes this limitation into account. You can fudge the time taken for forensic results to come back from the lab to a degree - authorisation to 'fast-track' them as a priority, or a backlog at the lab can help you time your revelations to make the story dramatic, but there are limits. These days, with quick access to a modern crime lab, a simple crime scene and the budget and clout to push them through the system you may get DNA results overnight - a timeline helps you avoid stretching the limits of credibility. On a more basic level, if you need a character to be in Edinburgh in one scene and Cornwall in the next, leave enough time for them to travel there!
They help control pace.
Even the most blood-pounding thriller needs to give the readers (and the characters) time to catch their breath. Similarly, those beautifully written pieces that give vital character information, or fill-in crucial backstory, may be essential to the book, but tiresome to readers if they pick up a so-called crime thriller and the first fifty pages are all about the character's missing pet.
I've heard of thriller writers colour coding scenes in their timeline according to the action and pace. From there, they can easily tell at a glance if they need to adjust things to keep readers hooked.
They help you spot redundancy/missing scenes.
A good timeline will have a descriptive title for each section; it will be almost like a table of contents. This means that you can see quite quickly if there is anything missing, or anything you can get rid of because it's repetitious.
For example, in a serial killer book, things can become a little formulaic if you aren't careful.
Person Killed --> Police Called --> SIO calls Forensics --> SIO attends autopsy --> Forensics find a clue --> etc etc etc.
A timeline can help you identify this and also highlight areas where there is redundancy. An autopsy would be an essential part of any investigation, but if there are five deaths, do you need to drag your reader to the morgue five times? Can later visits by the SIO be summarised or mentioned in passing?
They help you rearrange your book.
See all of the above! It's also a Godsend for those of us who don't plot, and write out of sequence. You can rearrange your timeline before you start cutting and pasting your chapters into a new draft of your document.


What sort of timelines might you use?
I have a number of different timelines for my books. The most common one is a day-by-day listing of the key events. This starts off pretty blank. For convenience, I tend to work out a starting date, so that I can pin events to this. To this timeline I add in some important dates, eg bank holidays, birthdays, clock changes, school holidays etc.
As I write the book, I find that I also build more detailed timelines for individual days. My current work in progress has several, ranging from the night of the murder and how it was planned, to the police's investigation of a suspect's alibi.
I also have a series timeline that places the books chronologically and notes key events. This helps me be consistent - for example I have a significant birthday that can't be ignored during an upcoming book.

Tools for constructing a timeline using common Office programmes.
There are a plethora of programmes and writers aids available these days, many of which are highly recommended. I have yet to bite the bullet and install Scrivener (although I will be doing so in a few months). So instead I am going to make some suggestions based on my own experience using MS Office. Most of these functions are also available in comparable office suites, such as Google Docs.
The simplest way to do it is an Excel Spreadsheet: a column of dates, with a second column containing a description of events.
Excel has a lot of formatting options, so you can easily colour code your timeline. You can even add additional columns, such as which characters are in a scene.
A glaring limitation of Excel is that it won't easily tell you the day of the week for a given date.
If you are confident coding in Excel, this link details how to have it calculate the day for you.
https://exceljet.net/excel-functions/excel-weekday-function
Of course, typing in all that data is a bit of a chore.
I have previously spoken about how useful a descriptive section heading is for navigating your Word document.
These descriptive headings will appear in the Navigation Pane if you have formatted them with one of the heading styles from the Style Gallery. If you go to the end of the document and insert a Table of Contents (found on the Reference Tab), these headers will be listed.
You can then copy and paste the TOC into Excel. Voila! All your section headings are in your spreadsheet, with each section heading on its own row.


Excel is great, but it has its limitations. Most irritating is the fact that reorganising your timeline requires you to cut and paste and insert or delete empty rows, rather than dragging and dropping.
A different method that I heard about recently involves MS PowerPoint. You give each new scene its own slide. If you switch to Slide Sorter View, you can easily rearrange slides into whatever order you want. By using large enough fonts and colours etc, you can encode a lot of information into each slide. You can even write a summary of what happens, which will be a readable size if you double-click the slide to make it full screen.
A limitation is that you can't easily export a table of contents from Word, so that each slide is a new row from the table of contents. However, if you are detailed planner, this might be the method for you.
What information would you include in a timeline?
Do you have any recommendations for simple methods for generating one?
Until next time,
Paul.

On a recent visit to a museum, an information sign proclaimed that the castle that originally stood on that site had been "raised to the ground" in the 16th century. This seemed rather odd; unless it was originally subterranean and had been dragged to the surface. In which case, where was it now?
Of course the correct phrase should have been "razed to the ground".
Before we start, let's just make it clear that this blog post is not going to be poking fun at people for making incorrect word choices, or struggling with misheard common phrases. Indeed it would be very hypocritical.
Like many people, I struggle with homonyms. Homonyms (and homophones) are words with the same spelling but different meanings, or words that sound the same, but are spelt differently and have distinct meanings. The classic example is Their, There and They're.
I am fortunate in that I actually know the differences between most common homonyms and can easily spot them when proof reading my writing or marking students' work. However, when I am writing, I almost always pick the wrong word first time. Over the years, I've learned to immediately go back over sentences and check the usage and correct as necessary and final versions rarely have errors. I liken it to choosing words blindly from a high shelf. I get to the word and pick one of the choices from the shelf at random. When I finish the sentence, I have to go back and double-check I picked the correct one.
The second problem that many people have is related to phrases. This is often because they are so commonly misused in every day life that we just blindly say or write them without thinking. Or the phrase was slightly misheard - "raised to the ground" is a good example.
An especially tricky subset of this problem is knowing when to use the verb form or noun form of a word (and knowing what that even means! I am a product of the Tory government's disastrous decision in the 80s to not explicitly teach grammar, so I really struggle with this).
Examples of this would be when to use "Licence" or "License".
"Practice" or "practise"?
The problem with all these examples, is that a basic spell checker wouldn't pick up these as errors. All these words are correctly spelled. The latest versions of MS Word now have intelligent grammar checkers, that will place a blue squiggly line under these words, and flag a possible "incorrect word choice", but it's far from perfect and doesn't actually correct it for you.
So how can you minimise these errors in your writing?
Fortunately, there are a lot of resources out there that can help.
The simplest thing to do is simply ask Google.
After reading the sign at the museum and thinking it didn't look right, I simply Googled.
'raised to the ground' OR 'razed to the ground'
I received lots of hits and was able to confirm that my instinct was correct.
Similarly, 'Licence' OR 'License' will produce dozens of pages that seek to explain the difference, or even furnish you with helpful mnemonics to remember the correct usage.
A real gem of a website is
https://writingexplained.org/confusing-words
This lists in alphabetical order thousands of commonly confused words.
Public Health Warning:
It's important to remember that US English and UK English can often be different. A great example is
Tyre vs Tire
(https://writingexplained.org/tyre-vs-tire-difference)
As the website helpfully highlights further down the article, tyre is the traditional UK spelling for the rubber surround on a wheel.
Both UK and US writers use tire for fatigue - e.g. I am beginning to tire.
Americans use tire for both meanings.
​
If it's unclear from the website if it is US or UK English, try typing one of the variants into Google - perhaps in a very simple sentence fragment - and seeing if it returns hits from trusted UK websites such as the BBC or The Guardian or even gov.uk. As always, try and find a couple of examples to be certain.


What words do you find especially tricky?
Have you any suggestions for how to choose the correct word or phrase?
As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
Until next time,
Paul