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