Aims of the course:
- To provide students with an overview of crime fiction from the first detective story written by Edgar Allan Poe to recent acclaimed thrillers.
- To introduce students to central techniques of writing crime fiction.
- To encourage students to make their own experiments with the form.
Learning outcomes:
As a result of the course, within the constraints of the time available, students should be able to:
- Describe the history and development of crime fiction and its sub-genres.
- Identify and analyse key craft strategies associated with crime fiction writing.
- Undertake their own crime fiction writing, whether in response to specific exercises/prompts or a more extended work-in-progress.
Course content overview:
Crime fiction recently overtook general and literary fiction for the first time as the UK's biggest-selling novel genre.
While crime fiction makes use of universal story structures and archetypes, this broad literary tradition has its own conventions and narrative strategies.
The aim of this online course is to introduce students to the craft of crime fiction, including inter alia: detective stories, psychological/spy thrillers, and mystery/suspense novels.
Each week we will examine a different writing technique: plot, characterisation, narrative point-of-view, dialogue, and novel-openings & endings.
Emphasis will be placed on (i) craft discussions, (ii) close reading of crime novel extracts, and (iii) writing prompts and exercises.
Schedule (this course is completed entirely online):
Orientation Week: 24-30 May 2021
By studying this week the students should have:
- Become familiar with navigating around the VLE and from VLE to links and back
- Tested their ability to access files and the web conferencing software and sorted out any problems with the help of the eLearning Helpdesk
- Learnt how to look for, assess and reference internet resources
- Used forums to introduce themselves to other students
- Contributed to a discussion forum to introduce themselves to other students and discuss why they are interested in the course, what they hope to get out their studies and also to respond to News item sent out on behalf of tutor
Teaching Weeks: 31 May-4 July 2021
Week 1 A detective calls: story structure and the classic whodunit
By studying this week the students should have:
- Acquired a basic understanding of the origins/tradition of both narrative storytelling and the classic detective tale.
- Discussed key features, readerly pleasures, and possible limitations of the old-fashioned whodunit story.
Week 2 Characterisation in crime fiction
By studying this week the students should have:
- Learned to create compelling protagonists and antagonists in crime fiction, in particular by understanding how character and story development are linked.
- Discussed specific passages from crime novels where the story dynamic (thesis/antithesis) between protagonist and antagonist is effectively exemplified, and where a character’s desire is (a) established and later (b) satisfied.
- Completed a character-based writing exercise.
Week 3 Narrative point-of-view in crime fiction
By studying this week the students should have:
- Understood key reasons for composing crime fiction in a certain narrative voice
- Studied excerpts from acclaimed and classic crime novels using different POV modes
- Experimented with writing in ‘close third’, omniscient third person, unreliable first person et cetera.
Week 4 Dialogue in crime fiction
By studying this week the students should have:
- Performed close readings of dialogue-heavy excerpts from selected crime novels.
- Developed a critical understanding of the strategic possibilities and effects of good dialogue in crime fiction beyond conveying information.
- Put into practice this critical understanding with a short piece of creative work.
Week 5 Openings and endings in crime fiction
By studying this week the students should have:
- Analysed the nature and objectives of effective novel openings and endings.
- Completed a writing exercise on first sentence/paragraph (lede) and conclusion (synthesis) of a crime story.
- Studied and discussed a range of examples from crime fiction.
Feedback Week: 5-11 July 2021
Each week of an online course is roughly equivalent to 2-3 hours of classroom time. On top of this, participants should expect to spend roughly 2-3 hours reading material, etc., although this will vary from person to person.
While they have a specific start and end date and will follow a weekly schedule (for example, week 1 will cover topic A, week 2 will cover topic B), our tutor-led online courses are designed to be flexible and as such would normally not require participants to be online for a specific day of the week or time of the day (although some tutors may try to schedule times where participants can be online together for web seminars, which will be recorded so that those who are unable to be online at certain times are able to access material).
Unless otherwise stated, all course material will be posted on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) so that they can be accessed at any time throughout the duration of the course and interaction with your tutor and fellow participants will take place through a variety of different ways which will allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning (discussion boards,etc).
A Certificate of Participation will be awarded to participants who contribute constructively to weekly discussions and exercises/assignments for the duration of the course.
What our students say:
"Excellent in all respects. Tim was encouraging and supportive and gave useful feedback on the wide range of submissions."
"I was impressed by how well designed the course was and by the quality of the materials provided."
"Tim Glencross has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the genre he teaches and a contagious enthusiasm for it. He is patient, supportive and understanding teacher. He is the sort of man one would like to have at one's table at a wedding. Or simply have a chat with over a glass or a cup of something in the quiet setting of a country pub."
"My busy life with work and small children means I needed to steal moments here and there to get through the material, so the fully online format suited me perfectly,"
"There was a wealth of background information, high-quality student-generated content for discussion purposes, excellent presentations by our tutor, and a vast number of thought-provoking questions."
