The Trials Of A Crime Writer: Growing Your Ideas

THE TRIALS OF A CRIME WRITER: GROWING YOUR IDEAS

One of the many things I've learned over my years of thinking up crime ideas is that you can always go bigger. You can start with an idea that feels like it's more a short story and then end up with one that's more than a novel. I've written nearly fifty first drafts, and the two that will put me at fifty itself are both crime ideas. Some of the ones I've already written are a mix of other genres, but I find that I always come back to crime maybe because it was that genre that got me into writing in the first place, who knows!

Either way, crime is something that encompasses a wide array of things. It can be a private detective, or a police procedural. It can be adults, or teens, or even children taking on mysteries and solving them much to their own satisfaction and also for the readers. While I like the police ones as much as the next crime reader, I've always had a soft spot for the untrained taking on crimes and bringing about that ending. It's probably why I've written so many crime books while also being a young adult writer.

My point today though is that crime is one of those things that can always lead to more dominoes being lined up. If you take a story where someone has died, you can always throw in another body, or someone going missing, or twisting the narrative here and there before you end up with a whole series with an arc that expands the whole thing. That, for me, is the beauty of the crime genre. It grows and grows and grows, and it feels like it never stops, and I love that about it.

But how do you learn how to grow them? I think for me it came about just absorbing ideas in the form of both reading crime books, and also being aware of the world around me. While there are some crimes that don't work for young adult, there are others that work even better for them, and the reason I mention that is simply because that's always where my focus is for growing an idea. You, dear reader, might be someone who's writing adult and in that case, the floor is open to you too.

I read a lot of books. I read a lot of genres. I go from adult to young adult and back again. I'm not someone who really sticks with one genre all the time, and while there are some I don't read, like epic fantasy, I do appreciate that there can be outliers that will pull me into their worlds and make me want to know more. The reason I mention this is there are ways to grow your crime ideas while reading outside of that genre. I've had ideas about thrillers because I've read a romance series. It's been the tweaks here and there that have taken that idea and turned it into something bigger and more manageable for me. You really can find inspiration for your ideas from pretty much anywhere!

Writing has always been an escape for me, and while I've always explored the darker side of fiction both as a reader and a writer, there have been times when it's been those dark sides that have brought me over to the light. I love romance, not really one for dark romance, but sometimes while reading a romance, I can take the setting and the stakes and turn it into a crime thriller with more darkness than the current work I'm reading. The point is that everything, every idea, every plot, can be grown. It's just about finding the right fuel to grow it, and also to know when you need more to it, because while everything can be grown, sometimes they can grow too much and in that case, it's better to start cutting back and seeing what works.

So my one piece of advice for those looking to grow their ideas? Read. Read all the genres you want, and hone in on and focus on the pieces of the plot that would work for you. You'd be surprised at where you can get inspiration from!

Any questions? Lemme know in the comments!

Follow Joey to be kept up to date with the latest news regarding Joey and her books.