D.P. Lyle - Two Pre-Conference Crime Writing Classes

Two Pre-Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference Classes

Best Laid Plans: What Were They Thinking?
Crime fiction writers must learn to think like criminals. They must plot the perfect crime so that when their protagonist solves the caper, he or she will be a true hero. To do this the writer must answer several basic questions: What goes on in a criminal’s mind when he decides that some criminal activity is the only solution to his problems? What pushes him to act? What steps does he take to plan, commit, and attempt to get away with the crime? Where do his plans jump the tracks? In this lecture we will look at several famous crimes and attempt to gain some insight into what the criminal was thinking, the logic—or illogic—of his planning, and the fatal flaws that unraveled his best laid plans.

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Voice: Whose Story Is It?
What is voice? How do you find it and what do you do with it? In this class we will discover the sound, the rhythm, and the feel of a writer’s most powerful tool, his or her voice.

These classes are part of the pre-conference events leading up to the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference. The classes are open to both conference participants and non-particpants, although conference participants receive a discount. To learn more about the conference, please visit this link.