Writing Crime Fiction

Tutor Tom Bromley will introduce you to techniques that add suspense to your writing, show you how to research effectively in the crime genre, and help you explore the senses to add depth to your settings.

As you work through the sessions, you’ll develop a new crime story while working within a supportive community of fellow writers keen to share their experiences with you.

We teach this course in our online classroom, which is open 24/7 so you can balance your learning around your work, family and friends. You’ll work in a small group of fellow learners so you can discuss ideas, ask questions and share your writing as you progress through the sessions.

You’ll learn from:

• Videos, podcasts and reading suggestions from tutor, Tom Bromley
• Examples from masters of the craft, including Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson
• Exclusive interviews and tips from award-winning crime writer Sarah Hilary and others
• Practical writing exercises to help you experiment and practise your crime writing
• Guided discussions with your group
• The opportunity to share your work and give and receive feedback from fellow writers
• Mid-course live chat with a guest author

You’ll need:

• 5-7 hours per week to work through the course
• A notebook and pen or pencil, if you like to make notes by hand
• A laptop or computer* with:
  • A reliable broadband internet connection
  • Speakers or headphones
  • The latest version of Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge, or Safari
  • Microsoft Word. If you don’t have this you can download Open Office free
  • Adobe Reader, latest version. Download free
  • QuickTime Player, latest version. Download free
  • Adobe Flash Player 10 or higher

*You can access the course from a tablet or smartphone, but we recommend using a laptop or computer, as this makes it easier to share your work files with your writing group.

Join our alumni

After your course, you can join our online alumni where you’ll meet our growing network of past students. The alumni is a friendly group of writers who support each other as they continue to explore and develop their writing.

Within our online alumni area you can:

• Rejoin your classmates on a private forum, together with access to an archived version of your course materials and forum posts
• Meet alumni from other courses and groups and share your writing for feedback
• Join discussions about reading, writing and ideas
• Retain access to our online resources area, which we constantly update with interesting and informative links
• Chat with other people in our online alumni chatroom. We also host live chats with guest tutors here

Commission a report on your work

If you’d like to receive a personalised, detailed report on your final piece of writing from your course tutor, this is available at an extra cost. You’ll receive detailed written feedback assessing your ideas and writing, plus advice on what steps to take next.

Taking things further

If you would like to continue on to another Professional Writing Academy course, you’ll receive a 15% discount.

Try a free course session

If you’re curious about how our online writing courses work, you can try our free taster session.

It shows you what our online classroom looks like, how our courses are set up, and gives you the chance to read, watch and listen to a sample of learning materials.

To try your taster session, please get in touch and we’ll send you a link.

When you do this we’ll also sign you up to our newsletter. We never share your details with other people and we’ll only get in touch once in a while to tell you about nice things – such as news, events, competitions and offers. (You can unsubscribe if you decide it’s not for you.)