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Is Your Story A Mystery, Horror or Thriller? Here’s How To Tell

Mystery, Thriller or Horror? Mystery, Thriller and Horror novels and screenplays do BIG business as they have high ‘adaptability’. Readers and viewers love them … plus there’s a lot of convergence between them. This is because the Mystery, Horror and Thriller genres have lots of elements that cross over. However, lots of writers run into trouble because they’re not really sure what their story *is* at foundation level. Whilst many writers know mystery usually involves some kind of twist, they often don’t know how to get there. As a result, writers may make their mystery too easy to guess, or… Read More »Is Your Story A Mystery, Horror or Thriller? Here’s How To Tell

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Top 5 Tips For Writing A Compelling Antihero

All About The Antihero In recent years, audiences and readers have really got behind the antihero character. I love to write antiheroes in my own work, plus I love to watch them on television and in movies. I also read them in novels too. In short, I am OBSESSED with them just like everyone else! For a long time, protagonists were super-good and antagonists were super-bad. This worked at the time because it’s what audiences wanted … BUT it raised a lot of issues, too. Because of the lack of general diversity, antagonists were often villains that were coded as… Read More »Top 5 Tips For Writing A Compelling Antihero

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Cop Week, Part 2: Inspiration For Your Own Cop Story

Your Own Cop Story ConsultingCops.com are back for part 2, this time with inspiration for your own cop story. I think these snippets of info and suggestions are fascinating and offer some real food for thought. If you are writing a cop story, make sure you check them out … they’re the real deal! Don’t forget you can read read part 1, HERE or by clicking any of pics in the article. 6) Kim Booth (@K_B_Author) “Fraud can be a great source material for your cop story” I think the tip I would give is that anything is possible in… Read More »Cop Week, Part 2: Inspiration For Your Own Cop Story

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Cop Week, Part One: How Police Work

All About Cop Stories  Want to write a cop story? One of the most popular posts on B2W in the past six months has been Top 5 Mistakes Writers Make With Police Characters. Since cop dramas and novels are so popular and savvy Bang2writers prize both accuracy and authenticity, it’s not difficult to see why. So when Lyndon from ConsultingCops.com got in touch to offer more insights into how police work, I said YES PLEASE! Here’s the first 2 parts and a whopping NINE cop experts who can shine a light on cop procedure. This post contains the first five.… Read More »Cop Week, Part One: How Police Work

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Why GRACE Took 19 Years To Make It To Screen

The Grace TV Series Have you read the Roy Grace novels? Then you know the TV adaptation starts Sunday, March 14th on ITV. I can’t wait, plus I am a huge Peter Janes fan, so I am delighted to welcome him back to B2W. Over to you, Peter! On Adaptation One of the first question authors get asked when they meet someone for the first time … ‘Have you had anything on television I might have seen?’ ‘Yes,’ I told a builder at a party in Brighton, back in 1999, ‘in fact I had a miniseries of my novel, Host,… Read More »Why GRACE Took 19 Years To Make It To Screen

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In JOKER, The Big Lesson Is There Is No Point

What’s The Point If you’ve seen JOKER (or even if you haven’t), you will be aware of the trillion articles, thinkpieces, tweets, statuses etc arguing about its point. I don’t think it’s unfair to say the reaction of the storytelling blogosphere and social media has been profoundly negative … Yet at the same time the movie has also reached dizzying heights of critical acclaim, also generating $290m in its first week. So what gives? Myself, I’ve never been a fan of the Joker as a character. As far as I’m concerned, he’s the poster boy for the stigmatising ‘psycho-killer’ trope in… Read More »In JOKER, The Big Lesson Is There Is No Point

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In The Spotlight: David Mamet’s Top 5 Writing Rules

All About David Mamet David Mamet is one of the most prolific and renowned writers working today. He has a resumé all Bang2writers would surely kill for, spanning the mediums from theatre, TV, film, books and radio. Mamet is also shouty and sweary as hell, which means B2W obviously loves his writing advice! This post could be also titled ‘How Not To Write A Crock Of Shit, According To David Mamet’. This is because he wrote a (very sweary) famous memo to writers of his TV show The Unit, way back in 2005. The TV landscape may be VERY different fourteen… Read More »In The Spotlight: David Mamet’s Top 5 Writing Rules

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3 Tech Clichés That Will Kill Your Writing DEAD

High Tech World We live in a high tech world, which means tech inevitably impacts on storytelling. Writers often have to find ways to ‘get rid’ of tech, but this can lead to a plethora of cheesy tropes and writing fails. But what if I told you tech was like anything else in storytelling? You CAN use it whenever you want, however want … You just have to make it authentic and twist it, so it works. Let’s go. 1) Facebook & Twitter In my other life as an author, I write crime fiction in the domestic noir subgenre. For… Read More »3 Tech Clichés That Will Kill Your Writing DEAD

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How To Assign A Character’s Race In A Screenplay

Race, Variety & Authenticity It’s important for writers to think about race, because representation matters. It’s part of the B2W remit. If you follow me on social media, you’ll know one of my books is titled, Writing Diverse Characters For Fiction, TV or Film. In the course of my research for the book, I talked to a multitude of producers, literary agents, filmmakers, publishers, authors and even actors for their thoughts on this issue, from ALL types of backgrounds, which has been a real eye-opener. I’ve also put my own thoughts under the microscope about what ‘diversity’ really means when it comes… Read More »How To Assign A Character’s Race In A Screenplay

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5 Top Research Mistakes Writers Make From Bestselling Author Peter James

All about Peter James Got a treat for you today Bang2writers … The awesome Peter James is offering us his expansive writing knowledge! If you don’t know who Peter is, FOR SHAME! Peter is probably THE top selling British author of the moment and most recently he won the coveted 2016 CWA Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence, plus he was publicly voted by WHSmith readers The Best Crime Author Of All Time. As if all that wasn’t enough, before Peter became a full time novelist, he was responsible for a whopping 25 movies as a producer and screenwriter. In short, there’s… Read More »5 Top Research Mistakes Writers Make From Bestselling Author Peter James

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How To Twist Your Story (Do Your Research)

One of my favourite things about being a script editor for movies is having to ‘bone up’ (arf) on subjects I otherwise have little or even no knowledge of, in order to help writers. Just recently I’ve had to do a chunk of research on online gambling for a writer/director, which has been quite the eye-opener! Did you know … The online gambling industry is always looking to attract new clients, and I’ve noticed they clearly target movie fans. In addition to ‘classic’ casino games, casino sites offer online slots games that include characters from popular films like Gladiator and The… Read More »How To Twist Your Story (Do Your Research)

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5 Reasons To Write **Where** You Know

Everyone’s familiar with the writing adage “Write WHAT You Know”, but not everyone thinks about how WHERE they know can help their writing, too. So when Richard suggested looking at storyworld in this way, I jumped at the chance for a guest post … Over to you, Richard! Reason Number 1: The setting is your story’s principal supporting character Traditional writing wisdom says writers should write **what** they know. ‘What’ you know informs the storyline of what you write. But that maxim overlooks the fact that the action (and the inaction) of any story occurs in a setting. That setting often… Read More »5 Reasons To Write **Where** You Know

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