So you want to be a writer? Maybe we can help!

There are various programmes and books available if you'd like help to get started. Here are some options that we can recommend.

Sometimes you need a tutor

Crime Writing Basics with the Professional Writers Academy and guest author Sarah Hilary.
This online course starts 21 September and is open to students around the world. You can complete each module in your own time but all the students start and finish the course together to ensure they receive the encouragement and support of their peers, as well as guidance from thriller writer Tom Bromley who teaches the course. Bestselling, award-winning author Sarah Hilary (Someone Else's Skin and No Other Darkness) will provide exclusive hints and tips to students and will drop into the virtual classroom mid-course to chat to students and see how you're getting on.

Sometimes you need a place to write
Sturdy Table Writers' Programme at the Agatha Christie Festival.
Louise Voss, Daniel Pembrey and I will be talking about BritCrime at the Agatha Christie Festival on Saturday 19 September in Torquay. Please join us if you're around. The festival is running a writers' programme, its title inspired by Agatha Christie's famous quote that all she needed to write was a sturdy table. You can stay at The Imperial Hotel, where Agatha Christie herself used to write. Details of the residential writers' retreat here.

Sometimes you need a plan
Stealing Hollywood by Alexandra Sokoloff.
Helen Cadbury was talking about Stealing Hollywood in our recent broadcast on Blab. Even though Helen has had two books (To Catch a Rabbit and Bones in the Next) published – and has been chosen as an Amazon rising star by Amazon editors – she is finding Alex's book useful when planning her current book. You can see Helen talking about Stealing Hollywood here.

Stealing Hollywood
BritCrime author Helen Cadbury talks about Stealing Hollywood
Posted by BritCrime Authors on Thursday, September 3, 2015

Alexandra Sokoloff has offered us a copy of Stealing Hollywood to give away exclusively to BritCrime newsletter subscribers next week. Make sure you join BritCrime News so you don't miss out.

Sometimes you need some inspiration
Tony Schumacher interviewed in The Observer
Tony talks about the late-night encounters that inspired him to start writing professionally – from a drunken vicar to clothes-challenged drug dealers to the lonely people in Liverpool. Tony's first book, The Darkest Hour, was published to critical acclaim – including a review in the Wall Street Journal "a convincing and swift-moving achievement" – when he was 46. It's never too late to get started!

♠ Join BritCrime authors talking about writing tonight, 7.30pm UK | 11:30am PDT. Subscribe here ➼ blab.im/qhrjyw