Date/Time
Date(s) - Mon 27th Oct, 2025
10:00am - 12:00pm
Talking Crime
Crime fiction is a dialogue-driven genre. Its preference for scene over summary, its focus on interpersonal conflict, and its reliance on the ‘interview’ as its default narrative unit means that crime fiction depends heavily on dialogue. This session introduces the key principles and techniques involved in crafting compelling dialogue. We explore the importance of subtext in dialogue, the conventions surrounding dialogue attribution, and the status of fictional dialogue as a stylised rendering – rather than a verbatim transcription – of the way people speak. We examine methods of using dialogue to reveal character, to advance the action, to convey exposition and to evoke mood. The importance of giving a conversational ‘goal’ to your viewpoint character is emphasised. The effectiveness of silence, implication and obliquity in dialogue is discussed, as are the challenges of writing dialogue when moving beyond ‘one-on-one’ interactions to larger ensemble scenes. The session will conclude with a Q&A on any remaining queries you might have.
This masterclass is primarily aimed at crime writers with an intermediate or above level of experience. It will not include any writing exercises during the session. Hosted by Moniack Mhor on Zoom Pro.
Tutor
Liam McIlvanney is a Times bestselling crime writer whose awards include the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year and the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best New Zealand Crime Novel. He teaches Scottish literature and creative writing as the Stuart Professor of Scottish Studies at the University of Otago in New Zealand. He lives in Dunedin with his wife and four sons.
Fees
We are running this as a ‘pay as you can’ event. Please see our booking options below. By paying our standard price wherever possible you help us give people on lower incomes more opportunities to attend, thank you.
We have a limited number of free places for this event, if these are showing as not available and you need a free place to be able to access the event, please email a request to us on online@moniackmhor.org.uk, thank you.
Access
Please let us know in your booking form if you have any access requirements when working online so we can do our best to support you. For more information about access to our courses, please visit our Access page.
Terms and Conditions
Please read our Terms & Conditions before booking.