THE TRIALS OF A CRIME WRITER: WHEN CRIMES CHANGE
When I first started writing crime novels, it was 2001, and social media was not a thing. The internet was all about chatting platforms like MSM and Yahoo! and others like that. I don't say that because I wanna be old, and moaning about the youth of today, but to basically explain that over my years of writing crime, crimes themselves have changed. There's things you can do today that just weren't possible back then.
Nowadays, with most teens having access to a phone that has all the apps they need, you can have a lot of different kinds of communication and twists that just wouldn't have been possible when I first started writing. At the moment, I am in the midst of rewriting rather than drafting anything new, and one of those projects is a young adult thriller. The things I have to switch around and change because technology has moved on, allow for me to add new issues to the whole manuscript and make things even more tense and scary. That, in my eyes, can be a good thing. It can also lead to lazier writing, which is what I want to talk more about today.
Crimes using the internet, or apps, or smart phones and the like, they're a lot more common, and no matter what age range you're writing for, though my experience is in YA, you'll find that it's pretty easy to get caught up in all the ways things can go wrong, and these crimes can occur, rather than really thinking about whether or not it's realistic for this thing to be possible.
If, like me, you grew up in the 80s and 90s, you might have seen movies like Hacker and think that it's pretty damn easy for someone to hack into whatever website or system and then boom, twist achieved. Only it's really not simple. Just like it's not simple for a teen to know how to code. They might have some experience with it, when Mx. K was at school, they did computer science which involved a lot of learning how to code on a simple level. But that's not going to then have them going in knowing how to create a working, complicated app. You get my point. People these days have more knowledge, and the chance to learn it at their fingertips, but it's the actual learning and applying that knowledge that can't just come in at the last minute and solve it all.
Crimes have changed. The chances of people knowing how to both pull off these crimes, and not immediately get caught have to be backed up in the narrative. While some people in adult fiction will have the skills and learning behind them to do that, when it comes to YA, which as I said is my knowledge base, there has to be a lot of experience woven into the narrative before it becomes believable. Trust me, people will know if you're making it up as you go along.
So how do you avoid doing something that makes it obvious to your readers that you really don't know the subject? I'm gonna give you some tips on what you need to do.
#1 RESEARCH IS YOUR FRIEND
This one seems obvious because of course you're going to research something that you don't know anything about, right? But you'd be surprised how often people will just google something and call themselves done. I'd advise that you go beyond research and actually try and reach out to people within the field. I don't mean pester them and ask them to read your books and critique it, but approach, respectfully, and lay out your scenario and ask questions. The key here is that some people are going to say no, or not respond, and that's okay. No one owes you their time. I'm lucky enough to have a friend who works in the coding side of things, so I can ask her for things that don't quite make sense for my characters, or for me. It's all about making sure you stay respectful and realise these people have their own things to be doing too.
#2 IF IN DOUBT, DON'T USE IT
If you've done your research and you've talked to someone in the chosen field, and you still don't really completely know if your characters or whatever can do the thing, then just don't use it. It's far better to take a different, maybe easier, route than to put out information that will pull people from the story. Those reading who do know this stuff, they'll know you're wrong, and it will just ruin the whole experience for you. So if you don't know for sure, and if you're thinking it's maybe not possible, then go back to the drawing board and think again.
#3 KEEP IT SIMPLE
Even with crimes changing, and even with the draw to making everything a lot more high tech, the obvious answer is to keep it simple. While yes you can have someone hack into the white house, and then do this cool thing and that cool thing, if they are an everyday person, even a kid, it's just not believable, and also way too complicated if all they really needed to do was something a lot more lowkey and simple. There's nothing wrong with keeping it simple. It helps move the story along, and makes sure you don't stretch the believability of it all.
So yeah, those are my three tips when it comes to crimes in our changing world. I hope this helps and if you have any questions, lemme know in the comments!
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