Unconventional Writing Craft

I've enrolled in a year of tertiary study to help my writing. Not unusual, but I'm not doing a traditional "writing 101" type course. Uhuh. Not me. I'm going to be studying biometrics.

This course will provide practical training in biometric recognition. Biometrics are biological or behavioural characteristics that can be used for identification or verification purposes.

As in most cozy mysteries my protaganist has a connection with someone 'in the know' from whom she can weasel out extra information. In the case of my story, that person is a CSI. So I want to make sure I know what I am writing about.

During this course I'll learn things like face, fingerprint, iris and voice biometric technologies, court procedures and forensic digital imaging.

I can't wait to start.

Have you ever done anything to help make your writing more realistic? 

Save the Cat

At the recent Romance Writers of Australia conference I attended a workshop by Nina Bruhns (Entangled editor and author). She built on Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat", a book I'd heard about, but never read. This was one of those lightbulb moments and I left Nina's fab
workshop determined to get the book and learn more - including how to write a Beat Sheet.

I'm now halfway through and I am glad I spent the money. I've been slowly weeding out craft books I rarely refer to, or didn't find helpful, or are no longer relevant to the direction my writing is taking me (mostly to save my groaning bookshelf!). I'd promised myself no-more-craft-books. But this one was well worth it. It's a keeper.

All I want in the way of craft books are just 2 or 3 that resonate with me. That I can easily apply to my writing. That will move my writing forward. That I enjoyed reading. "Save the Cat" ticks all the boxes.

I still have some craft books I haven't yet opened *blush*. Not that I didn't buy them thinking they would be useful, or that I no longer want to read them. I do. It's just that time taken reading a craft book could be spent writing. But I think I need to start reading them and flushing out those that I don't want to keep.

Hmm, talking about my keeper-craft books might be a post for the future. But for now, I'm going to reaad another chapter of "Save the Cat".

Have you read "Save the Cat"?