Here’s another interesting video for fans of crime fiction: this one features crime writer Val McDermid talking with Professor Sue Black, a forensic scientist, about issues such as dismemberment and other grisly things that crime fans tend to find fascinating – and how it is often the little details that really help to make a novel.

I think this point is an interesting one. In the video, Val McDermid talks about how even though issues of character are important, and how she explores why people do what they do, those issues still need to be underpinned with facts – such as forensic detail.

The video also throws up another interesting point that’s worth looking at. Namely, how other professionals can help us as writers. Most of us, after all, aren’t experts in forensic science, or the law or medicine or any of those other topics we often have to deal with in crime fiction. We don’t even need to be experts, but what we do need to be able to do is make what we write plausible.

As is pointed out in the video, that might mean only using a few words of an explanation offered by someone with expertise in the area, but that can make all the difference in making our work believable. It’s fairly common for crime writers to seek professional advice when undertaking research, and it’s certainly something worth considering.

Also, juts think about all the inspiration that could come from speaking to professionals, people who have lived what you’re writing and have seen everything there is to see. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and people with experience in areas such as policing or forensic science can be great to test out ideas on or find little bits of new ideas that you can use in your own work.

We don’t always need to get absolutely everything right in crime fiction – that’s why we call it fiction and artistic license is a great thing – but we definitely need to get as much as we can right, and it could be those little details that we wouldn’t have known without the help of friendly professionals that make all the difference to our work.

What do you think?