Making A Killing: Cosy Crime Screenwriting with Bob Schultz
Join us and learn how to make your cosy murder mystery even more entertaining, gripping, charming and deliciously twist and turny.
It's what execs want. It's what readers are searching for. It's what audiences devour.
One day. Online. Replay for one yearv
Sat 7 Nov 2026 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM GMT
Cosy crime is one of the most reliable genres on television. Audiences love it, broadcasters keep ordering it, and it travels around the world. But as cosy as this crime may be, that does not mean easy to write.
Underneath the charm sits a precise piece of engineering: a sleuth we adore, a world we want to revisit, and a mystery we solve in real time with our sleuth.
In this one day seminar, Bob Schultz takes the genre apart and shows you how to write your own crime show that could be the next hit.
By the end of the day you will
Understand the promise a cosy crime makes to its audience, and how to keep the mystery deliciously enticing
Have a compelling sleuth we adore, representing us, the audience
Know how to build a puzzle with clues, suspects and red herrings that all make satisfying sense in the final reveal
Have a story engine that can deliver a new and delightfully dark case every in episode
Leave with a one page outline for your own cosy crime pilot
Part 1: The World Of Our Cosy Crime (The Rules)
What makes a crime story cosy, and why audiences return to it for comfort. Tone, warmth, humour, and what stays off screen.
Outcome: a clear grasp of the genre's conventions, and where you can bend them
Part 2: Your Sleuth and Their World (Meet Your Protagonist)
The flawed and compelling detective, the sidekick, and the community that keeps producing bodies. Why the setting is a character in its own right.
Outcome: a sleuth and a world built to sustain a returning series
Part 3: The Murder (Building the Puzzle)
Victim, suspects, motives, clues and red herrings. How to work backwards from the solution and plants everything in plain sight.
Outcome: a working method for plotting a fair mystery with a satisfying reveal
Part 4: Whodunnit? From Idea to Pilot
Turning your concept into a pilot and a series. Episode shape, the returning cast, and what makes a cosy crime pitch stand out.
Outcome: a one page pilot outline and a pitch for your series
Bonus sessions from the London Screenwriters' Festival
To help you on your journey into cosy crime, we are sharing three sessions from this last festival. All dedicated to cosy crime (three hours).
Sat 7 Nov 2026 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM GMT
Live online with replay for one year
