Tips on writing a thriller
These are some questions and answers from a thriller panel I was on:
1. Pacing -- What does it mean to you and how do you maintain it?
A thriller has to be generally fast-paced. That’s part of the thrilling experience. In my books, and I think this applies to most books, not just thrillers, every scene should move the plot forward. In proactive scenes, the POV character has a goal, there’s a conflict that gets in the way, and a setback, where the character doesn’t get exactly what he or she wants. In reactive scenes, the character is reeling from something bad that’s happened, he or she has to decide what to do next, there may not be any good options, but he or she decides to do something, picking the least bad option. Not all scenes should be packed with action, you need some variety. So that’s where the reactive scenes and character development come in. I end each chapter with something unresolved, something that will lead the reader to the following chapter. In The Wrath of Leviathan, the villain is getting closer and closer to the heroes, so showing the villain’s progress as the last scene of a chapter builds tension. Finally, I would say cut out anything you don’t need. Start your scene as late as possible and end it as early as possible.
2. Character sketches. Who are your characters and do you come up with them before you start a novel or do you develop them as you go along? Have you ever tried doing the opposite of what you do?
In The Wrath of Leviathan, my main characters are two sisters, Waylee, who is an unemployed bipolar journalist and musician, and Kiyoko, who is much younger, and is a virtual reality addict and designs game environments and real-world costumes for a living. There are a lot of other characters also. The main villain is a divorced ex-cop who’s now a mercenary. He cares about his kids, who he’s not allowed to see anymore, but everyone else is just a means to an end. I create detailed profiles for my major characters, fleshing out their goals, personalities, backgrounds, appearances, etc. These may change while drafting the story, but usually not a whole lot. I try to make the characters interesting, and different from each other. The characters themselves change during the course of the story, following an arc that’s integrated with the events of the story; in other words, the character affects the story and the story affects the character.
3. Much has been said about the plotter vs. pantser debate. Do you work from an outline or do you fly by the seat of your pants. How did you choose this method and have you ever tried another way.
I typically write short stories seat of the pants, more or less, but I always outline novels. They’re too long and complex to really get right without some kind of road map. I follow Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake method and Larry Brooks’s Story Engineering, more or less. The first step is to brainstorm story ideas and pick one worth writing about. I turn this into a “what if” question (e.g., “What if nearly all information was controlled by a powerful elite? Could ordinary people overturn such a system?”) and a one-sentence novel summary (e.g., “An unemployed journalist and her friends try to stop a power-mad CEO from controlling the world.”) The next step is to expand that sentence to a full paragraph describing the story setup, major plot points, and ending of the novel. Then I develop the main characters and their goals, motivations, back story, etc. I weave the character arcs into the plot and write a short synopsis followed by a long synopsis. I convert this to a scene list in Scrivener, with a virtual index card for each scene (ideally with the scene arc outlined). Then finally I start writing, starting with the opening scene and writing usually one scene/day. As I write, the story changes, sometimes quite a bit, but at least I have a roadmap to follow.
4. Chronology: when you write do you proceed in chronological order or do you jump around? How and why do you use this method?
I try to proceed in chronological order, but in the BetterWorld series, whenever the characters are separated, they follow different threads, and often I’ll be so into that thread, what that character is doing, that I follow it for several chapters before going back and working on a different thread.
5. What are some techniques you use to create and maintain suspense?
First, I like high stakes that are both broad and personal. For example, in the BetterWorld trilogy, MediaCorp’s information monopoly makes them essentially the most powerful dictatorship in history. And Waylee, the main character of the first book, will do anything to stop that, and is further driven because MediaCorp had her fired from her newspaper and blacklisted.
Second, make the villains more powerful than the heroes. The heroes of my trilogy are talented, but are essentially normal people, with no money and not much influence, but they’re up against the most powerful corporation in history and a government that does their bidding. Then I add missions that seem impossible, like recording secret conversations with the president, or taking over the Super Bowl. How on earth will the heroes pull that off? And if they don’t pull it off, the world is screwed.
Third, pile on the problems. Whenever things seem bad, make them worse.
And then have a ticking clock, deadlines that the characters have to beat.
6. Let's talk a bit about Point of View. What POV do you prefer? When it comes to thrillers, which POV is better? Why? What are the advantages and disadvantages to the various POV's?
I prefer third person close, so the reader can get inside the character’s head. I wrote a dystopian novel titled Born in Salt in first person, which I did just because I like to try different things. In first person, the reader is even more in the character’s head, but it’s harder to tell a story that way because you can only show things that are happening to that one particular character.
7. POV Shifts-- Generally, third person limited, using one character's POV per scene with a break between any POV shifts, is the preferred method for writing thrillers. Do you subscribe to this technique? Why or why not?
Yes. Film and TV have advantages over books in being able to show the setting more easily. But one advantage of books is that the reader can really get inside the characters’ heads, and I think that’s a crucial part of the immersive process.
8. Sex and Violence-- Ah, now that I have your attention, let me ask you. What should writers keep in mind when writing scene with the two aforementioned topics.
First, keep your audience in mind. If you’re writing for kids or teens, obviously you can’t be graphic. Then, unless you’re writing erotica or torture porn, neither of which are my thing, don’t go overboard with the details. Just show what matters most to the characters and the plot development. Too many details get boring. We don’t need to read about every squeeze and thrust, or every punch or gun shot. Just give a taste, enough where the reader can fill in the details.
9. How important is the concept of time in the writing of a thriller?
Critical. Having a ticking clock, a deadline that the characters have to beat, adds a lot of tension. In The Wrath of Leviathan, both the heroes and villain have deadlines. For example, Kiyoko, the main character, has to help her friends before they’re extradited. In Sleep State Interrupt, Waylee, the main character, has to figure out how to infiltrate a closed New Year’s Eve event and get everything they need to get inside and collect the information she needs, before Dec. 31. Then, they have an even bigger challenge to sneak into this high-security broadcast center and broadcast a video during the Super Bowl, and they have to figure all this out before the game starts. Then they have more problems after the game starts and are running out of time.
1. Pacing -- What does it mean to you and how do you maintain it?
A thriller has to be generally fast-paced. That’s part of the thrilling experience. In my books, and I think this applies to most books, not just thrillers, every scene should move the plot forward. In proactive scenes, the POV character has a goal, there’s a conflict that gets in the way, and a setback, where the character doesn’t get exactly what he or she wants. In reactive scenes, the character is reeling from something bad that’s happened, he or she has to decide what to do next, there may not be any good options, but he or she decides to do something, picking the least bad option. Not all scenes should be packed with action, you need some variety. So that’s where the reactive scenes and character development come in. I end each chapter with something unresolved, something that will lead the reader to the following chapter. In The Wrath of Leviathan, the villain is getting closer and closer to the heroes, so showing the villain’s progress as the last scene of a chapter builds tension. Finally, I would say cut out anything you don’t need. Start your scene as late as possible and end it as early as possible.
2. Character sketches. Who are your characters and do you come up with them before you start a novel or do you develop them as you go along? Have you ever tried doing the opposite of what you do?
In The Wrath of Leviathan, my main characters are two sisters, Waylee, who is an unemployed bipolar journalist and musician, and Kiyoko, who is much younger, and is a virtual reality addict and designs game environments and real-world costumes for a living. There are a lot of other characters also. The main villain is a divorced ex-cop who’s now a mercenary. He cares about his kids, who he’s not allowed to see anymore, but everyone else is just a means to an end. I create detailed profiles for my major characters, fleshing out their goals, personalities, backgrounds, appearances, etc. These may change while drafting the story, but usually not a whole lot. I try to make the characters interesting, and different from each other. The characters themselves change during the course of the story, following an arc that’s integrated with the events of the story; in other words, the character affects the story and the story affects the character.
3. Much has been said about the plotter vs. pantser debate. Do you work from an outline or do you fly by the seat of your pants. How did you choose this method and have you ever tried another way.
I typically write short stories seat of the pants, more or less, but I always outline novels. They’re too long and complex to really get right without some kind of road map. I follow Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake method and Larry Brooks’s Story Engineering, more or less. The first step is to brainstorm story ideas and pick one worth writing about. I turn this into a “what if” question (e.g., “What if nearly all information was controlled by a powerful elite? Could ordinary people overturn such a system?”) and a one-sentence novel summary (e.g., “An unemployed journalist and her friends try to stop a power-mad CEO from controlling the world.”) The next step is to expand that sentence to a full paragraph describing the story setup, major plot points, and ending of the novel. Then I develop the main characters and their goals, motivations, back story, etc. I weave the character arcs into the plot and write a short synopsis followed by a long synopsis. I convert this to a scene list in Scrivener, with a virtual index card for each scene (ideally with the scene arc outlined). Then finally I start writing, starting with the opening scene and writing usually one scene/day. As I write, the story changes, sometimes quite a bit, but at least I have a roadmap to follow.
4. Chronology: when you write do you proceed in chronological order or do you jump around? How and why do you use this method?
I try to proceed in chronological order, but in the BetterWorld series, whenever the characters are separated, they follow different threads, and often I’ll be so into that thread, what that character is doing, that I follow it for several chapters before going back and working on a different thread.
5. What are some techniques you use to create and maintain suspense?
First, I like high stakes that are both broad and personal. For example, in the BetterWorld trilogy, MediaCorp’s information monopoly makes them essentially the most powerful dictatorship in history. And Waylee, the main character of the first book, will do anything to stop that, and is further driven because MediaCorp had her fired from her newspaper and blacklisted.
Second, make the villains more powerful than the heroes. The heroes of my trilogy are talented, but are essentially normal people, with no money and not much influence, but they’re up against the most powerful corporation in history and a government that does their bidding. Then I add missions that seem impossible, like recording secret conversations with the president, or taking over the Super Bowl. How on earth will the heroes pull that off? And if they don’t pull it off, the world is screwed.
Third, pile on the problems. Whenever things seem bad, make them worse.
And then have a ticking clock, deadlines that the characters have to beat.
6. Let's talk a bit about Point of View. What POV do you prefer? When it comes to thrillers, which POV is better? Why? What are the advantages and disadvantages to the various POV's?
I prefer third person close, so the reader can get inside the character’s head. I wrote a dystopian novel titled Born in Salt in first person, which I did just because I like to try different things. In first person, the reader is even more in the character’s head, but it’s harder to tell a story that way because you can only show things that are happening to that one particular character.
7. POV Shifts-- Generally, third person limited, using one character's POV per scene with a break between any POV shifts, is the preferred method for writing thrillers. Do you subscribe to this technique? Why or why not?
Yes. Film and TV have advantages over books in being able to show the setting more easily. But one advantage of books is that the reader can really get inside the characters’ heads, and I think that’s a crucial part of the immersive process.
8. Sex and Violence-- Ah, now that I have your attention, let me ask you. What should writers keep in mind when writing scene with the two aforementioned topics.
First, keep your audience in mind. If you’re writing for kids or teens, obviously you can’t be graphic. Then, unless you’re writing erotica or torture porn, neither of which are my thing, don’t go overboard with the details. Just show what matters most to the characters and the plot development. Too many details get boring. We don’t need to read about every squeeze and thrust, or every punch or gun shot. Just give a taste, enough where the reader can fill in the details.
9. How important is the concept of time in the writing of a thriller?
Critical. Having a ticking clock, a deadline that the characters have to beat, adds a lot of tension. In The Wrath of Leviathan, both the heroes and villain have deadlines. For example, Kiyoko, the main character, has to help her friends before they’re extradited. In Sleep State Interrupt, Waylee, the main character, has to figure out how to infiltrate a closed New Year’s Eve event and get everything they need to get inside and collect the information she needs, before Dec. 31. Then, they have an even bigger challenge to sneak into this high-security broadcast center and broadcast a video during the Super Bowl, and they have to figure all this out before the game starts. Then they have more problems after the game starts and are running out of time.
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