FIRE Influences Plot and Characters

As I was outlining my latest Emily Stone thriller, DEAD BURN, I realized that fire has played a pivotal role in many movies. Writing about fire and creating a fire scene sounds simple enough, but there’s so much more to it.

There were some questions I had to answer before jumping into my storyline about an arsonist serial killer. What kind of role was fire to play in my thriller? Was it to be a main character, inciting incident, or subplot? Interestingly, fire can actually be a character in a...