Writing the thriller…a discussion…part one…

[Tom Pope is a writing teacher—see the interview with him in a post from a few days ago—and yours truly writes thrillers. We put our emails together to produce this Socratic discussion about several elements associated with writing thrillers. This is the first part of that discussion. Enjoy.]

Tom: What are your impressions on the role of the clock with the threat? I think that a threat should be a major one and the protagonist should face some time limit before all havoc breaks out. Example: T...