The Basic Ingredients of a Killer Thriller

by Jodie Renner, editor, author, speaker

 

Want to write a bestselling suspense novel? Who doesn’t? So what are the essential components of a riveting thriller? 

To compete in today’s competitive publishing marketplace, your thriller needs a charismatic, complex hero; a nasty, clever, determined villain; clever plotting, with lots of conflict, tension, and suspense; and a few twists and surprises, especially at the end. You need some gripping, heart-pounding scenes, each connected to the next and the story as a whole, with lots of direct cause and effect. And for maximum intrigue and reader satisfaction, it’s important to drop little tantalizing details and hints along the way, which all make sense at the end. 

For these reasons, it’s best to try to sketch out some kind of overall plan or plot list in advance; otherwise, you could get bogged down and drive yourself crazy climbing out of plot holes and rewriting scenes where your story goes off on tangents or just meanders or sputters to a halt. 

Your thriller plot should have a solid foundation you can build on, or the whole story could collapse around you in a muddled-up heap. Unless you have at least a major story question/problem in mind, if you just start writing to see where it takes you, you may end up with a lot of “and then...and then...and then...” scenes, with no real point or connection. Not to mention clues that end up going nowhere. This would leave your readers confused and irritated and could sink your reputation as a thriller writer. Even a rough road map will help you stay focused as you’re writing.

First, what are the basic ingredients of a riveting thriller?

James N. Frey sums it up: “To create a damn good thriller, you need to create a clever hero and send him or her on an ‘impossible’ mission to foil evil for the benefit of others.”

Here’s another definition of thrillers, from good old Wikipedia: “A broad genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the reader’s or viewer’s moods, giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety, and/or terror. Thriller films tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing, and fast-paced. 

“A thriller provides the sudden rush of emotions, excitement, and exhilaration that drive the narrative, sometimes subtly with peaks and lulls, sometimes at a constant, breakneck pace with thrills. It keeps the audience cliff-hanging at the ‘edge of their seats’ as the plot builds towards a climax. Literary devices such as red herrings, plot twists, and cliffhangers are used extensively. A thriller is usually a villain-driven plot, whereby he or she presents obstacles that the protagonist must overcome.”

Ian Irvine describes a thriller plot succinctly:

“At its simplest, a story consists of a character (the hero) who wants something badly, and an adversary who is trying equally hard to prevent the hero from getting what he wants. In each scene, the hero attacks his problem in a new way, the adversary fights back, and the hero either fails or his initial success leads to a bigger problem.”

Or, in my opinion, you could approach it a different way and say that the villain drives the story and threatens peace and security, and the hero spends the whole story reacting to the threats and trying to stop the villain before he reaches his ultimate goal(s) and commits the most horrifying, devastating acts.

Either way you look at it, you need to get the readers emotionally involved from the very first sentence. Here’s how to do it, according to Jessica Page Morrell: “Involvement begins when you create a realistic world, implant an issue that demands to be resolved, and introduce a character or group of characters who are intensely interesting to readers.”

What’s the premise of your story?

What’s your story basically about? What’s your main story problem or question? Can you state it in three or four sentences? Fill this in before you start writing, so you have a clear picture in your mind of your hero’s main challenge to guide you as you go along:

(Protagonist’s name) is a ___________ who ________. But (first big encounter/conflict/problem).

Now (action sentence). Will (big dilemma, question)?

Your plot needs:

~ A clever, resourceful, likeable but complex protagonist with some baggage

~ A conniving, frightening, determined villain

~ An overriding, preferably high-concept problem

~ Other related conflicts

~ Interesting, unique supporting characters, usually on both sides

~ Plenty of intrigue, suspense, and tension

~ Some subtle foreshadowing sprinkled in here and there to incite reader curiosity

~ Some surprises or reversals

~ A final big, very close battle

~ A satisfying resolution, with a final twist or surprise, and all the major story questions answered.

Also, set your thriller in an interesting locale. And give your protagonist a character arc. He is usually not the same person at the end as he was at the beginning. The challenges and trials of the story have deeply affected her and changed her forever. Series characters tend to have a much less noticeable character arc.

Resources:

James N. Frey, How to Write a Damn Good Thriller

Ian Irvine, 41 Ways to Create and Heighten Suspense, www.ian-irvine.com/suspense

Jessica Page Morrell, Between the Lines

What are some other essential components of a thriller that sells? Share your ideas in the comments below.

For more tips on how to write a thriller readers can’t put down, see my popular book, Writing a Killer Thriller – An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction, available as an e-book or in trade paperback.

BIO:
Jodie Renner, a freelance fiction editor specializing in thrillers and other fast-paced fiction, has published two books to date in her series, An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: WRITING A KILLER THRILLER and STYLE THAT SIZZLES & PACING FOR POWER, both available in e-book and trade paperback.

For more info, please visit Jodie’s author website or editor website, or find her on Facebook or Twitter.

Building 3-D Characters.

Not long ago, I attended a workshop and met the delightful woman sitting behind me - Cherry Adair. New York Times best-selling author, taking the same craft seminar, underscoring we should never stop learning. I’m happy to welcome her as our guest for today’s blog as she shares her thoughts about crafting characters.

Writing interesting characters – making them three dimensional- is the very heartbeat of a good story. Even if one’s plot is ho hum, if your reader connects with your characters you’ll keep them turning pages (and lining up to buy your next book and the next).

My first step in building an interesting character is their name. It shouldn’t be something unpronounceable with lots of letters and no vowels, or something so unusual that every time it’s on the page it slows down the reader as their brain stumbles over the unfamiliar. We don’t want readers spending the entire book trying to figure out how to pronounce a name.

I always give my main character’s a first, middle and last name. (What does their mother yell when she’s mad at them? lol) Even if you never use that middle name, you should know it. As soon as I name a character, I want to know what other people in the book are going to call them. Is it a nickname? A pet name? Is one character the only person that calls her by this particular name when everyone calls her something else? Do they like the name, hate the name, call themselves by another name?

Next find an image. I tend not to use celebrities because they already have characteristics I know. I look for a fresh face, a blank canvas, so my characters are mine, all mine.

Next I give them a birthday. I don’t allow myself to think about it, or read astrological signs – Do this fast. I just tell myself this characters birthday is March 21^st 1992. Done. I do this for each major character, and that includes villains (it doesn’t have to be a mustache twirling bad guy – it could be the hero’s mother-in-law.) All the main characters have a birthday. Day, month and year. The most important thing with birthdays is you can not change it once you chose it!  No matter what.

 

Once you have a birthday, research that astrological sign and you’ll see who your person is. Pick three to five character traits, and use at least once in every scene that character is in. No matter who’s POV you’re in. If the person is on the page, make sure they have characteristics individual to them. If this is who you want, you’re golden. You have all their characteristics under their sun sign, and you’re ready to write. What is the astrological sign isn’t who you want your character to be? Snoopy dance!  But I love it when I inadvertently end up with a person I didn’t want, and have no desire to write. This is striking gold! (remember, no changing birthdays). If you have a meek and mild astrological sign, when the character you want is a kick butt, fire sign, then you need to go into their backstory and see what changed them from meek, to fire. Give them life experiences, learning curves, lessons in their past, things that have changed them (for better or worse). Make them who you want them to be, but be sure to motivate those changes.

What’s fabulous about this is that you make sure that the ‘original them’ peeks through now and then. You can decide if, when the chips are down, they use everything they’ve learned over the years, or if they revert back to who they used to be.

Once I have their name, date of birth, and characteristics, I write their backstory. I want to know about their family (even if that family never appears on the page) How they were raised, how they grew up, who their patents are/were, how their parents treated them, their birth order, their level of education- all these things go into who they are the moment they first appear on the page. Be sure to add milestones in their life, the good and the bad. Know what they love. What they hate. What is their Kryptonite? What do they consider their strengths? What do they consider their weaknesses? What makes them happy. How do they feel about money (or lack thereof). Another thing I always know about a character before I start writing is how they behave if they’re scared. What is their tendency? To run away? To ask for help? To tackle even the scariest situation by themselves?

Knowing all of the above about your characters before you write Chapter One gives you a solid base to build your 3-D characters on so that once you start writing, you don’t have to come up with his brother’s name on the fly, or decided half way through the book it would be cool if he’s an orphan.

If he’s a three dimensional person in your head, he’ll saunter onto the page, thumbs in his back pockets, scar on his hard head from falling off the jungle gym when he was seven, barely healed heart after Roxanne jilted him at the alter when he was twenty-six, squinting because he refuses to wear his glasses. He’ll look out of that page with so much personality readers will hold their breath as they turn the page to see what he’ll do next.

 

 

You can visit Cherry at her website and check out her recent release Ice Cold

Developing Characters, by Adrianne Sainte Eve

Creating characters is the most rewarding part of writing, because life is full of endless inspiration. As human beings none of us can live without each other, yet we are all self-centered, maddeningly unreliable, emotional and unpredictable. We are hypocritical, pretentious, annoying and rampant with contradictions. Nobody is consistent, which is what makes us all fascinating. Naturally, our fictitious characters must have some of these qualities. They must have their own delusions, hopes, fears, and subtle nuances, and they must have some admirable as well as some shameful traits. They come to life when we give them physical descriptions, nicknames and distinguishing marks. I love to dress and accessorize them, like imaginary paper dolls.

It is always easier to see the worst traits in other people, so I find that someone in life who really aggravates me is a great starting point for a character. Certainly some of us are truly vile. Though there may be no excuse for this, but there is always a reason. We are complex creatures and everyone has some redeeming qualities through the stench of pain that shrouds us.

Delving into insanity is the best of all challenges. I believe most of us start with similar mental equipment, which becomes warped in different ways. It is entertaining to wallow in the bizarre, contemplate some loathsome and disturbing ideas, when you can attach them to someone else. I have once been told this is sick, though I think not. As authors, we have the freedom to paint in whatever shades of gray seem entertaining.

I enjoy deciding how the various goings on will affect my characters individually. It intrigues me that none of us ever get anything right. We live in our own worlds, always misunderstand everything, put our own skew on it, and run off to act rashly under some misperception. I find that the most rudimentary idea for a story develops itself once I have created my characters and decided how they will fit together. It is a rare and challenging power to determine all their fates. Everyone can relate when terrible things happen to a character, especially when they are undeserved. All the clichés; i.e.: life is tough, good guys finish last, no good deed seems to go unpunished, are about us feeling sorry for ourselves. So some of us must die young, for the sake of a good story, but conversely, some people just have all the luck. It happens. Though never to us, it seems. Still, the truly despicable are often nondescript, blend into the crowd and live their lives without incident. One might even find it therapeutic to get even with a rival, if only in one’s imagination. We have total license to exaggerate, hold up to ridicule, construct a grisly end and chuckle about it, though I admit nothing.

I recently read some opinions on whether or not it is better to write a story in the first person through the protagonist. There’s no doubt that this adds originality to the story. I always wonder how much of the protagonist is based on the author. Naturally, if narcissism demands, you can base the character on your very best self, though he or she must have some blemishes in the interest of genuineness. There is also an excellent opportunity here to sneak in your own personal rants without risk, or the occasion to develop the dark side of yourself, which would be amusing. Some freshness is lost when writing in the third person, but it often makes for a much clearer read. Sometimes it is better to disassociate. As the author, you can be the impartial watcher, just the record keeper, and can be as clinical as you desire.

I like the idea of writing from several people’s perspectives, each with an I voice. This can be confusing, but I say, so what? I personally don’t mind a bit of confusion because it makes me concentrate more. That said, I admit that I have been criticized for having so many characters in my book that it becomes hard to keep track of them. My publisher made me construct a directory as in certain Russian novels. But I felt they were all essential, and all I can say is pay attention.

The point is that as writers, it’s our own story and our own universe. We have free reign to create entire populations. It’s an incredible privilege.

* * *

Adrianne Sainte-Eve was born in Budapest Hungary, and spent her childhood in, Quebec, Regina, Saskatchewan, and Vancouver, B.C. in Canada. She is a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago and Northern Illinois University, and currently lives in Chicago, Illinois.