The following are some of the notes I took at ThrillerFest 2016, the annual worldwide conference of writes of novels in th thriller genre. Yes, there are multitudes of sub-genres within the thriller category, but these points apply to any and all of them.
General Tips:
· The facts support the story, not the other way around—don’t bore the shit out of your readers
· Write something everyday—it’s a profession, not a hobby
· Don’t sermonize—lecturing about the social message kills the thriller aspect
· Keep your research in case you’re ever challenged or sued
· Your writing has to reflect the writer’s confidence
· Establish a setting
· Set the tone
· Don’t settle for your preliminary concepts; dig deeper
· Moral dilemma is key to thriller novels
· Create conflict: churn related conflict and resolution, followed by more conflict.
· Conflict is rooted in differing motivations
o Fear often is the primary motivator
· Emotion is more important than logic
· The Dramatic Question: What does the hero/villain want? (in 1 sentence)
· There has to be “high stakes” for a nation, a group, or an individual
· There has to be a “Riveting Concept” that’s focusing and larger than life
· Subplots prop up the middle of your story
· Read your book out loud to find the stumbling blocks for readers
· Print the book out and read it as if it was someone else’s book
· Because of peoples’ short attention spans today, you have to tighten up you novel
o Cut-Edit-Condense again and again
· Find your voice
· ENDING: have an ending that seems inevitable, but to be effective there has to be a change caused by the main character. BUT it has to be clever enough to please the reader
· CLIMAX: Here’s where the twists come into play, but don’t be predictable
· PROLOGUE/EPILOGUE: only use a prologue if absolutely necessary. The Epilogue tells the reader what happened to the characters—OR in my Sleeping Dogs series, it sets up the next book in the series.
· We’re not here to write the Great American Novel, we write to entertain—remember, it’s fiction.
· Don’t be discouraged by naysayers and doubters
· Don’t let being around big name, bestselling writers cause you to change what and how you write
o They weren’t always big shots, they used talent, hard work, and luck
In the next post, I’ll share pointers on developing your characters.