How to Become A Thiller Writer
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Alright, not exactly a how to but at least some points to remember that might be helpful to those who are trying to make it through to the world of published authors. This is something that I just stumbled upon a few hours ago and decided might be worth writing a recap here in case I finally do get the nerve and the motivation to write something.
This is probably something that all aspiring fiction writers can take note of, not just thriller writers but writers of all genre. Some might be applicable, some may not.
According to Janet Reid, or at least according to the notes she took from a thriller seminar she attended, the following are the characteristics that usually make a good thriller book. It's either a book focused on one of the listed characteristics or all of them.
CONCEPT: The speaker cited Jurassic Park as a good example for this. How many other books have we read which took us in right from the start because of some exciting concept? It could be about the concept of time travel, or the sudden outbreak of a deadly virus, it could be anything really. A subject that holds the imagination hostage and then woven into a story.
PLOT: This is the most common, and most often what most writers or readers would first judge a book with. The blurbs at the back of any book sold in bookstores would usually give us a summary of what the book is all about and right then and there we decide whether we like the story and would be interested to read more.
PROSE: How did the writer present the story? Prose doesn't necessarily mean flowery words, which was what I found on the first and only lines I ever read of the Twilight series. It doesn't need to be poetic, as Janet Reid put it, it could be brutal like that of Charlie Huston's Caught Stealing.
CHARACTER: When the character of a novel is what compels us to keep reading a story, then that is a success on the part of the author. If you can remember someone like Sherlock Holmes or Hannibal Lecter and they become some part of your life, then the author has succeeded.
SUSPENSE: Who could resist a story that keeps the reader glued, seemingly wanting to turn the pages as fast as he could and yet devouring every printed word. There is such a term as page-turner after all.
EMOTIONAL IMPACT: If a story can make you cry on your seat, or angry — in sympathy with the character of course, then enough said.
RELEVANCE: Have you read the Ezekiel Option by Joel Rosenberg? I would say there can be no novel more relevant to the times than that. Just as he was finishing the last chapters of his book about the brewing unrest in the Middle East — with its first pages starting with a Jihadist bombing the White House — a hi-jacked plane crashed right into the twin towers in New York.
VERISIMILITUDE: Quite a mouthful I know. It simply means a story or plot or idea that answers the question, is this likely to happen in real life?
CONCEPT: The speaker cited Jurassic Park as a good example for this. How many other books have we read which took us in right from the start because of some exciting concept? It could be about the concept of time travel, or the sudden outbreak of a deadly virus, it could be anything really. A subject that holds the imagination hostage and then woven into a story.
PLOT: This is the most common, and most often what most writers or readers would first judge a book with. The blurbs at the back of any book sold in bookstores would usually give us a summary of what the book is all about and right then and there we decide whether we like the story and would be interested to read more.
PROSE: How did the writer present the story? Prose doesn't necessarily mean flowery words, which was what I found on the first and only lines I ever read of the Twilight series. It doesn't need to be poetic, as Janet Reid put it, it could be brutal like that of Charlie Huston's Caught Stealing.
CHARACTER: When the character of a novel is what compels us to keep reading a story, then that is a success on the part of the author. If you can remember someone like Sherlock Holmes or Hannibal Lecter and they become some part of your life, then the author has succeeded.
SUSPENSE: Who could resist a story that keeps the reader glued, seemingly wanting to turn the pages as fast as he could and yet devouring every printed word. There is such a term as page-turner after all.
EMOTIONAL IMPACT: If a story can make you cry on your seat, or angry — in sympathy with the character of course, then enough said.
RELEVANCE: Have you read the Ezekiel Option by Joel Rosenberg? I would say there can be no novel more relevant to the times than that. Just as he was finishing the last chapters of his book about the brewing unrest in the Middle East — with its first pages starting with a Jihadist bombing the White House — a hi-jacked plane crashed right into the twin towers in New York.
VERISIMILITUDE: Quite a mouthful I know. It simply means a story or plot or idea that answers the question, is this likely to happen in real life?
