Write a Bestselling Thriller

Strategies to write a book that thrills, enthralls and sells

Matthew Branton

• Publisher: Teach Yourself
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781444168686
• eBook ISBN: 9781444168709
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Creative Writing
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Write a Bestselling Thriller: Strategies to Get Your Book Published is a step by step guide to putting together an unputdownable narrative. It takes you on a journey through each component of the thriller, breaking the process down into key factors such as the Hero, the Trigger, the Story, Scenes and Style. The whole of the second part is devoted to the publishing process, while the book features hundreds of pratical exercises. There are diagnostic tests, case studies, practical exercises and Aide Memoire boxes. Each chapter concludes with a reminder of the key points of the chapter (Focus Points) and a round-up of what to expect in the next (Next Step) will whet your appetite for what's coming and how it relates to what you've just read.

1

Thrillers: What They Are and What They Do

In this chapter you will learn: What a thriller is, exactly Why thrillers can offer you unparalleled opportunities to win a wide readership The essential difference between crime fiction, or mystery novels, and thrillers What thrillers deliver on the page

Why write thrillers?

‘I had probably the best motivation there ever was. I was skint.’

Frederick Forsyth

As you might expect from a master storyteller, there’s both a plain truth and a world of subtext in that wry quote.

Frederick Forsyth is one of the greatest thriller authors of all time. His novels are famed for both their colossal sales and edge-of-seat movie adaptations: The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Dogs of War. Forsyth sat down to write his first masterpiece after a brilliant early career.

Starting as the youngest pilot to serve his country’s Air Force, Forsyth spread his wings to become an international reporter, ultimately covering Africa’s fiercest warzones.

There, in the depths of hell, Forsyth faced a formidable dilemma. He solved it by publishing an incisive analysis of the conflict, then deciding what to do with the rest of his life. Luckily, for millions of avid readers and film-fans, he chose to write thrillers.

Another colossus of the thriller world has an even more intriguing backstory. Destined to become one of the most acclaimed authors of our era, his career began in a rather more perilous sphere – he was recruited by British Intelligence while still in his teens.

A high-level career followed. It’s said to have been ended, along with many others, by one of the most notorious ‘double-agent’ betrayals ever. But the young intelligence officer, with big achievements already beneath his belt, had another.

Writing under the pen-name John le Carré, he was also a bestselling novelist. Twenty-some thrillers later, he is hailed internationally as a literary genius and master storyteller.

Lee Child, one of the most successful thriller authors of our time, is yet another big achiever. A law-school graduate, he took up a career in television, working on a stupendous amount of broadcasting at one of the biggest studios in the business.

Been there, done that. Lee Child then famously splashed out the sum of six dollars on pencils and paper and sat down to become, in his own words, ‘an American thriller writer’. More than a dozen international bestsellers down the line, his place in publishing history is assured.

Remember this

Thrillers attract talented people, often big achievers in other fields. What this demonstrates is that people can learn to write thrillers – even if they’ve devoted their energies to another career entirely. All that matters is the hunger to write good stories.

The top of the game

Some of the biggest names in thrillers are certainly high-flyers: lawyers who have won millions of readers with courtroom thrillers, pathologists who have become publishing phenomena with forensic thrillers. Serious professionals, people who’ve excelled in highly-specialized fields, seem almost invariably – when the time comes to pursue their literary dreams – to choose thrillers.

And some start out that way. The biggest names in storytelling of our times – Spielberg, Scorsese, the Coen brothers, the late Michael Crichton (of Jurassic Park and ER fame) – cut their teeth on thrillers, and return again and again to them through their careers.

The most memorable movie characters of the last few decades – the ones whom people all over the world quote to each other, and are always instantly recognized – were conceived and made famous by thriller novelists (consider a certain Brit who prefers his Martinis shaken, not stirred, and a clever chap fond of fava beans and fine Chianti). Wherever there are all-time best-loved book lists, and all-time box-office smashes, there are thrillers.

So what is it about thrillers that makes them the most-quoted, most talked-about stories on the planet? What is it about thrillers that attracts achievers to write them?

Key idea

As with any craft, the learning curve can seem steep when writing a thriller. But, as in any craft, the master craftsmen ‘pass on the torch’, with the insights their market-making stories open up.

In this exploration of the craft of the thriller, we’ll take lessons from some of the biggest names in the game:

Thomas Harris, author of the Hannibal Lecter thrillers

John le Carré, author of the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy trilogy (memorably filmed with Alec Guinness, and more recently Gary Oldman, as spymaster George Smiley)

Elmore Leonard, whose streetwise thrillers delight literati and box-office alike: the Get Shorty series, Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, Soderbergh’s Out of Sight

Lee Child, author of the globally bestselling Jack Reacher series

Ian Fleming, creator of the most enduring thriller hero of all time: James Bond

All of these market-makers use the core principles of thriller writing again and again in their work:

characterization developed with deep character

at-stake plotting with vigorous escalation

‘hookline’ story triggers

end-of-the-line conflicts

three-act dramatic structure

escalating mid-act and act climaxes

powerful plot twists, or reversals

full-resolution showdowns

We’ll study these techniques and principles in detail. But let’s begin with one of the most rewarding aspects of the thriller genre, for any writer or student of life.

The scope of thrillers

If you’re fascinated by life – in all its wonder and detail and diversity – and you want to write about it, then the thriller genre may be the best game in town.

Let’s look at the alternatives. ‘Literary fiction’ tends to focus on tiny slices of life. Its delicately nuanced stories call for sharp focus: metaphorically broad, perhaps, but in practical on-the-page terms, zoomed sharply in to catch nuance.

Which narrows the perimeter. Jane Austen spoke of the literary-fiction canvas as a ‘little bit of ivory (two inches wide) on which I work with so fine a brush’. If what fascinates you is the breadth and depth of human experience, you may want more than a couple of inches to work on.

‘Romance’ fiction is a genre closer in some respects to the thriller, in that plot and character carry more weight, but it still operates within a clearly defined and closed world. Opposites may attract, and principal characters may come from dizzyingly different spheres, but the space the couple create between them is the world of the love story. Again, Austen and her two inches of ivory.

Historical fiction ties its narrative to the fine detail of a part...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Half Title
• About the author
• Title
• Contents 
• Introduction
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Thrillers: what they are and what they do
• 2 The thriller author’s toolbox
• 3 Thrillers: vital components
• 4 The thriller hero
• 5 The thriller villain
• 6 The trigger
• 7 Conflict: a close-focus analysis
• 8 Conflict – part two
• 9 Thriller style
• 10 Build your own thriller
• 11 Getting your thriller published
• 12 Finding an agent
• 13 Agents and publishers
• 14 Publishers and other publishing options
• 15 Troubleshooting
• Glossary of thriller genres
• Further reading and research
• Copyright