Suspense?

It's my preference in general and what I naturally gravitate toward. I've been reading it since middle school. And I've read lots and lots and lots and lots...

What is it specifically that gives you problems? The plotting? The pacing? I mean, some people just don't write certain things well. I have a hard time seeing myself writing a mystery because of the plot elements involved, for instance. Not saying I wouldn't try it one day, but plot is not my forte.

As Katie said- thrillers are what I like to read - I love the 'high stakes' the life and death element- I guess I am so used to how they are written from reading so many that writing one seems natural.

A tale well calculated to keep you in . . .

Suspense!

Love the word and the genre ever since thrilling to the radio drama of the same name in the 'forties and 'fifties.

I try to infuse it in my mystery stories. To make, as the creepy-voiced radio announcer said, "a tale well calculated to keep you in . . . sus-PENSE!"

Every novel needs suspense, whether it's crime, literary or romance. It goes hand in hand with conflict.

Suspense isn't just a ticking bomb, a gun fight or car chases. All these scenarios need something extra no matter how well written - they need emotional suspense/stakes.

Forestqueen808 said:

I have read books such as Bourne Identity and such, but it seems like I can't write a thriller/suspense no matter how hard I try!

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I don't mean this in a bad way, but if you can't do it no matter how hard you try... then don't write one.

Seems you are doing pretty well in YA fantasy and such, which is a money-making area right now. Why go to something that isn't selling as well?

ToddWBush said:

Seems you are doing pretty well in YA fantasy and such, which is a money-making area right now. Why go to something that isn't selling as well?

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Crime/thrillers are the biggest selling genre.

gothicangel said:

Crime/thrillers are the biggest selling genre.

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From everything I've read in my studies of the business currently, it is YA, and specifically YA fantasy that is selling with publishers. Crime/thriller, while it is popular, isn't selling as well.

If I'm wrong, someone correct me. But I think I read that somewhere.

gothicangel said:

Crime/thrillers are the biggest selling genre.

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Do you have the statistics to back that up? It's my impression, and no, I don't have the statistics right here handy, but I could look them up, that Romance, in all its many forms, is the top seller. That and the Bible, but that's been done, you know?

Chris P said:

As much as I hate to agree with an Ole Miss fan, I do agree. Play to your strengths. In the meantime, practice! Just as athletes and musicians need to practice, so do writers. Maybe writing something non-suspense but also not your strongest genre will change your perspective enough to give you the "in" you need.

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I do so love it when a State fan is forced to agree with me. Hotty Toddy!!!

jeseymour said:

Do you have the statistics to back that up? It's my impression, and no, I don't have the statistics right here handy, but I could look them up, that Romance, in all its many forms, is the top seller. That and the Bible, but that's been done, you know?

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Yeah, I'm with this one. From everything I've heard romance is by far the biggest seller out there, though nonfiction apparently outsells fiction easy. I think at the moment YA and urban fantasy are the "big thing" and everyone's writing it, though whether there are actually that many more selling (if you took Twilight out of the mix) would be interesting to know.

It sure doesn't seem like we have all that many suspense/thriller writers here, does it? Just a quick hike through Hell makes it seem like everyone these days is writing YA, romance, or fantasy of some sort (or a mix of the three).

Detour, sorry...

kaitie, I love that you have the best quote from the new Star Trek in your siggy. So totally made me smile and nod my head.

jeseymour said:

Do you have the statistics to back that up? It's my impression, and no, I don't have the statistics right here handy, but I could look them up, that Romance, in all its many forms, is the top seller. That and the Bible, but that's been done, you know?

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It tends to swing between crime and romance.

There is no point in writing for what appears to be selling. The books that hit the market now where bought by publishers 18 months ago.

Write what you want to write, because by the time you have a manuscript the YA boom will be dead and buried.

I wish I knew where I'd seen this. I was fairly certain I've read that something like 50% of fiction sold is romance. I also think fantasy was the next highest. Okay, I'm going to go dig out some stats later, but I've got to get crap done first so not sure when I'll get around to it. Hopefully soon. This is gonna bug me otherwise.

Forestqueen808 said:

I have read books such as Bourne Identity and such, but it seems like I can't write a thriller/suspense no matter how hard I try! How do you do it?

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Try this little formula...

1. Create a memorably heroic character; one who's an Extreme of type
2. Write down five characteristics you'd expect to be true of this character. Turn one of them upside-down.
3. Give the character a flaw
4. Give this character a dangerous situation you'd expect it to be able to solve or prevent
5. Now exaggerate the situation. Make the stakes so bad that it's impossible to resolve
6. Now give the character a strong personal reason to want this resolved.
7. Now make it even more personal, until the problem is tied up in who the character is
8. Add a villain or antagonist who's a memorably heroic character; one who's an extreme of type
9. Write down five characteristics you'd expect to be true of this character. Turn one upside-down.
10. Give the villain a flaw.
11. Give it a situation it must strive for, which you'd normally expect it to be able to manage.
12. Now make that situation impossible.
13. Give it a strong personal reason to want this resolved.
14. Now make it even more personal until it's tied up in who the character is.
15. Now work out how the problem in 11 relates to the one in 4.
16. Now add a lit fuse to the problem in 4. It must be solved within X amount of time, or else...
17. Now look at the consequences of failure to your hero and villain. Work out what will happen if they fail, and how much they can salvage.
18. Add setting, supporting characters and let them loose.

Hope that helps. Happy to do a worked example if you'd like to see it in action.

Ruv! that is pretty cool-

Ruv Draba said:

Try this little formula...

1. Create a memorably heroic character; one who's an Extreme of type
2. Write down five characteristics you'd expect to be true of this character. Turn one of them upside-down.
3. Give the character a flaw
4. Give this character a dangerous situation you'd expect it to be able to solve or prevent
5. Now exaggerate the situation. Make the stakes so bad that it's impossible to resolve
6. Now give the character a strong personal reason to want this resolved.
7. Now make it even more personal, until the problem is tied up in who the character is
8. Add a villain or antagonist who's a memorably heroic character; one who's an extreme of type
9. Write down five characteristics you'd expect to be true of this character. Turn one upside-down.
10. Give the villain a flaw.
11. Give it a situation it must strive for, which you'd normally expect it to be able to manage.
12. Now make that situation impossible.
13. Give it a strong personal reason to want this resolved.
14. Now make it even more personal until it's tied up in who the character is.
15. Now work out how the problem in 11 relates to the one in 4.
16. Now add a lit fuse to the problem in 4. It must be solved within X amount of time, or else...
17. Now look at the consequences of failure to your hero and villain. Work out what will happen if they fail, and how much they can salvage.
18. Add setting, supporting characters and let them loose.

Hope that helps. Happy to do a worked example if you'd like to see it in action.

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Wow, you're always like...clever and deep and stuff.

Ruv always has the best advice. It would be a better world if we'd all (myself so definitely included) thought things through as clearly as him.

Although I remain disappointed that he has not shot anyone hello lately...

Awww.

It's not a complete formula. It's just meant to get the major conflicts pitched at the right level of intensity, but hopefully that's enough to get folk started.

And it's not blessed by anyone famous... it's just bits from good writing technique and many obsessive hours of pulling apart really, really good thriller stories.

And it doesn't talk about bottom-story or what sorts of themes work best or how you bridge that enormous gap between two utterly heroic opponents each trying to inflict the impossible on the other... or how you do it psychologically (e.g. in Hitchcock's Rope) or physically (e.g. The Bourne Identity) or socially (e.g. some of Deighton's better spy thrillers).

And it doesn't mention (but probably should) that it works best if you write the villain's plan before you write the hero's one...

And I should acknowledge that all my attempts at a substantial thriller are still incomplete because I've been having problems with bottom-story, but I can still do a worked example if anyone wants to see it in action...

And ForestQueen...



Hi.

I'd like to see an example, Ruv.

My own take on writing is: get a character, beat the snot out of him/her by another character, repeat until he/she figures a way out of it, hopefully learning something in the process.

So yeah. Not as detailed.

I found that Raymond Chandler's advice works for me.

"When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand."

Pirate vs Gardener - FIGHT! (Pt I)

So, I think the thriller-scribbling game is the business of characters inflicting the impossible on one another. Characters matter for sympathy and saleability, but when it comes to inflicting the impossible, I think that character doesn't matter so much as choice of stakes. For this reason, in my worked example I've tried to pick the most improbable characters I could, and in the shower came up with a pirate-hero and a gardener-villain.

So it's a pirate vs. gardener thriller - FIGHT!

In this first installment I'll try and make inroads on the characters -- set up their personalities, maybe set some goals and stakes. In later installments I'll try and expand toward plot.

So, here are the characters...

Let's list five cliches about pirates:

• They sail ships
• They own parrots
• They're missing bits -- eyes, legs, and hands
• They talk in a Cornish accent
• They rob and plunder

...and five cliches about gardeners:

• They're old
• They're caucasian
• They wear hats
• They love roses
• They own cats

We need to develop some heroic characters who are extremes of type, which overturn some of their own cliches above. But while we're doing that we should also try and think about what will get these characters together -- pirates and gardeners don't often meet. So this is what I came up with.

Our pirate hero:

• Drives trucks
• Owns a parrot -- a playful Hawkhead called Merv.
• Is missing an eye and wears a real eyepatch
• Talks with a Brooklyn accent
• Is part of a small New Jersey truck-jacking outfit, that typically steals payloads of tobacco, alcohol and electronics

Meanwhile our gardener villain:

• Is young, seductive and female
• Is Chinese -- in fact, she's the daughter of a high-ranking Communist Party official, but lives in the US
• Loves hats, and attends the latest fashion-shows
• Loves roses and sits on the board of a state-owned international florist chain
• Owns Sumatran tigers

His big flaw is a weakness for playing craps.

Her big flaw is that she's obsessive about hats.

Are they larger than life? I'd say so. Extremes of type? Hopefully. Lets see how their stakes shape up.

To set the stakes, we need to pick something ordinarily attainable and make it a life-or-death matter and simultaneously, impossible.

He (let's call him Bob) wants a mate for Merv to breed them. But Hawkhead parrots are a rare breed, hard to buy at the best of times, and avian flu has almost wiped them out. Bob can't get a female for Merv at any price. And Merv has been acting badly -- he hasn't been eating; he's been pulling out his own feathers. Bob is terrified that he's going to lose Merv if he doesn't get him a mate. After a really bad night with Merv, he decides he'll have to steal a breeding female from one of the few places that has them (details to be decided). But it's locked down tight against contagion and theft. He's a truck-jacker -- the best -- but he's not a second-story man. This sort of caper is way outside his skills, and Bob's family say he's crazy. He'll go to prison and Merv will die pining for him.

But a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do, y'know?


(more in a later post)

Pirate vs Gardener - FIGHT! (Pt II)

To Recap...

So far, we have a truck-jacking hero Bob loosely based on a pirate, and he's going to try the impossible and steal a breeding-mate for Merv his hawkhead parrot. And somehow that's going to entangle him in the world of our gardener villainess.

But she is also attempting the impossible, and her world and her plans must grab Bob's life by the throat and shake it. It's this combination that we see in the The Bourne Identity etc... characters who can routinely do impossible things, being put into impossible situations and forced to do even more impossible things. That's where the thrills come from, and from that we can build suspense.

It might not be obvious yet, but Bob is an improbably good truck-jacker. He can hot-wire a truck and pull it out of a diner in 60 seconds. He can drive a Mack like a Ferrari. He can break down a dozen palettes of cigarettes into cartons and have them shipped off in vans across New Jersey in under an hour. He knows all the fences for tobacco, cognac and ipods, and they all know him. Half the cops in Jersey are looking for him, but all they have is an Identikit of a guy with an eyepatch -- his trademark. But Bob always jacks trucks with a big, false beard, and when he wants to pass for ordinary, he wears a glass eye.

So now, let's work up our gardener villainess...

The Villainess
Zeng ('Kim') Chan is the daughter of a privileged Communist Party official who has gone to the US to handle the affairs of a Chinese florist company. She spent her childhood working in a State-owned flower-garden, growing roses, hibiscus and jasmine to grace the tables and homes of Communist Party Officials.

This was a cut-throat business because the state would dictate what flowers had to be grown where, but the Party officials decided what sorts of flowers they wanted. So the whole business was around getting people to buy what you were already growing -- bribery, corruption and nepotism were as important to the business as producing the most exquisite roses, hibiscus and jasmine you could grow.

Kim looks delicate and beautiful, but there's nothing fragile about her. She's a sharp, amoral business-woman who'll play both sides of the law to use relationships, influence and peoples' flaws to get exactly what she wants. And what she wants is what her father wants -- to knock the big US florist-chains on their ass, dominate the US florist market, and send greenbacks across the Pacific.

Because if she doesn't...

Daddy got powerful in the Party by making friends, but his social networks are getting old. A new breed of Chinese entrepreneurs is emerging -- brokers and middlemen who are happy to do business anywhere with anyone for the right price.

And Daddy's huge flower-fields in Hunan Province, where she grew up as a girl -- may well get levelled and replaced with car-factories if she can't help her father globalise his business.

And globalising would be well within Kim's ability, except...

She's been flagged by the US State Department as a person who's welcome to spend Renminbi at fashion-shows -- and that's all. Every attempt she makes to do business in the US is being thwarted at every turn. Department of Agriculture is screwing with her on quarantine. US Customs is intercepting her premium refrigerated rose shipments, causing them to spoil on the docks.

Back home Daddy is furious, and when he's furious you know he's running scared. Kim daren't go home without making Daddy's overseas venture -- Golden Hibiscus International -- a success.

So right now, Kim is living the high life as a sort of oriental Paris Hilton -- living in an upstate New York mansion with Sumatran tigers in her backyard, but she has to get GHI established in the US before his money and influence wanes, his prime real-estate is turned into car-factories, and she's deported back home for living beyond her means.



By now, both characters should be looking heroic, able to do the impossible, but faced with the impossible themselves. It's not critical, but they should also be looking fairly unusual -- not in the mold of other authors' heroes and villains. Each should now look heavily invested in their goals -- life-or-death invested. So remaining is to work out how they hook up and come into conflict, then write the villainess' plot, then what the hero sees and how he reacts... and then turn that into thrills and suspense.

More in the next installment.

::waits with baited breath::

Seriously? I want to read this book. This is hilarious. ForestQueen, are you paying attention?