Licensed to Thrill: Part one

2008-06-08T22:15:00.000-07:00

Licensed to Thrill: Part one

The wannabe author sat alone in the dark of his office, tapping away at his keyboard. Next to a thermos of black coffee on his desk was a messy, handwritten plot outline. The writer stopped, he realised he was getting nowhere. He looked at the plot outline, a piece of paper with too little detail too little suspense and not enough depth. In a fit of rage he picked up the outline and the coffee and hurled it out into the night. Leaning out the window he though he heard a rustle in the dark. Was someone out there, could some other person be lurking on this remote farm, 100 kilometres from anywhere. The writer shook his head, he must be imagining things. “Why isn’t their some help out there, someone who can teach me the skills to write like a proper author. I have the ideas but I just cant put them on paper.

His computer made a beeping sound, a new RSS feed had popped up in his inbox. Licensed to Thrill, he read, a three part series on how to write a thriller short story and get it published. “Just what I need” he said as he sat down and began to read. It was then that his computer screen went black. He looked around in the darkness. Suddenly the door burst open and in stepped...

Sorry to leave you hanging there, but that’s what thriller writing is about. In a nutshell

Thriller writing is using suspense and surprise to captivate the reader in a way that does not allow the reader to put the book down

All writing should be thrilling, unless you are writing tax legislation or insurance contracts. That is why the thriller genre is such a good teste of a writer’s skill. Thriller writing takes the best bits of writing and condenses it into a consumer friendly package. Thrillers can be seen as “commercial” books, but I don’t see how the amount of money a book makes effects its artistic integrity.

So if you want to learn the skills to writing a thriller short story and getting it published, read on

Why this series is different

It contains mostly dot points, examples, and exercises not long boring blocks of text
It provides a example story for you to study, This example follow the exact same steps as you to construct a thrilling short story
Its low cost. 90% of the ideas I talk about cost no money, those that do are essential for the development of your book
It has a great end result, you end up with a short story that you can read for ever
This series can be distributed anywhere for no cost, in fact I would encourage you to distribute this series, as long as you name the source down the bottom

The Idea: Three steps to a great story idea

What you’ll need…

The internet
Some scrap paper
A library
Some imagination

· Go down to your library and look for news and science magazines

· Example titles( national geographic, American scientist, focus)

· Get on the internet and google “weird news” , “interesting news”

· Some good sites include;

http://news.aol.com/weird-news, http://www.sfgate.com/news/bondage/

· Now read through the magazines and the websites

· Also check out www.digg.com, for plenty of interesting ideas

· Have a piece of scrap paper next to you and jot down any thing interesting you see

Example

Story about emigrating from south America to America, National Geographic, (lots of scary people(American Border Patrol, dodgy “border guards” in mexico, lots of hardship, bizarre stories ( the tunnel to America from Mexican town near border, great plot potenital)

There is loads of oil under the artic circle, Focus, (countries already fighting over it claiming land, Russia has legal rights to it, US ignores Canadian borders, particular ridge has most oil in it (legally claimed by Russia), a repeat of Cold War?, Russia and America both bordering resource rich land, fight over it)

Man, 84, finally gets to attend high school prom, San Fransisco chronicle, (not that interesting but the title is, why didn’t he attend first one, what happened, all questions that could start a novel)

Aboriginal man offered 5 BILLION for his land, Digg, (seems too high a figure, checks out though, all sorts of possibilities, with that much money people will do anything)

So that’s four ideas from about five minutes browsing. The two I like are the Aboriginal man’s story and the artic circle oil. Now that we have some ideas we need two more things; information and a central character.

Google the topics that particularly interest you

Sometimes the written word is a lot more informative, search amazon for non fiction books on the topics

Print off relevant information and put them in separate idea files, draw a star on the corner of any page with an interesting person in it

Example

Artic Oil idea

http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/07/news/international/arctic_oil.fortune/index.htm

http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/27/news/economy/arctic_drilling/index.htm , (star, geologist Dan Gautier)

Books

Amazon.com Widgets

After researching the Aboriginal idea I decided the artic oil idea was better.

After deciding on an idea and reading a few books it’s time for the most important aspect of planning a novel, creating a character

The basics of Creating a Character

A character should have flaws, not terrible ones

Should be very capable at some things, not at others

Should have some depth, not just be a generic hero

Reader should empathise with character sometimes

There are many different ways to build up a character, this is how I do it

Vitals

Name: Roy Gauthier ( shows the reader he is Canadian, and from a fairly rich family

Age: 35 (not too young , not too old)

Occupation: Lawyer/ Geologist, specializes in high profile deals with oil companies, securing profits for the country or the individual ( this will suggest to the reader that he has a conscious, and that he is rich

Status: Very rich from family and from career, kind of a socialite

Reputation: A shark, takes very big commissions for his work, very smart

Mock interview

Your main motivations are... Money and lots of it

Favourite way to spend your time… Playing the trumpet, working( playing the trumpet, could intrigue the reader)

Proudest moment in life… Negotiating a deal which gave 70% of profits to an African tribe. I took a 50 million dollar commission ( sums up the character)

Song I wouldn’t want played at my funeral.. All you need is love ( suggest some past hurt)

Greatest regret… Not marrying earlier, I need someone to spend my money on

Favourite possession… My Atom Aerial and Farbio GTS (shows the reader and interest in cars, expensive ones

Describe in one sentence your philosophy on life… Do a lot of good, make a lot of money, have a lot of fun

Sample bit of writing about character

“And now I present for you, all the way from New York, America, Mr Roy Gauthier.” The big straw hut exploded in cheers, African elders and youngsters alike clapping their hearts out.

“Good evening, ladies and gentleman,” the audience had no idea what the young, cocky looking man in the suit was saying but they still cheered loudly. “Tonight is the start of a big change for your people. For years your land has been raped by the oil company OilAfrica. But as of tomorrow I am launching legal action against these criminals. I expect a agreement to be met within the month securing 50% of the profits not for the government but for your people.” Roy translated in African “I will make you lots of money.” The hut erupted. Roy smiled, “So before I go I would like to guarantee to you that me and my company Gauthier Legal will change your lives for the better, for ever. Thankyou.” Roy did a presidential wave to the cheering crowd and walked out. He turned to his assistant, Leanne. “Good crowd, we get all that on tape,” Leanne nodded. “Great. It’ll make good footage for the new advertisements.” The duo walked over to Roy’s private helicopter, still running since he had stepped of it. Roy jumped in and relaxed on a leather couch. “Lets go, I want to be in a five star hotel with a women on my lap within the hour.” And with that the helicopter took off, veered over a large oil rig and headed along the coast.

By using the above methods it is easy to create an interesting character, get an idea of the way they talk and the things they do. If you are feeling creative you will probably even invent some new characters, like Leanne the assistant.

Plot Development

· Plot development cant be rushed, it takes time to think up a realistic, engaging story

· That said for a short story the plot shouldn’t be too intricate, think of an exciting introduction, a way the main character should change, a twist and an exciting ending

· Keep playing with structure using this system, 1) Write a few big plot concepts, event based or character based, on a sheet of paper each. 2) Write plot events down on the backs of business cards. 3) Play around with the order of these cards until you get an interesting plot, it will happen all of a sudden you will write a few more cards down and it will all come together

· Once you have a good plot structure write a synopsis of the story down

Example

Plot

· Roy hired by Greenland land owner, his land has been threatened to be taken by Denmark government and his daughter has been kidnapped

· Roy calls a friend in Canadian government, they fly out too the land and inspect it

· Roy discover huge amount of oil

· Roy’s friend relays back to Canadian government, reader thinks it Roy

· Russian and American forces mobilized, both say they have daughter and threaten them

· Roy, friend and land owner escape into network of caves under glacier

· Friend and land owner captured but Roy escaped

· Friend with daughter, land owner with Russians

· Both countries have fight over land where oil is

· America beats back Russians and a leader goes with friend and daughter to place where oil should be

· Cant find it, find mobile phone

· Roy kills man, leader of group called Special Oil Taskforce

· African mercenaries wipe out both sides

· Roy reveals aim was to lure out SOT, and kill leader

· All four retreat to Africa, as the world begins to fall apart around them

· Tribal leader from Africa becomes president of Africa, and it looks like Africa become world leader

Okay that’s a rough plot, pretty unrealistic for now but it gives me something to work with as I write. Once you have a clear idea of where the plot is going you will automatically make it more realistic

Some Homework…

· Use the methods I have described above to get an idea

· Create main character, and build up any other characters you need using my method or your own

· Play around with cards and ideas until you get a nice plot outline

· Write the outline down clearly in typed dot points, start adding detail

· Check out the following websites, organizations and books- they will give you plenty of information to help you with next month- the actual writing

If you are viewing this in an email or another website the original source of this article is www.thrillernovel.blogspot.com.

Good Luck with your writing

Coming Soon…

License to Thrill Part 2: Writing

And plenty of book reviews

I stumbled across this image during my research- enough to write a story on? I think so

Thriller Review: No Second Chance by Harlan Coben

2008-06-08T18:15:00.001-07:00

Harlan Coben is well known for his unique writing style, fast paced, twist filled and humorous. No last chance fits all these criteria, and takes the concept a little further as well.

Unlike Coben’s Myron Bolitar series (excellent), No Second Chance has some psychologically thrilling elements. The plot centres around the kidnapping of plastic surgeon Mark Seidman’s daughter, and the lengths he goes to to rescue her. In typical Coben style the reader is immersed in the story, as chapter by chapter the Mark’s life falls apart around him. Shocking twist after shocking twist leaves the reader on the edge of their seat until the last page.

Some criticisms, when you have read as much Coben as I have the same old jokes start to get a bit tired. There is only so much Woo Hoo a reader can handle. Like all Coben books the main characters speak and act in much the same way, but that’s just part of the experience.

So to sum up No Second Chance is a book I would recommend for anyone to read. It is a perfect thriller, funny, exciting and involving. I can guarantee right now that this is one book that you have no chance of predicting the ending

Coming up this month...

2008-06-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

book reviews on 10 new thriller novels
Top 10 thriller novels of all time
A 3 part series on writing your own thrilling short story- and getting it published

Time to get reading

Top 10 thriller novels of the month

Licensed to Thrill: Part one

I stumbled across this image during my research- enough to write a story on? I think so

Thriller Review: No Second Chance by Harlan Coben

Coming up this month...