Are you working on a psychological thriller novel? Do you need some help and guidance? In this post we’ll show you how to write a psychological thriller story.
1. Begin with the familiar.
How It Helps
Psychological trauma happens within the reader’s mind, so for your readers to buy into the mental and emotional roller coaster your main character is on, they need to connect with the main character at the start. Choose an internal struggle that everybody can identify with as a launching point for the more exaggerated conflicts the main character experiences throughout the book.
How to Include It
Begin with the character feeling something familiar: insecurity over a new relationship, anxiety over the fate of a current one, grief over the loss of someone close to them. Then create external events that exaggerate that feeling into something overwhelming. Is the protagonist insecure because they think they’ve discovered a new friend is trying to kill them? Is the protagonist’s current love cheating on them and planning to leave them for a new lover? Is the protagonist also being hunted by whatever killed their loved one?
Start with that relatable emotion and you can make your reader believe anything….
2. Choose the right antagonist.
Why to Use It
While psychological thrillers focus on the main character’s internal conflicts, there is always an outside antagonist causing those conflicts. The type of antagonist you choose will determine the kind of story you write.
Domestic antagonists originate in the character’s home life and make them doubt the safety and security of those they hold dear.
Supernatural antagonists cause internal conflict through the possibility of paranormal influences; these are often left ambiguous, so the reader doesn’t know whether the character really experienced them or not.
Revenge antagonists are those who are either exerting revenge on the main character or who the main character is seeking revenge against.
How to Include It
Look at the original familiar emotion your main character is struggling with. If it’s insecurity, a domestic antagonist might be the best option as you can explore those latent anxieties of a cheating partner and doubts around their family’s love.
If your main character struggles with repressed trauma, then a supernatural antagonist might work best as you can use the paranormal element to force your character to face their trauma.
If your main character struggles with hidden secrets, then a revenge antagonist would provide the foil for your character to face their secrets in an attempt to stop this enemy from destroying everything the character has worked for.
Or, you could mix and match them, using a final twist to show what was a supernatural psychological thriller has been a domestic one all along (Think: the film, The Others) or a domestic psychological thriller has been a revenge one all along (Think: the book, Gone Girl).
3. Explore the internal.
Why to Use It
Whatever the antagonist you choose, the true enemy must always be the main character themselves. It is their own unresolved issues that cause them to misinterpret or question what’s happening to them and even see what may or may not be there.
How to Include It
Once you’ve decided on a familiar feeling and an antagonist, create a backstory for your character that explains why the antagonist is causing this feeling to become so exaggerated. In the film Smile, it is not just the act of witnessing a graphic suicide but the fact the main character witnessed her own mother’s suicide that creates the internal conflict. In the book Gone Girl, we think it’s the husband’s infidelity that causes everyone to believe he’s responsible for her fate. However, as the book moves on, it’s the growing knowledge that his missing wife was a child actress with a penchant for lying that helps the reader realize the husband is being played with nobody to believe him.
Create a believable backstory that feeds the character’s internal conflict so the reader will understand why they get so hung up on the external conflicts they’re experiencing.
4. Keep your internal and external conflicts balanced.
Why to Use It
Always remember, though, that the external conflicts are what drive those internal doubts. Without the external conflicts and antagonists, there would be nothing for the main character to be concerned about, so make sure you balance a focus on both, highlighting how the external causes the internal and vice versa.
How to Include It
Make two lists: one list for what actually happens in the story and one list for what the main character thinks happens. See how you could make them cross over or influence each other and use those to create suspenseful events. Make sure that your story alternates narrating the main character’s internal thoughts with what they are actually experiencing. You don’t want too much action (and go straight thriller) but you also don’t want too much internalizing (and become a diary of sorts).
5. Make your reader question the narrator.
Why to Use It
Because we all know how tricky the mind can be, we must always wonder if what the main character is experiencing is really happening. Think of Rosemary in the film Rosemary’s Baby: even with the most obvious of clues in front of her, she still wonders if she’s just imagining things in her overtired and overanxious state.
How to Include It
Your protagonist must question their own sanity at some point in the story, if only to get your reader to do the same. Have other characters comment that they worry for the main character’s wellbeing. You could have side characters state that the main character remembers events happening differently than they really did. You could also have evidence be discovered that contradicts whatever the main character believes. Add small, simple clues throughout your story that make the reader stop and question whether the main character is actually in conflict or just imagining conflict.
6. Keep the reader guessing.
Why to Use It
At some point early in the story, the reader should start to question whether what the main character is feeling and experiencing is really happening.
Think of the horror film Smile: every scary moment that happens to the main character happens when she is alone. We, as the viewers, begin to wonder after a while if it’s really a trauma-feeding demon (like we’re told) or if watching her patient commit suicide in front of her has finally pushed her over the edge.
How to Include It
In those moments where the main character’s internal conflict is at odds with an external one, frame the situation ambiguously. Maybe, like in Smile, the main character is always alone. Maybe there are other characters present, but they behave in such a way that the main character (and the reader) can’t quite decide if their intentions are honest.
7. Plan your characters’ secrets.
Why to Use It
Psychological thrillers function a lot like a police drama in that secrets and red herrings pop up out of nowhere, surprising the reader and taking the story in a new direction. These secrets are key to keeping the reader engaged and on the edge of their seat, excited to find out if any more secrets will be discovered.
How to Include It
When you create your two lists of internal and external conflicts, make sure you include places where a new secret gets revealed. These secrets could change the reader’s impression of the main character or the antagonist, or could even flip the characters’ roles entirely, showing that the reader has been rooting for the wrong person all along.
Even if you decide not to use those secrets in your story, having them in the background may help develop your main character’s paranoia even more by alluding to secrets that are never revealed.
8. Make your characters work to uncover those secrets.
Why to Use It
Your main character needs to investigate why they are questioning their own instincts. This requires them to start digging into the other characters’ lives to discover if their paranoia is founded or not. It is this investigating that creates the suspense and drama of your story, exploring new avenues that both satisfy and exaggerate that paranoia until the breaking point at the end.
How to Include It
When you’re planning your secrets, you also need to note down how the main character discovers those secrets. Be sure that whatever methods they use are appropriate and not a leap for the character. For example, if they don’t work in law enforcement, then they wouldn’t have access to a morgue or arrest records. Make your main character work to prove their sanity but don’t make it unrealistic.
9. Don’t forget to include a bombshell.
Why to Use It
There needs to be a moment where both the main character and the reader go, “Woah, wait. Am I actually right?!” These moments are important because they keep the story from becoming too internal and force the story back into the external world. If these are planned and placed correctly, they can seem planted and undo all the suspense created previously.
How to Include It
Choose one or two of the secrets you planned earlier and make them story-altering secrets. Either have the secret confirm one or two of the main character’s paranoid delusions or uncover something that creates a new paranoid delusion. Maybe connect this secret to a character previously thought loyal or inconsequential. Make sure they are relevant to the story and not just there to shock the reader.
10. Choose the right ending for your story.
Why to Use It
There are only a few ways to end a psychological thriller:
- It was all in the character’s mind the whole time. This would require your main character to basically fall apart and lose everything at the end.
- The main character was right the whole time, and they are vindicated by having the antagonist dealt with appropriately (or not, if you want to end on a pessimistic note).
- The main character was right the whole time, and the antagonist was someone they (and the reader) never suspected, either because the character seemed loyal to the main character or was someone that never seemed relevant. This creates a sense of shock and awe on the part of the reader because they never suspected it.
- Everything is real, but the explanation is so completely out-of-left-field that nobody ever saw it coming. This can be a bit more elaborate and is more appropriate for those supernatural psychological thrillers.
How to Include It
Whichever you decide to choose, make sure you have included hints and clues throughout your story that would make the reader go, “Ah, of course! That’s why that happened!” If you don’t allude to your ending throughout (without making it totally obvious), then it won’t feel natural and will ruin the reader’s enjoyment of the story.