In this post, we’re going to look at how to write a thriller novel. If the book you want to write is broadly a thriller, follow the 5 tips below to get started!
1. Choose a thriller genre.
Why it helps
There are quite a few different thriller genres: psychological, crime, espionage, supernatural, science fiction. Each genre has its own set of tropes and antagonists that readers will expect to see. This sense of familiarity with the genre helps readers to remain in a state of suspense because they are less likely to be thrown by something unexpected.
Sometimes thriller genres crossover into each other: Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl seemed to start as a classic mystery thriller that turned into a psychological one midway through. This is only really successful, though, when hints at the twist are included from the very beginning. Gone Girl does that by highlighting Amy Dunne’s need for attention early on so that, when it’s revealed she’s behind the kidnapping, readers were surprised but not so surprised that it seemed out of the blue.
How to include it
Decide early on what kind of thriller you want to write and choose an antagonist to match that thriller genre. If it’s a psychological thriller, you’ll want an antagonist who’s clever and just that bit more intelligent than your protagonist.
If it’s a supernatural thriller, you’ll want something that the protagonist can’t quite grasp physically or defeat, like a poltergeist or a demonic spirit. If it’s espionage or a crime thriller, then your protagonist needs to be a criminal mastermind who’s always one step ahead of the protagonist.
2. Have a complicated protagonist.
Why it helps
Thrillers are notorious for having more complicated protagonists because, oftentimes, the protagonist’s own failings are what create the thrilling situations. The Bourne series uses Jason Bourne’s amnesia as a catalyst for all the unexpected action and espionage that takes place. Gone Girl uses Nick Dunne’s adultery and seeming selfishness to create the initial suspense around whether he kidnapped his wife or not.
How to include it
Once you’ve decided what kind of thriller you want to write, you should match your protagonist to your antagonist, in terms of intellect and capabilities. If your antagonist is a criminal mastermind, then your protagonist needs to be a great detective. If your antagonist is a poltergeist or demonic spirit, then your protagonist needs to have a level of faith or religious knowledge to stand against its evil.
This will allow that sense of cat-and-mouse that all good thrillers have, where the reader wonders who will come out on top after every climatic situation.
3. Maintain a high pace of action.
Why it helps
Thrillers need to be thrilling. If there are too many lulls in the action, then readers lose interest and the need to ‘keep the page turning’ drops off. While the action shouldn’t be consistently high paced, there must be more action than character development.
This is often done by including the ‘ticking clock’ trope: the main plot must be resolved within a certain amount of time or risk the antagonist defeating the protagonist. The ticking clock trope keeps the pace high because the protagonist can never let up.
How to include it
The kind of urgency and pace your thriller novel has will depend on what kind of thriller you’re writing and the conflict behind it. If, like Gone Girl or the Bourne Identity, there is ticking clock for the protagonist’s capture and incarceration, then the pace remains high until the antagonist is caught.
If your novel is more a supernatural thriller like the Paranormal Activity films or Rosemary’s Baby, then there is less a ticking clock and more of worry about the protagonist’s personal safety and choices around leaving.
Whatever the genre, check that your plot outline is about 70-75% plot-relevant action to 25-30% character description. This will ensure the pace stays high and readers are left in suspense more often than not.
4. Keep raising the stakes.
Why it helps
What makes thrillers truly thrilling is wondering what will happen next. What will the antagonist do next? How will the protagonist escape the situation and come out on top? What happens if they don’t?
All these questions require thrillers to be constantly raising the stakes. These stakes initially start out small, usually with the protagonist being affected on a small scale (like at the start of Gone Girl when Nick discovers his wife is missing) and end with their very life at risk (Gone Girl ends with him potentially getting convicted of his wife’s supposed murder or giving in to her wants and losing his autonomy).
How to include it
Raising the stakes consistently is a great way to keep the pace up. Start small and try to introduce a slightly higher stake every two or three chapters. This could be a new antagonist or an adjustment to the ticking clock. The important thing is that, by the end of the story, the reader needs to be worried about whether your protagonist will survive the confrontation with the main antagonist.
5. Include a couple of twists to keep the reader on their toes.
Why it helps
Even when a thriller follows the tropes of its subgenre, what defines a thriller is often the twists included. These twists not only keep the pace up and the stakes high but also keep the reader from predicting what will happen next. These twists can also change the novel’s subgenre by revealing how high those stakes really were for the protagonist.
For example, Gone Girl goes from a classic mystery to a psychological thriller when it’s revealed that Amy is alive and preplanned the whole murder investigation as revenge against her cheating husband. Rosemary’s Baby goes from a psychological thriller to a supernatural one when the twist reveals that the entire apartment building (including her husband) is part of a demonic cult aiming to get Rosemary to give birth to the Antichrist.
How to include it
Once you’ve decided on the type of thriller you want to write, think about what other subgenre would work well to get to the same ending. If you want to write a psychological thriller, could it start out as a mystery (like Gone Girl)? Or, if you want to write a supernatural thriller, could it start out as a psychological or mystery (like Rosemary’s Baby)?
Once you’ve chosen your ultimate genre and your ‘could be’ genre, see if you can plot out the story in the ‘could be’ genre while dropping hints to your real one. Rosemary’s Baby had signs of the supernatural in some of the strange events Rosemary witnessed. Gone Girl had signs of a psychological thriller whenever someone close to Amy talked about her need for control and self-absorption. The Bourne Identity had signs of espionage whenever it revealed who some of Bourne’s potential assassins were and who they worked for.
Have the ultimate climax change the subgenre by revealing that the antagonist isn’t who the reader or protagonist thought they were. Your novel should still end by accomplishing the ultimate goal from the start of the story (Amy is found in Gone Girl, Rosemary realizes she wasn’t crazy in Rosemary’s Baby, Jason discovers who he really is at the end of Bourne Identity) but the antagonist who caused those conflicts should be completely different.