Writers and Authors

Showing posts with label writing suspense. Show all posts

Only One Reason to Write Suspense Novels: To Spin A Great Yarn, guest post by Samuel Marquis

Hello World’s Greatest Aspiring Thriller Writer. Have you checked out your New York Times or Amazon bestseller rankings for the tenth time today? Completed your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and author’s posts and addressed your never-ending social media obligations? Read the latest Readers Digest or Huffington Post publishing article or the latest book on How-to-become-a-Mega-Bestselling-Author? Attended yet another costly writers’ conference or short-course peddled by literary snake oil salesmen? Have you driven your agent, editor, publicist, therapist, or significant other crazy rambling on excitedly about your latest marketing strategy or book signing? In short, have you been spending a significant time today on anything but writing and editing your Great American (or insert here) Suspense Novel?

http://amzn.to/2mwK0VP

If the answer is yes, then wiser souls than me will point out that you’re on the wrong track and wasting your time. Unless you’re a 1% author—and the chances are 99% that you are not—then the only thing you should be consumed with, and I mean truly consumed with, is writing and editing (or, should I say, re-writing and re-editing?) your book until you have actually created the Great American (or insert here) Suspense Novel.

And what do I mean by the Great Suspense Novel? I am talking about a thriller so riveting that it forces readers to stay up late at night against their will the night before that career –defining company presentation and to literally not want to put the book down until they’ve finished it. A novel so seductively addicting that it holds its readers hostage. As in figuratively chained to a reading chair, bed, or even bathroom seat.

You scoff. But trust me, when you are dead and gone, all that is going to matter is that you have left behind a memorable thriller for the ages. And you can’t write a timeless classic if you are engaged in endless tweeting, Facebook posting, and passively reading about or listening to other people drone on about how to write the next mega-bestseller, as if it is a simple formulaic process that doesn’t actually require invaluable world experience, passion, and raw talent. Quite simply, you cannot write your literary masterpiece unless you are actually committing yourself 24/7 to the nuts and bolts of writing and editing your page-turner.

I know what you’re thinking: social media and book promotion are absolutely critical to success, and writing is a highly subjective enterprise in which one reader’s masterpiece is another’s scathing one-star review. But I politely counter that great is great (think of Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s characterization of pornography in Jacobellis v. Ohio, 1964: “I know it when I see it”). I further politely counter that the seemingly lofty and unreachable goal of greatness should be the primary focus of every author. Despite some of their other, admittedly less-than-riveting works, Grisham will a thousand years from now still be remembered for The Firm, Follett for The Eye of the Needle, Rowling for the Harry Potter series, and Capote for In Cold Blood. These novels are timeless and so are these authors because of these masterpieces.

http://amzn.to/2lbeRXb

“But you’re a nobody!” you snarl. “Where is your timeless masterpiece?” You’re right, I have not written it. Not yet. But I am striving for that admittedly far-reaching goal with every book I write and, with good old-fashioned hard work, I am, slowly but assuredly, making progress in that direction. In the last year alone, I have managed to have two #1 Denver Post bestsellers, an Amazon Top 15 historical thriller bestseller, and three novels garnering national book award winner or finalist recognition (Foreword Reviews’ Book of the Year, USA Book Awards, Beverly Hills Book Awards, and Next Generation Indie Book Awards). From reviewers and readers alike, my four suspense novels are being compared to the works of John le Carré, Silva, Follett, Patterson, Forsyth, Baldacci, Vince Flynn, and the irreverent Edward Abbey. Why old James Patterson himself even praised my third book, The Coalition, for having “a lot of good action and suspense” and compared the novel to The Day After Tomorrow, Allan Folsom’s classic thriller; and Foreword Reviews’ said of the political thriller, “Perfect for fans of James Patterson, David Baldacci, and Vince Flynn, The Coalition is a standout thriller from an up-and-coming writer.”

Not bad for a year’s worth of being a professional novelist. But let’s be honest, it doesn’t mean all that much since I have not yet written the Great American (or insert here) Suspense Novel. You know what I’m talking about: the book that cannot be put down by literally everyone. A book where word-of-mouth and word-of-tweet are organic processes that bring about massive exposure due solely to the book’s impeccable quality.

Penning such a masterpiece should be the sole reason to write suspense novels; there is simply no other valid reason to do so except the pure enjoyment of writing. Unless you’re a mega-bestselling author, there is certainly no reason to do it for the money. Telling compelling stories, then, is the sole justifiable reason to write suspense novels that meets every litmus test. If you’re doing it for any other reason, you’re in the wrong business. It’s about the art of great storytelling and nothing else. It’s about the idea that somebody a hundred years from now will read your carefully crafted words and hopefully be inspired, or at least wildly entertained.

Personally, I will not give up until I have either written such a timeless classic, or I can no longer physically sit at a desk and hammer away at a computer keyboard with my two calloused index fingers. Ultimately, suspense readers don’t care if you received your Creative Writing degree from Oxford or Yale, are a mega-bestseller, or are close friends with Sue Grafton or Lee Child. They just want a great story, an addictive page-turner with memorable characters. They just want the Great American (or insert here) Suspense Novel.

And by God, one day I’m going to write one. Hopefully, so will you. And together we will become immortal. At least on paper.

Samuel Marquis is a bestselling, award-winning suspense author. He works by day as a VP–Principal Hydrogeologist with an environmental firm in Boulder, Colorado, and by night as the spinner of the Joe Higheagle Environmental Sleuth Series, the Nick Lassiter International Espionage Series, and a World War Two Trilogy. His thrillers have been #1 Denver Post bestsellers, received multiple national book awards (Foreword Reviews’ Book of the Year, USA Best Book, Beverly Hills, and Next Generation Indie), and garnered glowing reviews from #1 bestseller James Patterson, Kirkus, and Foreword Reviews (5 Stars). His website is www.samuelmarquisbooks.com and for publicity inquiries, please contact Chelsea Apple at chelsea@jkscommunications.com.

6 Tips for Writing Suspense Fiction, Guest post by Kevin Nelson

There is nothing more thrilling than starting to write a new suspense novel. You create new characters, develop a plot line, and try to make everything as much intriguing as possible. You are not satisfied with the mediocre results, so you do your best to make your writing perfect. However, during the process of creating new fiction, you meet a huge number of challenges that make you feel embarrassed and confused. How to start a writing so that it will be interesting to you? How to make the plot even more thrilling and add some unexpected episodes? How actually to develop those unexpected episodes?

These are the common problems of young and experienced writers. Of course, experienced writers have already some expertise in overcoming such problems, while for young writers this may become the end of their career. We have decided to analyze how to write suspense fiction in the most effective way and what tips to use to overcome common problems.

Create the Necessity of Finding an Answer Introducing Characters

Primarily, you should always remember what kind of fiction you are writing. The matter is that your approach to writing will differ from the approach used for writing comedies and romances. You need to keep the intrigue, and you need your readers keep looking for the answers till the very end. Your hero or heroes need to be in a constant danger, and no one should be able to predict for sure what happens next.

To create this necessity of looking for the answers, you need to make you readers love the characters. You need to make them feel as though they are their friends. The protagonist should provoke some emotions, as well as other characters that perform secondary roles. You would probably agree, that Happy Potter is a famous protagonist, but many people love Hermione Granger more than him.

To make your novel even tenser, add some villain characters and use them to create a necessary atmosphere. A small trick for the professional writers: the villain characters should not always be villain till the end. Moreover, in some cases, villain characters may appear to be good ones, and you can use that for your novel.

Find Proper Time for Events

In a suspense fiction, time really is important. If the events happen too early, the readers may not be prepared for that (for example, they still do not know the characters, and they already need to take care of them). If you wait too long, the readers may be bored with the development of events.

These are no common formula for time to pose the most important questions and events, but many writers recommend to do that in between 1/6 and1/3 of the novel. Thus, your readers already know the characters and are ready to read what happens to them.

Add Wins and Losses

Your whole story should never be based on only one win or loss. To create enough tension and make the story more dramatic, add small wins and losses. You can also add some battles, problems and complicated situations that help the plot to develop but do not create a separate story. The wins and losses may be connected with the story of the protagonist, or reveal other characters better.

Add Some Clues

Your reader should be able to find the answers by himself, and you are to introduce some clues throughout a story. Of course, it is better not to give the tips that will reveal the truth easily. However, when the story is over, you reader should have a chance to return to the story and check all the events that indicate this development of the situation.

Each detail that you write should contribute to the development of the story. Even if it is slightly misguiding, it should give a chance for another development of the situation.

Let Protagonist Find the Answer. And Fail with It

Your protagonist should not be a genius, who makes no mistakes. He or she should be a real person, who thinks, makes some assumptions, then makes some attempts, fails, and tries again. No one is interested in novels where a protagonist is capable of everything and is never mistaken. Let him or her be a real person.

Keep the Intrigue

One of the major mistakes for writing suspense fiction is to create an intrigue at the beginning of the story and to stop develop it later. You need to keep the intrigue at the first, second and every following chapter of your story. The intrigue is the key aspect for an interesting suspense fiction and you should not miss it.

Writing suspense fiction, you should always keep in mind an image of your reader. It is likely that he has already read dozens of suspense books and he is looking for something new and thrilling. You should be able to create such atmosphere and make a reader stay with you till the last pages of the book.

Kevin Nelson started his career as a research analyst and has changed his sphere of activity to writing services and content marketing. Apart from writing, he spends a lot of time reading psychology and management literature searching for the keystones of motivation ideas. Feel free to connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin.

Create the Necessity of Finding an Answer Introducing Characters

Find Proper Time for Events

Add Wins and Losses

Add Some Clues

Let Protagonist Find the Answer. And Fail with It

Keep the Intrigue

UPDATE

Search This Blog

Blog Archive

Featured Post

Sites To Promote Your Free Amazon Kindle Books

POPULAR POSTS