Episode 2-What is a "Thriller"?

Welcome to the Thriller Writer’s Guide and thanks for reading. According to dictionary.com, a thriller is defined as “an exciting, suspenseful play or story, esp. a mystery.” Yet different people may have different definitions. My personal definition is simple. A thriller is a story containing high amounts of action and suspense.
Another vital component of thriller fiction is the hint of mystery within it. Thriller’s can be based around characters attempting to solve this mystery or they can also be based around the punishment of the perpetrator that comes after the mystery is solved. Mystery leads to suspense and suspense is a vital element in any story, not just thrillers. Suspense keeps the reader attentive and provokes them to read onwards in an attempt to answer the questions they have. If you plan to keep the reader interested in your story, suspense in a must.
Any avid reader can attest to the amount of action in thrillers as compared to other novels. But action doesn’t necessarily have to be blazing gunfights and high-speed car chases through densely crowded streets, although it is often expressed in this manner. Action is the result of conflict, which is another vital element in any story. Conflict can be between any number of people and things. You can have the classic good vs. evil scenario, but nothing says that the force your characters must be facing has to be necessarily human. In some stories, the characters may be facing a natural foe, such as the rugged conditions of the island they are stranded on, rather than a sinister criminal.
All stories need conflict, not just thrillers. But there is a profound difference between the conflict in thriller fiction in comparison to that of other literary genres. The conflict in a romance novel may be that a woman loves two men and can’t choose. In thriller novels, the conflict generally has more severe implications. An example of this is the classic nuclear weapon threat: a crazed villain comes into possession of some devastating new weapon and the main character must race against time to stop him from using it to complete his own twisted objectives. As made evident by this comparison, thriller’s will often have more extreme plots that, although not impossible, could be seen as improbable. But this is justifiable; most thrillers aren’t intended as incredibly realistic portrayals of modern life; they are meant to entertain the reader and realism isn’t necessary to provide one with entertainment.
Some may view thrillers as a genre that cuts back on character development in favor of heart-pounding action. It is true, some thriller author’s utilize simplistic, cardboard cutout characters in order to make way for more action. But this isn’t true in all thrillers. In fact, many literary genres aside from thrillers will use these kinds of two-dimensional characters. Underdeveloped characters aren’t a trademark of thriller fiction, they are visible in all genres.
The settings of thriller novels tend to sometimes be a little bit more exotic than other genres. Some stick to more realistic settings, but other may take place in locations ranging from the heart of the jungle to the peaks of a mountain. Thrillers also tend to move quickly from place to place. In a single book, the author may drag the characters across multiple continents and the reader may encounter a variety of different locations.
Another factor that has become more prevalent in research novels is the presence of technology. Thrillers will also implement a variety of technology, ranging from sports scars and speedboats to highly-advanced satellites and other related devices. The inclusion of technology isn’t specific, but I see it as being more evident in thrillers than in most other genres, with the exception of possibly mysteries, which are closely tied to thrillers. Obvious examples of this include Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler, both popular author’s that fall under the “techno-thriller” category.
Thanks for reading and check back in soon for new updates! If you have any questions or comments, please send them to thrillerwritersguide@yahoo.com.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the Thriller Writer’s Guide. In this posting, I’m not actually going to get into the thriller writing process, but rather just give a brief introduction to the blog itself and try my best to give you all a general idea of the blog’s purpose, where the idea came from, and where I hope to take it in the future.
Before we get started, I guess I’ll just tell you a bit about myself. My name’s Jonathan and I practice thriller writing as my main hobby and, hopefully, can someday practice it as a profession. I just finished the rough draft of my first novel and plan to start editing and revising it sometime in February before pursuing the possibility of getting it published. I’ve been writing for around seven years and I got into thriller writing four years ago when I was introduced to Clive Cussler. I didn’t get into writing seriously until around two or three years ago and since then I’ve dedicated the majority of my free time towards writing. I am, by no means, claiming to be some kind of expert on the subject. This blog is just meant as a place for me to share my personal experiences and some of the other knowledge I’ve picked up along the way.
The idea to do this blog came when I was browsing around several months back in search of some recourse for thriller writers. I found some sites dedicated to thriller authors, but none geared towards thriller writers intending to improve their craft. I just decided that I might as well give it a try and just share some of the knowledge I’d picked up while writing with other writers. This project is coming at a great time because I’ve been looking for some activity to occupy the time period between now and when I begin the editing process. I am doing whatever possible to stop myself from working on the book and just taking a break so my mind is refreshed when I actually begin, but I need some kind of project to keep me occupied in the meantime. And, for now at least, this blog should give me something to do.
In all honesty, I have no clear idea how long this project is going to run for. It may only be for a few weeks, although it could very possibly carry on for several months or even longer than that. Hopefully, I’ll be able to make a bit of time every several days to update the blog and keep things up and running for a while. Like I mentioned above, I need something to occupy the time when I’m not writing and this is basically my second little project aside from writing novels. Although I will not be making any promises, I would like to keep the blog going for as long as I am writing, which should be quite a while.
The two biggest factors in whether I continue posting and, if so, how frequently, are the response I receive to the blog and the amount of free time I’ve got on my hands. Response from you, the reader, is going to be a critical element in the success of the blog. Although I may be the one that’s doing the actual postings, I’m going to need your help if this blog is going to meet it’s full potential. You can send me comments, questions, or suggestions to thrillerwritersguide@yahoo.com. The amount of time I have is also going to have a large impact upon the frequency of blog updates. I am, after all, a writer and will choose writing over updating the blog. Hopefully, I’ll have the time necessary to frequently update the blog. At the moment, I’m taking a break from writing so the updates will be more frequent. But, after the next month or so, the frequency with which the blog is updated will most likely decrease. My goal is to post at least once a week, if not more. If I haven’t released an update for a while, I may post a mini-episode that will just briefly cover a topic.
Most of the postings will be fairly extensive. I would like to keep them as compact as possible, but there are many topics that you can’t just briefly cover. But if there is a topic that I have to get in-depth with, I’ll most likely just break the updates covering this topic into several shorter episodes within a “series” or sorts
My plan is to cover all elements of thriller writing over the course of the blog. I’d like to cover everything from forming a basic plotline to the actual writing process to editing and revising the rough draft of your work. Depending, I may even do a few postings upon publishing although I’d prefer to wait until I have gained more experience in this specific area. If there is enough response and I have enough time, I may even create a pod cast edition of the blog and basically read through the episodes so that you can listen to them on the run instead of having to sit down and read them. Again, this is going to depend upon the response and the amount of time I’ve got.
That’s it for this episode: thanks for reading. Check back soon for new updates. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions related to the blog, please send them to thrillerwritersguide@yahoo.com. Next time, I’ll be discussing and explaining what exactly a thriller novel is.