3 Reasons You Will Never Get That Book Written

by Michelle Griep

Whenever I tell someone I'm an author, immediately following the deer-in-the-headlights stare, the person I'm talking to invariably says, "Hey! I've got this great story idea."

To which I reply, "Then you should write it."

That's when Mr. Slump Shoulders takes over, and the person wilts in front of me. "Yeah, I should," he murmurs. Then he slinks off into the sunset, and I know that book will never get written. Why? Three reasons . . .

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Is it Possible to Wrangle an Epic Idea onto Paper?

by Michelle Griep

QUESTION:

"My story ideas always seem so different (better) in my mind. How do you get a story from your head to paper without having it freak out and become something totally different?"

SHORT ANSWER:

You don't.

LONG ANSWER:

Don't panic because of the short answer. I hate to be the pin holder bursting your authorly balloon into flying shreds of latex, but honestly, there's no way you'll ever capture the Cinemagraphic story in your head so that readers see exactly what you do . . . but that is the inherent beauty of every story. Just because your idea changes and comes out differently by the time you type THE END, that doesn't mean that it's bad.

But sometimes it is. Recently I read a Facebook status from one of my favorite authors, Travis Thrasher. He said:

"Hello, Solitary Tales fans. I wanted to let you know about this particular title that I had planned on releasing before the end of the year. Well, that plan changed, not because of busyness but because the story went places that I didn't want it to go. Actually, Chris Buckley (that's his main character) said that it was unbelievable. He told me he'd never do that stuff. He said that readers would be confused if I went in this direction. So yeah . . . I stopped writing and am now figuring out how to tell this story."

Writers at every stage of the game continually wrestle with the beast of wrangling a story into words. At times it can be downright discouraging.

Do you really think this is what DaVinci
originally had in his mind when he
started painting?

All that being said, though, I'm still of the belief that change is good, and here's why . . . even if you wrote exactly the story you wanted to tell, every reader who picks that book up will experience it in a different way than you intended. Why? Because readers come to the table with different baggage, a plethora of backgrounds, and assumptions galore.

Writing is art, and art is like that. For all we know, daVinci had a blonde-haired, blue-eyed vixen with a toothy grin in mind when he painted the Mona Lisa, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a beloved masterpiece.

Go forth fearlessly, little writers, and pen your masterpieces. Embrace change. And it never hurts to eat much chocolate along the way.

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Is it Possible to Wrangle an Epic Idea onto Paper? by Michelle Griep (Click to Tweet)
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Author Michelle Griep

ABOUT THE AUTHOR ~ MICHELLE GRIEP

Michelle Griep’s been writing since she first discovered blank wall space and Crayolas. Follow her adventures and find out about upcoming new releases at her blog, Writer Off the Leash, or stop by her website. You can also find her at the usual haunts of Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

Like what you read? There’s more. WRITER OFF THE LEASH: GROWING IN THE WRITING CRAFT is a kick in the pants for anyone who wants to write but is stymied by fear, doubt, or simply doesn’t know how to take their writing to the next level.

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How Do You Wrangle An Epic Tale Onto Paper?

post by Michelle Griep

QUESTION:

"My story ideas always seem so different (better) in my mind. How do you get a story from your head to paper without having it freak out and become something totally different?"

SHORT ANSWER:

You don't.

LONG ANSWER:

Don't panic because of the short answer. I hate to be the pin holder bursting your authorly balloon into flying shreds of latex, but honestly, there's no way you'll ever capture the Cinemagraphic story in your head so that readers see exactly what you do . . . but that is the inherent beauty of every story. Just because it changes and comes out differently doesn't mean that it's bad.

But sometimes it is. Recently I read a Facebook status from one of my favorite authors, Travis Thrasher. He said:

"Hello, Solitary Tales fans. I wanted to let you know about this particular title that I had planned on releasing before the end of the year. Well, that plan changed, not because of busyness but because the story went places that I didn't want it to go. Actually, Chris Buckley (that's his main character) said that it was unbelievable. He told me he'd never do that stuff. He said that readers would be confused if I went in this direction. So yeah . . . I stopped writing and am now figuring out how to tell this story."

Writers at every stage of the game continually wrestle with the beast of wrangling a story into words. At times it can be downright discouraging.

All that being said, though, I'm still of the belief that change is good, and here's why . . . even if you wrote exactly the story you wanted to tell, every reader who picks that book up will experience it in a different way than you intended. Why? Because readers come to the table with different baggage, a plethora of backgrounds, and assumptions galore.

Writing is art, and art is like that. For all we know, daVinci had a blonde-haired, blue-eyed vixen with a toothy grin in mind when he painted the Mona Lisa, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a beloved masterpiece.

Go forth fearlessly, little writers, and pen your masterpieces. Embrace change. And it never hurts to eat much chocolate along the way.

Like what you read? There’s more. WRITER OFF THE LEASH: GROWING IN THE WRITING CRAFT is a kick in the pants for anyone who wants to write but is stymied by fear, doubt, or simply doesn’t know how to take their writing to the next level.

Michelle Griep’s been writing since she first discovered blank wall space and Crayolas. Follow her adventures and find out about upcoming new releases at her blog, Writer Off the Leash, or stop by her website. You can also find her at the usual haunts of Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

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Tis the Season to Collaborate

How Story Collaboration Works

Tricia Goyer, Cara Putman, and Sarah Sundin, authors of Where Treetops Glisten

Sometimes being an author is a lonely existence. Fictional characters fill my (Sarah’s) mind. They fight, they laugh, they talk, they fall in love ... and for most of the time I’m the only one who knows what’s happening with them. That is until I enter their world, and their words and experiences land on the page to eventually be sent to my editor’s desk. Still it’s my computer and me, lonely partners in the world of creating stories.

This isn’t the case for collaboration projects. Tricia’s written a number of them from Love Finds You novels with her friend Ocieanna Fleiss and two World War II spy novels with Mike Yorkey. Cara’s collaborated on two novella collections for Barbour. Now the three of us have partnered for a World War II Christmas novella collection, Where Treetops Glisten.

Because the writing process is so different when writing novella collections, we have a few recommendations for those considering a collaborative collection.

1. Understand the strengths and the weaknesses of your collaborators. No one person writes a novel in the same way. Tricia is a write-by-the-seats-of-her-pants type of author, Sarah runs off of spreadsheets, and Cara was the connecter and lead researcher for us all. Through a few calls and many emails we figured out a system that worked. We leaned on each other, depending on each other’s strengths to create a unique collection.

2. When collaborating, look for the elements readers expect from each of you, and focus on combining them. We had all agreed we wanted to work together, but then we had to decide how. We started with a conference call where we specifically discussed what we believe each of our readers like in our books. Fortunately, we could weave those together into a collection tied by location, family, and home front careers plus a sister who goes overseas.

3. Look for a theme and other elements that can tie the series together. Our initial theme was Christmas carols. So many wonderful carols were penned and released during World War II, songs that we cherish today. Then we decided that our story would center on siblings and their experiences during the war – each in a different year. After that we decided their wise grandmother would hold the collection together through a prologue and epilogue in her point of view, as well as her presence in each of the novellas. She became the voice of wisdom to each grandchild at the moment they needed it. She also became a fun, feisty lady who added spark and sass to the pages.

4. Evaluate what you’re willing to give up for the good of the project. In our case we were able to pull everything together…but you have to be willing to give as well for the good of the story. That means asking others for input on their characters to make sure they are consistent from story to story and that you’re willing to acknowledge when you need help.

5. Organize your information. Since our stories followed one family from 1941 to 1945, many details flowed through each story. Cara drew up a floor plan of the home we used for the Turner family. Sarah kept a master timeline listing dates of births, deaths, weddings, graduations, military training, and pertinent WWII events. Likewise, a character chart tracked physical traits, quirks, nicknames, etc. Our editors also found those documents useful.

6. Communication. Not only did we communicate in the brainstorming and proposal-writing phases, but during writing and editing, and now doing publicity. We sent lots of emails: “Who would Abigail want in her wedding party?” “What would Pete be doing now?” “What would Merry be feeling?” “Is there a garage on the property? If not, where do they park the car?” Not only was communication vital for story flow, but it built our friendships and our appreciation for each other.

Collaboration is a wonderful addition to the writing experience. If you can find the right concept and the right friends to write with, then we highly recommend it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cara C. Putman, the award-winning author of 19 books, graduated high school at 16, college at 20, and completed her law degree at 27. FIRST for Women magazine called Shadowed by Grace “captivating” and a “novel with ‘the works.’” Cara is active at her church and a lecturer on business and employment law to graduate students at Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management. Putman also practices law and is a second-generation homeschooling mom. Putman is currently pursuing her Master’s in Business Administration at Krannert. She serves on the executive board of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), an organization she has served in various roles since 2007. She lives with her husband and four children in Indiana.

Sarah Sundin is the author of six historical novels, including In Perfect Time (Revell, August 2014), plus a novella in Where Treetops Glisten (WaterBrook, September 2014). Her novel On Distant Shores was a double finalist for the 2014 Golden Scroll Awards. In 2011, Sarah received the Writer of the Year Award at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. Sarah lives in northern California with her husband and three children, and she works on-call as a hospital pharmacist and teaches Sunday school and women’s Bible studies. You can find her at

USA Today best-selling author Tricia Goyer is the author of 45 books, including the three-book Seven Brides for Seven Bachelors series. She has written over 500 articles for national publications and blogs for high traffic sites like TheBetterMom.com and MomLifeToday.com. Tricia and her husband John live in Little Rock, Arkansas. They have six amazing children, a wonderful daughter-in-law, and two adorable grandchildren.

Learn more about the authors!

Cara Putman

www.caraputman.com

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Sarah Sundin

www.sarahsundin.com

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Tricia Goyer

www.triciagoyer.com

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Twitter

Pinterest

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7 Ways to Avoid Overwriting

posted by Michelle Griep for Janalyn Voigt

A sign bearing this quote by an unknown author hangs in my office, a powerful reminder that I write not to massage my mind but to be understood.  I’ve had to learn this the hard way.

When Eric Wilson, a NY Times bestselling author, agreed to read the first chapter of an epic fantasy work-in-progress, I labored to make it stunning with awesome descriptions and catchy phrasing. Eric came back with the gentle remark that I am a good writer who doesn’t need to grandstand. Let the story shine through, he told me. After I got over my initial reaction to this comment, I reread my manuscript. Wouldn’t you know it, but he was right. I’d been showing off my skill with words rather than serving the story. I reworked DawnSinger, and it found a publisher.  

I went over the manuscript a ‘last time’ before sending it to my publisher, hoping to avoid edits. One of my strengths as a writer, I am told, is the ability to bring settings to life for readers. Playing to this strength, I added even more description, having completely missed Eric’s advice that I needed to work on pacing. Back came my manuscript for the first round of edits with many of the descriptive passages I’d worked so hard to create either crossed out or marked for shortening. Through more rounds of edits than I’d care to admit to, I learned to carve away not only extraneous description, but everything that didn’t support the story.

When I edit I always confront that dreaded monster, Purple Prose. Over time I’ve cut that beasty down to size. Edits for Wayfarer, book two in my Tales of Faeraven trilogy, were lighter, and I believe they’ll be easier yet for DawnKing, book three. Eradicating my tendency to overwrite has developed my deep instinct for story, and anything that detracts annoys me as much as fingernails on a chalkboard.

The cure for overwriting is to focus on story.

I summed up my thoughts on the difference between storytelling and storycrafting for my agency’s blog, Wordserve Water Cooler in ‘Are You A Storyteller or Storycrafter?’ In this post I make the point that story always trumps craft. That’s not to say vivid descriptions and skillful phrasing aren’t important, but in the right places. Knowing where these are takes practice, humility, and the feedback of others. I can offer a few tips gleaned from my own experience, though.

How To Avoid Overwriting

1. Include your character in scene descriptions. I made the mistake of taking too literally the advice to treat your setting as a separate character. In every scene, describe the location as part of the point-of-view character’s experience. This will automatically cut out some tangents you might otherwise embark on.

2. Avoid excessive use of adverbs and adjectives. One sign of strong writing is that nouns and verbs pull their own weight and don’t need to be propped up with other words. Take the presence of an ‘ly’ word as a challenge to find a better verb or noun .

3. Avoid overuse of phrases using participles (words ending in ‘ing’). Strong sentences don’t need to lean on tacked-on phrases. However, it’s important to vary sentence structures, so eliminating participial phrases altogether isn’t necessary or desirable. Balance is the key here.

4. Be appropriate for your genre. Writers of fantasy or historical fiction often need to add a bit more description to convey foreign or bygone worlds. This doesn’t grant the writer a license to bog down readers in detail, though. One of the most important skills a writer can develop is the ability to convey a lot with an economy of words.

5. If you notice a string of little words in a sentence, chances are you can cut some of them or recast the sentence to avoid wordiness.

6. Let dialogue do its work. Pare beats or dialogue tags to those needed for clarity. Opinions vary on what is too little or too much, though. Watch for agreement in the feedback you receive. Where there is no agreement, trust your instinct as a storyteller.

7. Question every scene to make sure it needs to exist. Sometimes combining two scenes into one makes sense. If cutting a scene doesn’t impact the story, or if you can sum up an entire scene with a sentence elsewhere, your course is clear. Making cuts can help your pacing and decrease the likelihood readers will skip over passages. Readers who have not been slowed by extraneous passages will have more patience for your book overall.

Honing a strong sense of story can’t be taught, only refined. It can take time but is worth the effort. In a crowded marketplace a gifted storyteller stands apart.

BONUS!!!

Love settling down with a warm cuppa and a good book? Enter to win a $20 Starbucks card in the Wayfarer Launch Celebration Giveaway Drawing. Entries close at midnight on February 8th. The winner will be announced on February 15th at http://JanalynVoigt.com.

Wayfarer Launch Celebration $20 Starbucks Card Giveaway.
One person will win a $20 Starbucks card. One entry per person per day.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Janalyn Voigt's unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and fantasy creates worlds of beauty and danger for readers. Tales of Faeraven, her epic fantasy series beginning with DawnSinger, carries the reader into a land only imagined in dreams.

Janalyn is represented by Sarah Joy Freese of Wordserve Literary. Her memberships include ACFW and NCWA. 

When she's not writing, Janalyn loves to discover worlds of adventure in the great outdoors.

Author Site for Janalyn Voigt: (author journals, travel journals, guest journals, and book news)

Site for Writers: Live Write Breathe (teaching articles plus free How to Edit PDF)

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Author April Moore ~ Mug Shot Research

April Moore lives and writes in Colorado and helped found a writers critique group in 2003, in which she is still actively involved. During that time, her first fiction manuscript became a finalist in the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer’s Colorado Gold Contest, and her short story, “Apartment 3B” is included in the literary anthology, Cacophony. As an artist, April owned and operated a greeting card company for ten years, and provided illustrations for the Northern Colorado Writer’s association’s 2012 and 2013 writing planners. She has taught writing workshops at the NCW and helps organize the association’s annual writer’s conference where she is also the contest coordinator for the Top of the Mountain Book Award. In 2008, when April was compiling her late father’s own writings, she discovered an original, 40-page text chronicling the early history of Folsom Prison. For somewhat unexplained reasons, the text, as well as the mug shots of Folsom’s executed men, had made their way into the hands of her great-great uncle, and has remained in her family for nearly seventy years. When she received the photographs from her grandmother, the research into the lives and crimes of Folsom’s executed men began. With a passion for history April compiled nearly 750,000 words of notes and thousands of pages of documents while researching Folsom’s 93. April is usually enjoying the Colorado sunshine by working in her vegetable garden, kayaking, or hiking, and spends the cold, wintry months curled up with a good book and a mug of tea. Her favorite activities, however, is spending time with her husband, fourteen-year-old son, and ninety-five-pound lap dog.

You are a food writer. How did you end up writing a non-fiction look at Folsom Prison's history? 

The food blog is really just for fun; something I don't have to expend too much writing energy on. When my family and I decided to adopt a plant-based diet a few years ago, I thought it would be fun to blog about our journey, plus, it was a way to keep track of recipes! I had already begun research into Folsom's 93 about a year before. Perhaps it served as a break from the constant writing about murder, prisons, and executions. 

How much additional research did you have to do after you found the stories? How hard was it to authenticate that the stories were true? 

All I had to go on were the mug shots that had the inmate's name, date received at the prison, and their execution date, so there was quite a bit of research to do. I did spend a good deal of time deciphering between fact and fiction, especially when it came to newspaper accounts, but I was able to confirm much of the information at the state archives in Sacramento. In the end, I had acquired over 700,000 words of notes. (Actually, it never ends. I could keep going with the research!)

Suppose someone finds great grandma's diary in an attic. Some of the entries within are toe curling. What advice do you have for that person before they seek publishing?  

I'd say, the more toe curling, the better! Obviously, the first thing to consider would be whether or not the family wants great grandma's torrid past revealed for all to read. If they're given the all-clear, then it's important for the writer to determine what story it is they want to tell and how it will engage readers. If she baked cookies by day and ran a speakeasy by night, there's the story. Or perhaps it's the writer's reaction to learning about granny's secrets that the writer needs to tell. Whatever it may be, the story needs to serve a purpose whether it's to entertain the reader or somehow make them relate to it. The next step I suggest, is writing a solid book proposal to query agents and/or publishers with.

What resource did you find to be your greatest asset in Writing Folsom 93 and why? (ex internet, library, old retired law enforcement etc.) 

Got to love the internet. Online newspaper articles and digital case reporters via Google Books, allowed me to establish the date of the crime and details therein, so when it came time to go to the state archives, I knew what to look for and what I needed to confirm. Also, through Ancestry.com, I was able to connect with descendants of these men, as well as their victims. The internet certainly proved to be the best place to start (plus I didn't have to change out of my pajamas if I didn't want to.)

What did you learn during this process that you wished you'd known before hand?  

Using a handheld scanner for documents would have saved me a lot of time and a lot of money in copies!

Do you have plans to work on another book soon? If so, give us a hint.

I wrote a novel several years ago that I set aside, so I may revisit that, but I've also recently started another novel--an urban fantasy that I'm having a lot of fun with. I'm sure, however, the history geek in me will start itching for a new non-fiction project, so I'm always open to that. 

Do you have advice for someone who wants to add food writing to their writing repertoire? 

Decide what your purpose for writing about food is. To publish a cookbook? To be a food critic? Sometimes you won't know that until after you dive into it, but I think it's a good idea to establish where you see your food writing career down the road and if it's something you want to be taken seriously for. I recommend checking out other food blogs, especially ones in the same "food genre" you'll be writing in. Make a list of what you like about their sites, what you don't, and how you'd make yours stand out from the others. Discover your niche (create one if you need to) and then run with it--on Wordpress.

What do you think are the biggest research mistakes a writer can make? 

Relying on one source for information. In this day and age, it ought to be pretty simple to cross reference material, but sometimes, there just isn't any other information available and as a writer, you must use your best judgment. If you're not sure, it's OK to still present it, but make it clear that you're not stating it as fact, but rather, speculation. Readers can then make a decision on their own. 

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Solving Mysteries Through Research ~ by Sally J. Ling

Sally J. Ling, Florida’s History Detective, is an author, speaker, and historian. She writes historical fiction and nonfiction and specializes in little known stories of Florida history.

As a special correspondent, Sally wrote for the Sun Sentinel newspaper for four years and was a contributing journalist for Boca Raton, Gold Coast, Delray Beach, Boca Life, Jupiterand Palm Beacher magazines.

Based upon excerpts from her book Run the Rum In, Sally appeared in two TV documentaries-- “Gangsters” - the National Geographic Channel, and “Prohibition and the South Florida Connection” - WLRN, Miami. She served as associate producer on the latter production.

She has been a guest on South Florida PBS TV and radio stations, guest presenter at the Lifelong Learning Society at Florida Atlantic University and Future Authors of America, and guest speaker at numerous historical societies, libraries, organizations, and schools. 

Sally lives with her husband, Chuck, and her cat, Kitty, and splits her time between Deerfield Beach, Florida, and Wolf Laurel, North Carolina.

Research is Like a Mystery Waiting to be Solved

Sally J. Ling

As a child, I loved putting jigsaw puzzles together. My two sisters and I would spend hours hunched over the card table, fitting the borders together first then finding just the right pieces to make the 1,000-piece puzzle resemble the picture on the box. The hunt for each piece was exciting, like trying to solve some mystery. Perhaps that is why I so like doing research for my books today.

Whether I’m writing historical nonfiction about a fascinating part of Florida history or a novel, I always approach my research as though it’s a mystery waiting to be solved. It keeps me motivated, and I never know where the smallest piece of information will take me. Consider the case of the missing child.

While researching the 1948 Boca Raton, Florida, double homicide of the prominent Italian sculptor and his wife, Leno and Louise Lazzari, I noticed in the police deposition that Margie, the woman who found the bodies, stated that when she came to live at her current home in West Palm Beach in 1934 there were five Constiglioni children. The 1930 Census Report I held in my hand, however, listed six children. One child was missing. Though the missing child wasn’t really central to the account of the homicides, the questions who, what, when, where, and why became an itch that needed to be scratched.

Through genealogical records, I discovered that it was Gloria, the fifth Constiglioni child, who was missing. The mystery became more intriguing when the police report from the homicide stated that in 1932 Gloria’s mother Theresa was committed to the state’s mental hospital. My nose said that the two incidents were connected, that something horrific had happened that sent the mother over the edge. But what?

After obtaining the child’s death certificate from the state, part of the mystery was solved. The four-year-old child accidently caught her clothes on fire while playing with matches. She was severely burned in the incident and died in the hospital two days later. Now I had partial proof of what I suspected—there was a horrendous incident. But . . .  was this really what sent poor Theresa to the mental institution? After all, she didn’t enter the hospital until two years after the child’s death; and, even though I had the deposition, police and census reports, and death certificate, I couldn’t just go on my hunch. I still needed concrete proof of a direct connection between the two incidents. That came just days later.

Solid research is the foundation of any good book, whether fiction or nonfiction. It makes the story believable, it gives the author credibility, and in a novel, provides enough truth to allow the mingling of fiction with fact to draw the reader in and make the entire story credible. In my latest biblical novel The Cloak, several readers actually asked me if the story was real. If the reader cannot separate fact from fiction, the author has accomplished his or her goal and received the ultimate compliment.

Gloria’s mystery was solved when, through a combination of research and luck, I found two of her sisters. At ages 88 and 92, they were able to confirm my hunch and provide the rest of the story. Their mother was so distraught by the unfortunate death of Gloria she literally lost her mind. Her admittance card from the Florida State Hospital stated she was “chronically insane.”* There was my proof.

As I mentioned, you never know where your research will lead. It was because of Gloria’s mystery and the fact that Theresa wound up in the Florida State Hospital that my latest nonfiction book, Out of Mind, Out of Sight, was born. It is the first book to give a complete history of the mental facility at Chatahoochee, Florida, after more than 135 years of existence.

So, you see, research really is like a mystery waiting to be solved.

*This is not a standard term used in today’s mental health field.

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Crafting Killer Thrillers ~ Steven James

Steven James is the national bestselling author of The Pawn, Opening Moves and The King. Publishers Weekly has called him a “master storyteller at the peak of his game.” John Raab, the editor, of Suspense Magazine raves, "Steven James sets the new standard in suspense writing." Steven lives near The Blue Ridge Mountains with his wife, three daughters, two lazy cats and a python named Buddy.

Crafting Killer Thrillers

by Steven James

If a thriller does not thrill, if it doesn’t give readers an adrenaline rush, it’s not a thriller. As you craft suspense novels, it’s vital to remember the essentials of storytelling and the secrets to creating reader interest and intrigue.

Here are three keys to writing high-octane thrillers that will grab readers’ attention and keep them flipping pages late into the night.

Key #1 - Include less action and more promises.

At its heart, a story is about tension, and tension is created by unfulfilled desire. So the secret to writing a story that draws readers in and keeps them turning pages is to create more and more tension, not to make more and more things happen.

So plotting stories is not a process of asking what should happen next, but what would tighten the tension.

This shift in perspective will forever change how you shape and tell the stories that you write, whatever the genre.

Romance stories are not about romance, they are about romantic tension. As soon as the actual romance happens, it is the end of the story.

Action stories are not about action, they are about resolving problems. Once the conflict is resolved, the story is over. One exciting event happening after another does not make an intriguing action story. In fact, it gets boring unless the reader can see what is at stake, unless he can understand and identify with the unfulfilled desire of the main character.

Thrillers are not stories about scary things happening, they are about the promise of pain. Suspense happens between the promise of something dreadful happening and the actual event itself. So when writing suspense, the key is to include less action and more promises.

And then, as the story rises in escalation, to keep all the promises you’ve made.

So what this means is as you write a story, you’ll save time and write better stories if you stop asking yourself, “What should happen?” and start asking, “How can I make things worse?” It also means that stories, at their essence, are neither character-driven or plot-driven. All stories are tension-driven.

For example, you can write a fascinating description of a character or have thirty chase scenes in your novel, but after a while readers will grow tired of hearing about what the character is thinking or eating or wearing or doing if we do not know what their unfulfilled desire is. And we will get bored of seeing car chases unless we know what the people chasing (or being chased) want.

Readers need to know what the character wants.

Readers need to know where the action is leading.

Key #2 - Always give the reader what he wants or something better.

Thrillers fail when they don’t deliver both believability and surprises. Every time a character does something unbelievable the reader begins to lose trust in the storyteller. And yet, if the story does not contain satisfying twists, the reader will end up dissatisfied. So, your goal when writing thrillers is to write stories that end in ways that are both unexpected and inevitable.

If they are not both, they will fail on an essential level.

Key #3 - Include both internal and external struggles.

Typically, the strongest stories will be centered on a protagonist who has both an internal struggle and an external struggle.

The internal struggle is a question that needs to be answered; an external struggle is a problem that needs to be solved.

Whether a story is considered character-driven or plot-driven, historical romance, cozy mystery, techno-thriller or literary fiction, this dual focus on the internal and external struggles of the main character will help snag readers’ interest and keep it. Genre will dictate which struggle takes precedent in the story, but all commercial fiction today needs both internal and external struggle.

Thrillers, despite the danger, action and suspense, will typically include a satisfying internal struggle so the reader will be deeply drawn into the emotion of the story.

When I work on shaping one of my thrillers I’m constantly asking myself how I can make things worse within the context of the character’s primary struggle. So, if the character’s struggle is despair, I have to lead them to the very edge of depression, the deepest and most hopeless situation imaginable. If her struggle is loneliness, I need to sharpen that loneliness to its most extreme limits.

To summarize, stop asking what should happen and focus instead on tightening the tension—making things worse. Typically the worse you can make things for your protagonist (within the contexts of these two types of struggles), the better the story will be for your readers.

Put these three keys into practice and you will see your stories begin to improve immediately. And your readers will keep coming back for more.

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