You walk into your local bookstore and on one of the tables is a collection of the latest page-turners. You observe a browser perusing over them. What will persuade them to take one of those books to the checkout? Is it the striking book cover, the back blurb, or maybe that riveting first page which the author has most probably re-written quite a few times.

It may be a recommendation from a friend, or the countless plugs on social media outlets, or even 100+ 5 star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.  And do not forget the staff in the bookstore. Most of them read books and may well offer their informed opinion.

A Thriller of an Idea

Now spare a thought for the story behind the story of that book. 

Writers are asked time after time, “Where do you get your ideas?”  There are many different roads we take on our writing journeys and many maps we peruse beforehand. 

What starts us on that mammoth excursion? It could be a real-life experience. It could be a chance article you read, which is where most of my inspirations come from. Perhaps a bulletin seen in the news sugared an idea. Maybe you read ‘that novel’ and it has stuck with you enough that you were inspired to write your own.

The Thrilling Ingredients

Now consider the actual methods and elements we use to shape that thriller: the theme, the inciting incident, the plot beats, the almost three-dimensional characters, the misdirection, red herrings, and twists—all the typical conventions you put into a thriller’s structural arc. 

Whatever initial source prompted you, you have now committed yourself to spend the time researching, drafting, rewriting and editing your manuscript. You will see it through to the end. 

Thriller writers combine and massage all of these elements and more to keep that customer you observed in the bookstore turning the pages beyond a breathtaking climax. The best have added a teasing twist as part of the denouement.

Obviously, for full-time authors, there is the added motivation of this being their chosen profession. No manuscript delivered by that demanding deadline means no income. 

Keeping them Thrilled 

When you’ve finally finished that manuscript, take a minute or two to spare a thought about the journey you have undertaken in order to have kept that reader entertained. Whether you’ve taken a shorter road, able to churn out your novel in quick time, or a far longer path to eventually put their thriller into a reader’s hands, it’s the destination that counts.

And remember, it’s soon time to embark on your next journey. The long and winding road of thriller writing unspools in front of you again.