Creative Writing: Write a Believable Thriller Story

1. Introduction to Writing a Thriller Novel for Beginners: L A writers and welcome to your thriller writing course. My name is Matthew Dewey, and I'll be your instructor. I've been writing for a few years now, teaching the fundamentals through these courses on platforms such as this or to my own students. I have been writing for a few years now as well as teaching where I help my students understand the fundamental writing techniques when it comes to writing a novel. If you wish, you can see more my work at the pen sleuth dot com, or as you see it at the bottom of the screen. Now, I also have some educational articles that you may be interested in reading with that in mind. Since I first started my writing career, the one course that I really wanted to start off with was writing a thriller. It is something that is interested me in writing as well as reading, as I'm sure as you as well. That being said, the thriller is a lot more complicated than a typical fantasy novel, so it felt later in my schedule. In addition to that, I love suspense in writing was one of the few emotions that I wish to evoke in my stories, and it is often an emotion that I like to feel when I'm reading is well, and I don't mean the awkward anxiety that a character feels when they caught doing something benign, such as they hand in a cookie job. I mean, true. Hoste aches, suspense. I believe that is what makes a thriller truly gripping something with the greater threat, such as the character defusing a bomb or perhaps hiding from a monster. These types of scenario lend a certain amount of dread to the reader. These types of scenario lend a certain emotion to reader called dread, and it's no wonder that thriller writing is becoming a growing genre in the world today. People want to read these stories, and as such novels in the thriller department are doing well, and it's for those reasons that it has brought you to this course. You want to write a thrill? Oh, perhaps a screenplay that is more suspense than fantasy. There are several things that we need to address when it comes to working with a stroller, and I have divided them up all equally in this course video Bar Vidia, the first is learning how to your look fear in Rita. Fear is a wonderful emotion, believe it or not, helps us relax when there's more calm scene, but also creates more intense feelings when working with a more dire circumstance, such as a character being threatened. Speaking of threatened in the next video, we'll also be discussing the threat. The threat that makes a thriller novel have it's intense suspects the monster, the killer or any top of antagonist that is chasing after our protagonist, after which will also go over some mawr techniques when it comes to writing, such as short sentences. How to describe your emotions, how to add fear to the threat. These are more interesting looks at what it takes to make a thriller novel more interesting . It isn't so much the plot and the characters that we use, but also the rotting. So knowing how to write a thriller is extremely important, of course, that requires us to know how to pace our thriller How to Sit a suspenseful, seen how to Write a twist if our story includes one. And, of course, all along the way throughout this course are Sprinkle a few tips and methods that Allah recommend to help you write a thriller. Finally, before, in the introduction to this course, I would like to discuss the community behind it. This course is no doubt being watched by many squatters and students who wish to learn how to write a thriller. And with that in mind, you can share your work throughout the schools as well. Throughout this course, I'll be giving you some projects and some additional homework along the way that you can do if you wish. And in addition to that, you can post it on this community, shared with other students as well as me to receive some more constructive criticism. So in that way, if you're unable to find out, what is the problem with your story you can shared with more experience writers You're watching this course today, and that, of course, includes me as well. I am a very present instructor, so that means if you have any questions to ask, I'll be able to check on a day to day basis and answer as soon as I can. I always put my students first, so if you have any questions and our seal, Al tried to answer them before anyone else does. Thank you for watching this introduction all the way and the next Listen, we're gonna be going over How to your look fear in the reader. No doubt. This is what drew you to the course as revoking fear is a very difficult task. When it comes to writing, Sometimes it comes down to us just realizing that what scares us might not scare others and vice versa. More net in the next video. I'll see you then. Bye for now. 2. Evoking Fear In The Reader: L A writers, and welcome to the first. Listen off the course in this. Listen, we're gonna be discussing how to book fear. For some, this may be the most important. Listen, it would be the listen that turns your idea into something impactful. Something that has not reader holding their breath. And this. Listen, we'll be talking about how you can evoke fear. You know how to write about it and hard to make your readers feel it. We're gonna be going to this process step by step, which means if you're in the planning stages of your novel, you can simply work it into your writing. First step is to decide whether you're gonna be a writing in the first or third person. It is common for beginner writers to start writing in the first person. Writing this way will help get you into the characters shoes. That's it will also place the reader in the same shoes. It's fantastic for the genre. Yet third person can work the same way. Let us compete. Examples. You'll be seeing them on the screen now and I'll read them out to you as they go. The first example is in the first person the world fell sound. I could hear my heartbeat, my blood rush. All unnecessary sensation left me all. I had one break burning in my lungs that I fear to excel. I was paralyzed, written in the pros person impactful and creates a sensation fitting for the thriller. Yet if we write something similar in the third person, Andrew froze different by his own heartbeat. The world fell sound. He felt nothing but the burning breath in his lungs. With every fiber of his being tensed, he wondered how long it would be before he broke. The result is pretty much the same. We described the same points, but we have only adjusted it to suit the perspective. We are writing it. You need not be pressured to write one way or another. But of course, I recommend working with what you're comfortable with. The perspective. You believe it's fitting for your story. Second of all, no one is safe in your life. Once your main threat would will be discussing in a later video has made itself known any novel you need to give the character who would lease the reader the impression that they are not safe. Bringing a sense of reality into your novel is what put your reader on edge. Let's take an example from a cramp. Today, the detective is tracking down a killer. The killer hasn't been caught, but plenty of sounds like bond tell the process the killer ghosts calling card the sons of the killer the things that marked them out, even though we can't see them yet. So now let's take in this scenario that the killer has a calling card. An object that represents the killer is defined by the bedside of each victim. The detective returns home after a long day investigating the killer walks, increase apartment or empty home and funds calling card on their bedside table. The detective knows what this means. The reader knows what this means. There is a pause in that moment, the moment of realization that the main character is in imminent danger. The image of the main character murdered in a similar way, then appears in both the readers and the characters heads. Then the scene progresses any way you want to. Still you pop the bubble, the illusion of safety is broken, and the reader and the characters are left with an ugly truth. Third research. What happens to the body when someone feels here? The way in which you describe these feelings thes motions is the way you're going to get the reader to kill them as well. Not only does it make for fascinating reading, but it helps create a more impactful scene. Let's start with fear when somebody feels fear. They experienced several symptoms, which you should see on screen now. Rapid heartbeat, sweating, twitching or erratic movements. The cold feeling in hands or feet, goose bumps, confusion and disorientation, just to name a few. Now I'm not saying every character will experience all these symptoms. People react differently to everything. Here is no exception. While some may get goose bumps and others a pounding up as may sweat twitch, would you be a feel is more suitable for your characters? Symptoms. Those are the ones you'll be using. Remain consistent as well, with your characters symptoms in particular. If they sweat when they're scared, make sure they will sweat when they're scared again. You won't be giving them a different symptom to suit a different scene. You'll be giving them symptoms that are characteristic to who they are, where those who get sweaty with sweaty hands, all those You have a rep heartbeat, which is very common. It all depends on you. And of course, you're gonna have to give the multiple symptoms as well. Some people, you believe it or not, are gonna be a lot calmer than others with their movements, for those will be shaking. So let's suppose the threat in your thriller is a blonde monster. One of the senses are removed, but it makes up for this bar. Being able to sense movement, in which case give you main character, a twitch or shaky hands, was certainly a help to increase the suspense in the scene. Of course, this order pains and whether you want the character to live or not, the fourth point, your descriptions should be powerful. You're not gonna grope your reader. A few description isn't fitting. If you describe something is terrifying, you must use the right words to bring that across. Now I'm not going to be describing any goal or extreme violence in this course, as it may not be the to the taste of some thriller writers. Yet those who plan on including violent imagery. Be realistic and paint the ugliest picture. You can find the worst features off the sea. Talk about those and nothing else. You want to create fear, not write a scientific analysis. If you're describing a monster, describe it in the same way. If their sharp teeth. I would mention that yet if the teeth are blunt and therefore not as great of a threat as the claws, you know what you should bring up first. In your description. Let's take a look at the description of a monster, which you'll be able to see on the screen now, and I'll read it for you as well. It stood taller than twice myself, despite its trusted bring with a long loves that called towards the bones popping and clicking with each movement. Nothing in its form was natural, but its intentions were more than hostile. This is a simple description, but it gives enough information to the character and to the reader as well. To picture the monster adds entirety. Once the character is giving more opportunity to study the monster, you can go into more terrifying detail. Fifth and finally make use off the unknown. There are many different reasons that we feel fear is a species, these all instinctual fears that we have inherited from our evolution. We fear the dark as it limits our senses, which puts us in danger from what could be lurking in the dark ill is pain and so on, or reasons we feel fear. Of course, we cannot cause pain to Arida, and nor would we want to all we have to work with to create fear as Kurata is imagination using fear of the unknown, fast sitting out scene in the dark, describing something of millions and threaten and doing so, Arida feels the full extent of fear. Yes, we can convey the pain of army and character, their emotional or mental physical trauma. None of this can, compared to making use of the reader's imagination, give them a hints and make their interferes surface as the reader tries to imagine what's looking in the dark. With that final point made, I'm gonna leave you here with a simple project to help develop your writing. With that, I think you for watch this listen and I hope you found it informative. In the next video, we'll be talking about the threat in your thriller novel being Antagonised, the evil entity which seeks the doom off the protagonist. I will see you then and now. 3. Creating a Threatening Antagonist: Raton's and welcome to another lesson off your thriller. Writer calls in this. Listen, we'll be discussing the threat in your trailer. No, in this lesson will be discussing a major part of, you know, the antagonist Bad cut, the monster or entity, which strong mental protagonist in one way or another. It goes without saying that you want to have a straight with, you know you want something that will add suspense to have seen you want something that threatens your characters. You want to make a thriller thriller by pain of the darkest side off the reader's imagination. Once more will be tackling this problem in stages. Funny what you may be doing wrong and discussing how you could make it into something that is both brilliant and terrifying. The first point I'd like to bring up and you should be seen on the screen now is what your antagonist exactly is in the full sense of the wood. While it is easy to say that you're antagonist is something like a killer, you have to give it more substance than that. You need to create an entire back story to antagonist, but you need to give the antagonist purpose while they here, What is it they're doing? And what problem do they have? The protagonist or problem is the protagonist have within. Let's have a look at some more examples, and you'll find that this is a great writing exercise to work with, especially when you're in the planning stages off your story. If you choose to go down that psychopathic murderer route, what do they look like? Who do they kill and lie? What makes them special questions of once more can be answered on the floor. The killer's a toll person. They are traumatized by a horrific past. In the Kelly uses a rubber duck to murder the victims. That last bit is a joke, obviously, but still that's something unique, and it makes the killer different. As a Raja, you need to approach the creation of the antagonist with same amount of thought as you would approach the protagonist. If you have everything fleshed up protagonist such as they purpose in your history, you need to be doing the same with the antagonist as well. Otherwise, the villain seems a bit out of place. For example, let's take Michael mines from the popular Siri's Halloween. You had entire back story to him. Alleged was created from the very first form. You generally understand what he doesn't like and you can understand. Why does everything he does? Another one? For example, Jack from the Shining in the Stephen King novel. You understand his history, his personality, what has happened to him and what gives him the goal off Murder Cinnamon. You cannot drop your killing into the world and expected to work if you don't give it a foundation. The same goes if you're working with a monster or some other evil entity, give you a monster. Backstory are there in the beginning, through some kind of scene or chapter describing how it all started. Oh, talking about how they came to be, or perhaps having the protagonist investigate and found out a long way, in which case the reader will be learning about the monster as the protagonist does. The next point to look at is the connection between the antagonist and protagonist. In most thrillers, you often find that there is something that ties the two together. A killer doesn't just wonder around and then bump into the protagonist, and that protagonist will be what kills. In the end, it comes close to, and the same will be going for the monster. The monster doesn't suddenly run into the one that is able to defeat. It has to be some sort off link between the two, something that makes the protagonist not only special in the story but special when it comes to the antagonist as well. For example, if we have a look at Stephen King's It a Big Title in recent years after a re release, a belief in the movie industry entity called it is after Children, mainly because Children are much easier to ski and it enjoys fear. In addition to that, without going into spoiling too much. It is also tired to that specific town, so in that case, everything kind of falls into place. The Children live in that time, and they are Children, so it is after them. There is that link between them now. If we move from Stephen King's books to movies, we could discuss another entity such as Xena, more from alien or the alien from Alien, depending on which one you're by snow it as is a wild creature, it answered. Stocks and attacks anything that isn't its own race was that amount. It still comes across the protagonist, which stops it, because people found it on a strange planet once more. You can fill in this point by giving your threat a purpose, and the final point we need to discuss is, How does the threat the antagonist, the monster, whoever meet their end now the ending of a thriller or really comes down to preference. Confident through list today usually leaves this question have been ended. Perhaps the antagonist is presumed destroyed, but it leaves this kind of open ended, so it's death or destruction cannot be confirmed. Of course, this is more stereotypical the slasher horror novels and more commonly as well with science fiction. Other thrillers make it more clear, more realistic Through is usually end with the death of the antagonist, especially crime thrillers. The criminal is therefore board to justice, so to speak. Others prefer the threat to be victorious, need practice in the very last chapter protagonist thinks that they want, but then are subsequently taken out by the antagonist or a new one entirely. How you deciding your novel is really up to you and should be based on what you feel your story is going toe walls. If your protagonist has so much good going on in the house and they need only Survivor to live it to the fullest, then it is based. Now to throw that writing away and let your protagonist look. If your protagonist you've kind of returned to destroy, to have so much going on in their lives that would be ashamed to have them removed at the very end of the novel, it can sometimes little more satisfying end to make sure that you agonist lives, in which case they can live their lives to the fullest. In doing so, you give them the laugh they earned, or perhaps the second chance that they deserve. However, if you're leaning more towards the slashes style horror through the writing, usually one protagonist has left the love or none of them are. It is common in a sharp, but it is also a formula that works. If it didn't so many novel, Siri's would have never been published, and I don't need to tell you how many movies along will follow this formula today. With that, I'm going to be ending this. Listen here. But also, I'm gonna be giving you a few tips that I have come up with that can help you create more terrifying antagonist for your thriller novel. The first is that your threat needs to scare your protagonist. Other threat is an embodiment of what your protagonist fears all the threat grows to become that second district must feel unstoppable in the first part of your Not either they are loose, civil coming killer or a monster. That's how to kill Third. And finally, there's a truck that has been used commonly interlace lately, where the antagonist is not truly revealed to be what or who they are until later in the no . Whether you dislike this drug or not, it works with the genre. A lot of writers will make use of this in order to create maximum out of fear. As the reader NYSE to work of the imagination, you can leave clues or spot exposition near the end. The reason information on the street is left out to later in the novel is to create more fear behind the three. If you wish to go a step further when you reveal the antagonist and how they came to be make it horrific and surprising. We will discuss more that in a lesson covering twists and twist Indians interlace was that this lesson on Threaten Antagonised has camp union, and I hope you found it not too long of a lesson. But there was a lot of information that needed to be covered. This is a major part of your thriller novel, so you can imagine how the importance off the antagonised needs to be stressed in this course the project will. This course is shorter and far simpler. No doubt you're very planned. Or put up a thriller novel Antagonist before your homework is to give this antagonised backstory the purpose. Be sure to end dips to your villain and make sure that the step is both horrifying and disturbing. So it adds to the fear factor off this antagonist as well. With that, I'm going to be Indian. The video here in the next video, we'll be going over short sentences and other methods that you can use to create more suspense for writing that a really immerse your reader. Thank you for watching, and I'll see in the next video for now, 4. The Power of Short Sentences: Hello, writers, and welcome to another. Listen off your thriller writing course in this listen will be discussing the length of your sentences and how short sentences convey the tension on the scene a la bill longer and more complex sentences before I move on to the list. And I'd like to discuss that this list someone was really the last listen up line for the course as it is more complex. Listen, that has to do with altering writing styles. Now, you can take what you want from this. Listen, beard, anything that can help you develop almost suspenseful scene. Were they using it already? This may just be a listed me cap. You know what you really know? However, you don't have to do anything that this lesson has entailed the other listens, talk about structure and how to properly develop a story when it comes to working for thriller, protagonist and antagonist, and so on. But with this, listen specifically, we're gonna be talking about how you construct your sentences. I Campbell paragraphs and scenes better with using shorter sentences as well as other methods that can help you out a bit scene. But of course, this does depend on your own preference as well. First, I'm gonna discuss the description techniques before discuss short sentences. If you're describing scary to Rita, it is based to describe the most horrid face value details. First, these are the details that are first notice. Brother, protagonist and us. They're definitely with mentioning as these will be the service details that a reader would notice before anything else as well. If protagonist meets a killer, what would be the first thing that strikes them? Bear in mind, you're not gonna come into the most nor parts of the killer first, unless you're comparing them to what is abnormal. Does it kill? Have a fierce expression cold ours a cruel smile, blood splattered clothing, a lack of a limb, perhaps anything that is strange enough to separate them from the norm. Even if your killer has nothing special to note, that is something special to note down in itself. Take this description, for example. You should see it on the screen now and I read it as it goes as well, even with all that has been done, all I saw was a normal person, the same clothes, the same neutral expression the same average face I saw every time I took a walk in the park. I saw nobody and that nobody made me look at everyone as if they were killer, too. As you can see something normal community be made negative, depending on the context. If you don't have that hint off sinister to convey to you arena the reader. One fund antagonist Scary. Take your time with these descriptions make him powerful but not overly detailed. The reader has their own imagination and the picture you're painters. A writer should be more impressionistic than realistic so that with the viewer or reader in this case can see the image that fits. They kind of fear a lot better than if it's yours, and that is actually an essential tool. When it comes to writing thriller making use off the reader's imagination, you will find that this way of describing a killer's a similar. You would describe a month store evil entity. Take a paragraph to describe them with those face value details, and you should give you reader enough to work with next. Let us discuss short sentences and how to use them as writers. We enjoy the written word when we encounter sentence ever on simple several lines, and we still find ourselves smiling. We've encountered a sentence and its use of woods to be far more enjoyable than that of a simple sentence. So that being said, what I'm gonna be talking about his shorts in its is and how they can be used effectively in a thriller. Even in our minds, we found ourselves not taking a moment to think on what we have said, which results in too many words being said, not enough information given and the person reading the sentence running out of breath. Such us. Now, however, there's once more change I would like to make to writing Star if you don't right this way already. And that is when you're writing a tense, horrific scene. Make use up short sentences. Short sentences will convey this tension. I wrote an article on this very subject. Here's an excerpt from it where I use short sentences. You must alert your reader, throw them into deadly silence. Let them know something is in there with him. Make them strain. There he is. Make their body tents, make them help us all. They should. Here is the pounding of their hearts, the rush off their blood death to what comes next. So as you can see, short sentences can convey that emotion off. The protagonist, who is stressed. They are hunted by something. Perhaps there are holding their breath for during their bigs to escape as quietly as they can. In this scenario, your sentences are best left short and powerful. In doing so, you create a scene. There's a lot more impactful than a scene. If you were to use longer, more complex sentences if you have to use objectives, keep them a motor fears and emotions to convey it with powerful birds like deathly or painfully, These dark objectives will better fit what you're writing. Syria feels that suspense once you have raised that suspense breaking A something happens. If the protagonist is caught, attacked off the escape will fight back, make the next short sentence sudden and powerful. Iran. I struck. It's so me. It hit me. It's these short impactful sentences that really sum up the essence off the stressful situation, and it's from these short sentences that you can then move on to more energetic and longer sentences. that fit the more high paced scene that is now taking place. A short statement like this will help capture the readers intention as well. From here, you can write is your luck. If your characters avoided conflict, the reader will then breathe a sigh of relief. If they did not, you must meeting a certain level suspense. As you construct conflicting scene between the antagonist and protagonist. It all comes down to these simple methods Now, as I said before, you can take these methods into own writing stark writing shorter sentences or using face value details. When it comes to describing your antagonist, however, it is up to you. It is your own preference. Yet if you found these methods interesting and would like to try them out, I do have some homework for you in this Listen as well was that I will leave the listen here, but of course, let's talk about that homework. I'm going to create a hypothetical scenario for you. Your character has returned home. The house is empty, but the front door is broken. Your character then goes in to investigate. Now, this is where you decide whether something is there or not. You need to construct a scene where they into the house and attention is slowly being raised. And as always, you can submit your work in the discussions below. Thank you so much for watching. And I hope you found this place and enjoyable and informative. I'll see you in the next. Listen will be discussing the pacing of a thrill. Enough. I will see you then. 5. Pacing a Thriller Novel: Rogers and welcome to another. Listen off your thriller writing course in this. Listen, we're gonna be discussing Pacey. Not facing is something that has crossed many students months. When you start writing on over, one of the first questions is, Is this notable going too fast? Was it going too slow? And Olusola, which is generally a heart paste novel? This is more difficult as you want to create a more happy It's novel, but you don't want to rush through it there some slow pace through lists, which do quite well. Yet you don't want to bore your reader, either. Now I'm gonna make things a little bit more difficult and tell you that pacing the villa is far more difficult than any other John. The reason being is it's hard to pin down which thrill is doing better than others. Despite receiving roughly the same reviews, I'm not a separate question into discussion of what you see your thrilling novel. As first, there is a sub genre of Throw that it's more action packed. He's often cramped fillers or action oriented stories that take a dark turn. That's one unit, the genre of three other your characters a cup who deals with trigger happy criminals on a day to day basis. Or perhaps they're simply trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. Like I said, there's a wide spectrum of different story arcs you can take with thriller genre, so it could be this so that and both could work. But let's take the cop example and run with it. Well, your police officer or detective be investigating crime scenes, solving mysteries, interrogating people. Learn more about the killer as they go, in which case, a slower pace novel, My based fit Your Story. You should focus more on character interactions. Character congressional Few suspenseful scenes here Name enough to make a novel a thriller , but not a drama, but once won't returning back to that example of it being a spectrum of different ways. You could do these things. Of course, you could make this a more hands on approach office. Oh, Detective, they are more force of nature. Then perhaps they take greater risks, creating a more fast paced, action packed thriller. The protagonist deals with Crime lords and Countess Brutal murders, almost dies a couple of times, but eventually nabs or kills the antagonist in the end, you get the picture. Pacing is not an uncommon feature that writers struggle with. Yet there are some steps you can take to making your pacing a lot easier, especially when working a threat. Now, I'm not gonna tell you how to work this story that is really up to you. But I can tell you the steps you can take in the painting process, or perhaps in the middle, to ensure that your pacing stays consistent and enjoyable. Now these steps are pretty universal. As I said before, I don't want to take steps towards altering your story. The first step is deciding which of this previous tops pits your story best. Is it a more slower pace kind of thriller when it focuses more around discovering clues and working towards more suspenseful scenes? Or is it more high paced? How risk thriller Beside the beginning, having Indian a month and develop the steps their characters must take to reach that ending that is basic novel plane. I'm not gonna tell you how to shape the story, otherwise it wouldn't be your own. Once you've decided on the sequence of events, it's time to move on to Step two separate these scenes into chapters. Some of you might find the stick a difficult one as you have to decide instinctively how long each scene will be. In which case you might find yourself creating chapters when nothing happens in chapters where everything happens yet you need to make sure that you give your readers something every chapter in case you bore them with that chapter, which is a big negative strike that you kind of want to avoid. As Arata, we're gonna make sure that you really enjoys every chapter that they read are not certain ones, which are really the highlights of, you know, working of the second step might push you back to step one. We re think certain scenes are the changing or moving or adding new scenes entirely to space them out. Now Step three is to decide. Now. This is if you don't have too many chapters what your average word can't be protect. You will then sum it all up and see for yourself if you're not always too long or too short , bear in mind that novel. Around 80,000 words can be finished in a weekend by more experienced reader a beginner, really, perhaps three days off, all at based. This, therefore, makes it a bit of an easier read. If there's something that you're aiming for, then you can adjust your word. Count accordingly, so that way it fits. That sort of word count is that we get a more enjoyable book that your picture in your mind . If your weekend read is kind of what you have planned with your novel, then you go to fit your novel around that. Besides, if your word count is too much or too little to fit that, is it a novena, in which case, 51,000 words or less? You might want to add in some scenes that you feel fit your story. Otherwise, you need to flesh out other scenes, which again can slow down the pace of enough. However, if they weekend read is not what you're looking for, you need to decide if you need to add more scenes or increase the World Cup. Birth will adjust your pacing, not just the length. More scenes will maintain a faster pace book, but more words will slow it down, depending on the feeling you want to give the reader. You decide, which is the based fitting if you want to increase the word counterinsurgencies fleshing out certain parts of it? Or do you want to add more scenes, too? Keeping that certain word count that you've decided upon and then therefore make it a fast paced novel despite being a bit of a longer novel as well. And these are the three simple steps that you need to take into account when pacing through the novel. Now I don't need to tell my regular students that's better. Will be telling e news. Do students who have just started watching my videos that when it comes to writing a pining after novel, you need to be decidedly vague? What what happened? So you give yourself some room to work with by deciding on scenes and chapters and a word count. You've given yourself plenty of room to work with for now, so you don't need to stress too much. I'm going into too much detail. I need to give yourself plenty of room to work with. Yet if you plan out an entire book with so many complex and necessary details, you're going to have a more difficult time with your rotting. Those will be scenes that make no sense and not terribly forced. Or you write yourself into a dead end that you didn't see coming with that out in this. Listen, here it is a heavier listen to digest, But are you fancy advice? Helpful? And if you're struggling with pacing, however, if you are a writer who feels comfortable with their pacing and didn't really find any of information you to them when watching this video, then please keep doing what you're doing. You're on the right track. The project for this lesson is a big one, but wrist easy as it is optional. Go through these three steps for your planning When it comes to your novel, No doubt you have your ideas in mind, and you've probably really started your planning stages. But I'd like you to go through these three steps to figure out if you need to add or subtract from your novel. Remember, one is developed the story in scenes to divide them up into chapter suitably, always give you readers something interesting. Each chapter and three deciding the word count. Adjust scenes and word count. If you find a novel is too short to long, too slow paced or too fast paced. Thank you so much for watching this video, and I hope you found it informative. In the next video, we'll be talking about twists and twists, Indians very popular in Safa and thriller novels. And of course, no doubt you may have a few twists and mind that you'd like to including another, in which case you may want to hear what I have to say in the next video. I'll see you then and tough enough. 6. Writing a Plot Twist and Twist Ending: L A writers, and welcome to another listen of your thriller writer course. In this lesson, we're gonna be discussing twists and twist endings. The listen for this failure is rather special, as it is kind of optional. Now, a twist is not really necessary for Thriller is very common in most cases, which is why I believe this listen is vital for this course. But of course, twists and twist endings are really a preference for the rata. Do you want to create something that surprises your reader, In which case you would add a twist if you want something that can almost guarantee a sequel to your Siri's than a twist or cliff hanging out and will certainly help that as well? Now, while the twist is fairly common in the thriller genre, there's another genre which dominates this. The science fiction genre seen a science fiction is often a vague and futuristic idea where so many things could have happened that are beyond our technological understanding that the twist is very easy to run. For some writers, twist is what inspires them to write the novel in the first waste. That'll be something that could be used to perfect your novel. Of course, some novels required it was to add to that interest sick to make it something a bit different from any other. Any novel that runs seemingly normally, with many of the interactions being almost predictable is all right and good. But having a twist can certainly take it up. A few levels, as so many things that seemed benign and an interesting suddenly become vital and important to the story. And that in itself is a wonderful tool to use, especially if you're planning something more complex. Now. When it comes to creating the twist, there are three things that need to be included. To make sure that you twist is this powerful is possible and having a firm, important place in your story. The first is laying down the clues. Second is the delivery, and third, in this process is checking for contradictions. Let us discuss the first point, the clues. In order to create a new level to your novel with the twist, twist ending, you need to leave clues that hint towards the twist throughout your level. In writing. This is a lot more difficult than if it were from so don't believe it is easy. If you're writing a screenplay for form, they're leaving. These clues visually is fairly easy, and they don't need to be addressed by a dialogue going the other way and a form of us presented with certain information in that for them to understand what is going on until the twist, it is only through a second watch that the view and notices all these details and clues that hint towards the twist all along. It creates a new sense of understanding, and perhaps some scenes make more sense. Yet leaving these clues in a novel requires proper photo. First, you can't talk about detail casually if you make a painfully obvious that a certain details important you have now warned your reader. From then on, the reader will be looking for the reason you drew so much attention towards that specific detail. And as such, the twist won't have as much of an impact as if it would when the reader just simply glanced over it. This is where you employ a bit of magic, and I don't mean Waiver one will use some sort of pixie dust magic. I mean misdirection when something major in this story is happening. That is the best time to include a detail that points towards a twist. For example, let's take a leaf from the matrix and design a clue for twist ending. The scenario is this. The world is not really the main characters in a simulation. You want to hint towards this, but you don't want to make it obvious. You will then create something such as a glitch. The main character keeps drinking a cup of coffee for hours but doesn't realize it's not emptying. The rain Character meets someone again, but that person doesn't remember them, creating a sense of deja vu. The illusion is starting to break, but nothing so unusual. And in that way we can create subtle hints and clues for the reader to understand that something is off. But they don't know what you, or the very least, that they've noticed something strange, but not strange enough for to be in the forefront of the amount. As the story progresses. What is important is you distract from these clears with something different, something that appears more important, such as the main character not noticing the bottomless cup of coffee because they're still tired and groggy, unable to understand fully what is going on. Another way you can distract and Mr Wrecked. The reader is with conversation as conversation is a great way to distract from smaller details, the reader view too focused with the dialogue and reading as it goes, that don't really notice any small actions or small mentions off details that really don't makes much sense or don't really matter in the grand scheme of things. So that way you can refer to these details later, and that way they hold more meaning in the readers and the stories ours. That's how you leave clues ing a novel for twist. But now let's discuss the delivery. Now the delivery. You no doubt have a great idea. It's how you picture the twist, after all, But before you get into it, consider these guidelines. If you're using a twist Indian, you can ignore most of this. But if you still have some way to go in your novel after the twist, carry on watching here first. Don't explain every clue you left throughout the novel, perhaps the more pivotal are worth mentioning, but certainly not every little detail that you laid along the way. You'll only lose the reader as they try to remember the clues in the first place. But calling back to more memorable scenes were help of twists and their impact. Next, avoid breaking the scene with your explanation as well. It is all well and good to to deliver the twist and point out why it's true. But it slows the pace of, you know, hold down too much, especially if you go into too much detail. And that way you are simply talking down to the reader. And even if it's unintentional, you can never talk down to the reader. It's treating them that way in a condescending fashion. Even if you don't mean it that way. That can lose the reader's interest in a book immediately, as it feels kind of like your pandering to them, as if they're not intelligent enough to understand what's happening in your novel. What is more, you can't break this scene when your characters are feeling certain emotions. No doubt this would be an important scene, but your character is going to take. It will either trust me, the number of characters you react emotionally to certain twists at way. Those who struggle black, it's normal. Make sure to keep the twist realistic but also ensure that the twist is impactful now. The third and final point of creating a twist is contradiction hunting. If you haven't been too careful on writing or novel, you may have left a few contradictions to your twist or twist ending throughout your book, in which case, those re reading your book may find these out and it could break the immersion. As you can imagine, this is crippling to your story, especially if you twist alters the plot in some way, as most do, in which case you need to go through your novel with you. Twist clear and mind and a large dew scenes and your clues, for example, is there something in a conversation, a small action, any detail? I can raise a few eyebrows and your twist. It's work, in which case some corrections may need to be made. If you are lucky, there may be a contradiction, which is important to the plot, which can require whole scene to be rewritten. It is unlikely to hit the state in if you have kept your twist in mind throughout writing a novel. Even in your planning, this will help you avoid such data ants. However, if you're twisters more last minute decision with your last few chapters, then you may have lived some contradictions without realizing it. A twist isn't something that you just pop in it near the end. You have to have it in mind. Otherwise, it's gonna be very easy to make mistakes throughout your novel. Yet those are the three steps you need to keep command, and you'll have no trouble delivering a surprising and effective twist. Leave clues but misdirect so the reader doesn't really notice them. Deliver your twist, but don't over explain it. Finally find any contradictions and get rid of them with that hour in this lesson. Yet there is no project I can provide felicitous, and that will help you truly prepay to rot. A twist is a process that takes time and is drawn out over the length of a book. Still, if you wish to practice anything, practice you misdirection writers seen or perhaps a short story with a twist, but ensure that the reader doesn't know that the twist is coming until the last quarter or so. As I said before, this is quite a large project to work on, but you don't need to work on it. Of course. Thank you for watching this video so fine. And the next one we'll go over some Faneuil Do's and Dont's. When it comes to writing a thriller, you have almost reached the end of this course, and I hope you found it informative. So far, I look forward to seeing some of your work in the discussions below, or perhaps on the shelf in a bookstore. Thank you for watching and I'll see in the next video. 7. Final Tips on Writing a Thriller: L A writers, and welcome to the final listen of your thriller writing course in this list that we're gonna be going over the fundamentals once more when it comes to writing a thriller, but more importantly, will be going over some do's and dont's when it comes to writing more its initial stages. The thriller A genre was normally fast paced, but as town Wind bar saw a piece, versions offer, thriller suit began to develop it. No matter the pacing thrillers include conflict, attention, suspense, twists and high stakes. This is the core fundamentals. When it comes to writing a thriller, it is thes features that make sure the reader knows that they are reading a thriller, and that's what a thrill it will include. It'll have 10 scenes that will have a heart suspense, and that's what makes the reader understand what kind of book they're reading. Where's if you include in your novel a part that is fairly simple, but it doesn't seem to have too many scenes that are our steaks or suspenseful. But you have is a simple fiction more than anything else but makes it a thriller is thes features that really shined in the novel. Of course, there are also some confusions about thrillers. Rogers, assuming they are more like suspense or mystery novels, it with suspense novels. The story is more focused on surprises. And, unlike mystery novels, thrillers don't need to have a team of discovery clues solving something interesting here. Some dues that have worked well for the genre. So you may want to consider them in your novel. The first is it to ensure that you Rita knows who the characters are and their motivations before you get straight into the main plot. It helps the reader to better understand which pieces are gonna be involved in your plot. So that way they can follow what is happening throughout. Thus, when something is the main plot makes itself present, the reader will understand how it will affect the characters. Second, and this is more common when it comes to writing fiction in any genre. But it has done particularly well with thrillers as well. It's too starches really novel with an action scene now. This doesn't mean guns blazing necessarily. This means that your reader is minutely thrown into one of the scenes that will kind of be the harlot in your novel, for example, it could be a scene where your character is highly, but not necessarily from the main antagonist, just something so that the reader understand that they're reading a thriller. It can perhaps be something more pedestrian, but just a suspenseful. It could be a quiet scene where the protagonist is simply just hiding from something, or perhaps even stealing something, something that really creates an ambience of suspense for the reader to understand, It's a great way to flesh out the characters personality as well. What they're all about. The third point is to make sure the reader understands what the character will lose if they fail. In other words, what the stakes saw I mentioned. Aha! Stakes earlier, as it is an important feature off a thriller. The protagonist is doing what they are doing, not only to gain something but to avoid losing something as well. Perhaps they're very laugh is at stake, in which case you need to show that with some close calls a long way, the fourth point is something on to bring up, as I used it as well, with every genre in building characters and making a lot interesting as well. You need to make it difficult for the protagonist. In doing so, you ensure that they grow from the trials that they face. And the reader has more interesting scenes to work with, as well your protagonists, and face many physical trials that can leave them damaged but stronger in the end. In addition to that bacon s of face, emotional and mental trials as well, such as conflict between the protagonist and another character, or perhaps conflict between the character they like. In short, there are a lot of ways that you can create conflict with you main protagonists. In that way, you can develop the character and make the plot a lot more interesting as well. The first point I feel worth bringing up is Don't be afraid of using twist. This point is for the Roger who has no intention of writing a twist as it is rather difficult to include in the novel. If you're not experienced with the twist, I would recommend giving it some time and consideration. However, if you have done one of the past but feel that it wasn't as impactful as it should have. Bean and you don't want to try that again. I still recommend you give writing a twist. A second put a twist is a great way to show that your story is different from any other. Of course, there are many stories up. There were twists, perhaps some similar to yours, but what makes your story really interesting and impactful? Grouping near the end is a twist that make sure the reader understands that everything is not as they seem. And in doing so, they regain that interest they may have lost along the way, and this is bound to happen opinion on the length of your story. All the amount of scenes were very little happened, and these twists can be simple as well. You don't need to go overly complex of them. Perhaps the antagonist was a character that the reader would like in the beginning of the novel. Or perhaps they are the protagonist from the previous novel. In the series suppose the monster was created by the protagonist inadvertently. There are so many twists that erotic and concocting a mind. However, so many Rogers are too scared to include the 1,000,000 novel, and I have this to say is that if you do include them in your novel and it works out, you won't regret it. Having a twist in your cellar is not only a great way to improve your writing skills, but it is a great way to create a far more interesting story. So if you feel like taking it up a notch, that is the way to do it. Finally, how you end your novel is easier than you might think. If your novel is a once off novel than ending on a more satisfying ending, tying off loose ends and such is the way to go your protagonist gets what they desire. Or perhaps something even better is they grew into a different person over the events of the novel in general, happily ever after Indy, or at least as close to it as it can get in its ruling. However, if you're planning on turning your novel into a Siri's than a cliffhanger or some important loose ends left hanging will help fill the idea in. The sequel also will retain the reader's interest in this world and give them more interest in buying a second novel, which, of course, is an added bonus. It will help your initial sales at the second books launched the painting on the impact of your first book, and there you have it some important Do's and dont's on writing a thriller. Some of this information you may have really known throughout this course, but I felt there was some many smaller tips to discuss further that could be brought together in this single video to save you some more time. I hope you found the information this course formative in the next video R. Sum up what you learned over this course and congratulate Ewan finishing it as well. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you in the next video. 8. Conclusion to Writing a Thriller Novel for Beginners: Hello, writers, and congratulations on completing the course. Writing a thriller is by no means easy. It was one of the genres that takes a step above fiction and complexity. You are required to be realistic created, suspenseful story as well as a gripping one to get you reader invested a while showing you a unique writing style along the way. In all, writing is important to create immersion and to vote the right feelings from the reader via And suspense are not easy emotions to create in a reader. If these air still easier emotions to create a reader than more heartfelt emotions like sadness. So you might still find this a challenge, but not as challenging as writing something more dramatic. Yet through all the difficulties you have encountered or may encounter, I hope that the advice I have given you in this course has helped you in one way or another . I fully understand that all writers have their own stories, their own styles, their own ideas, which is why I made sure that the advice I gave was more general and not changing your whole particle in writing style way, because that is what is gonna make your story special and different from any other. With all this information in mind, you are now more than ready to plan out the structure for your novel and get into writing it. Advice like my discussion on short sentences, may not appeal to some students with a unique writing style, but I still recommend you give it a try if you have any trouble writing your suspenseful scenes. That being said, I hope you enjoy this course on writing a thriller. As always, I am an active instructor. So if you're free to submit any of your projects in the discussions below, add us to be very much happy to take a look at them as well as any other students that are joining in the scores. In addition to that, I have more writing courses available, our profile. So feel free to give them a look if you're interested in other genres or market in your book to different readers. In addition to that, I have several other writing courses on my profile, working of different genres that you may be interested in, be it if you want to take up a new genre or market your book to a different audience. Finally, if you wish to see some of my work, my website is the pain sleuths dot com or, as you see it across the bottom of the screen. Now join my writing groups applied to be personally tutored. Balmy will simply read some of my articles on writing. I have bugged Thank you so much for watching and, as always, good day, good night and happy writing.