By Douglas Kruger
PEOPLE have different reasons for wanting to write. For some, it’s therapy. For others, a love of language. There’s also the unspoken but actually fairly common desire to don bulky Irish knitwear and stare thoughtfully into middle-distance from the shelter of a log cabin, awaiting the next epiphany with nothing but an admiring Labrador for company.
Some just want to schmooze at cocktail parties: “Why yes, I’m an author.”
I was nine when the desire hit. With not a cent to my name, I made regular pilgrimages to my local bookstore where I’d spend hours studying the covers in the horror section. My favourite had a single red balloon rising out of a sewer.
This, then, was the genesis of my desire to scare the stuffing out of innocent readers.
Just a few weeks ago, that hopeful kid from the bookstore got to experience something truly special. I downloaded my own audiobook and went for a walk in some feisty Jersey weather, listening to my own story. A little weird, I grant you. But deeply gratifying.
What’s your image of success? Do you imagine the day you walk into a store and see your masterpiece on the shelf? Do you picture readers sending you marriage proposals?
Whatever your motivation, you can speed up the process by learning from others. I recommend vacuuming up insights from storytellers at a rate of knots.
For instance, I recently watched an interview in which M Night Shyamalan spoke about the underpinnings of his iconic movie, The Sixth Sense, famous for its twist and big reveal at the end.
Believe it or not, that entire twist was absent from the first draft. It began as a story about a psychologist trying to help a kid who…(do the voice) “sees dead people!”
Shyamalan reviewed his story, and while he liked the premise, he felt it didn’t quite have enough whiplash to it. So he went looking for a way to raise the ante. The epiphany hit: Kill the main character right at the outset!
I’ve just gone through the process myself with the publication of a novel titled House of the Judas Goat. A similar thing happened to me.
I wanted to write a story about a bunch of kids who are conned into a fake student exchange programme. They travel to America where they are all gathered into a great mansion for what they believe is an “orientation week”. In reality, they are being sold off, one by one.
Like Shyamalan, I felt the concept needed something more. Something that was “happening all along”. And so: What if one of the kids within the house is actually a traitor, working for the syndicate? And bingo – I had my whiplash in the tail. Or, tale. Now the reader must figure out who.
And that brings us to our first tip for aspiring thriller writers. You have your basic notion for a story. Now, could you complicate the journey? Start with a basic sense of what happens. Then go back over your tale and provide foreshadowing and clues. When the reader eventually finds out which kid is the psychopath, it must add up. There must have been sufficient breadcrumbs pointing the way.
But, and this is tip number two, the trail can’t be too obvious.
There must also be a series of red herrings. The breadcrumbs must make sense, but they must also be scattered by a con-artist, you, the manipulative puppet-master behind the pages. So, how might you present things in such a way that your big reveal is perfectly logical…but not perfectly obvious. Ambiguity is your friend and a delicious seasoning for your readers.
Finally, for added piquancy and flavour, and to increase the levels of ambiguity, you can also give your characters their own secrets, backstories and motivations.
Start by asking what function that character serves in the story. Then give them a secret that either helps in the telling, or mucks things up royally. Either way is fine, so long as it’s relevant to the tale you’re telling. Dole out tiny dollops of what’s in their minds as you go along – never simply reveal it all in one go. It’s a game of smoke and mirrors from start to finish.
There are easily a gazillion more tips I could give you. And if you happen to have a book club or writer’s group, I’d be happy to do so. But those three are the pulsing heart of the thriller novel. Now, get going so that you too can one day download your own audiobook and listen to it while walking the wild cliffs of Jersey. It is a singularly special experience.
Oh, and if you’re free, join me next week Wednesday and Thursday, when I’ll be doing author appearances in Jersey and talking about the new novel, House of the Judas Goat.
Both events are free, but ticketed. The first will be at de Gruchy, on Wednesday 29 October at 2pm. Tickets via Eventbrite. The next one will be at the St Helier library on Thursday 30 October at 6pm. Tickets via Ticketsource. In both cases, I’ll be delighted to talk shop with you.
And remember, the greatest threat to your goal of writing a book is the idea that you will do it “one day”. One day never comes. But start today, and by next week you’ll have racked up a decent word-count. Add a twist or two and you just might have something.
Douglas Kruger is an author and speaker based in Jersey. His books are all available via Amazon and Audible, including the new thriller, House of the Judas Goat.
