title: Writing the Thriller: How to Craft Page-Turning Suspense with Instruction from Best-Selling Authors
author: T. MacDonald Skillman
description: The first thing T. Macdonald Skillman sets out to do in <i>Writing the Thriller</i> is define the thriller. Unlike the mystery, she says, "Suspense is emotional. It's surprise and confusion and fear and anticipation. And suspense is danger. Immediate danger." Thrillers come in a variety of guises: action-adventures; legal, medical, techno-, and political thrillers; psychological suspense; romantic-relationship suspense; women-in-jeopardy suspense. Skillman addresses each element of fiction writing--such as setting, dialogue, and point of view--as it applies to the various types of thriller. For all thrillers, she says, it is best to begin "in the midst of the action or danger"; any subsequent back story should "add a new dimension to the suspense itself." And the pacing should be "like climbing a long, steep series of stairways.... As you cling to the railing at the bottom of the last set of stairs, your heart is pounding; your lungs are burning." Most useful here are Skillman's case studies in plotting, for which she creates eight plots (one for each type of thriller) using the same cast of characters.
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Praise for
  
  HARVEST
  
  “Gripping . . . [you] will be spellbound.”
  
  —Publishers Weekly
  
  “If you like edgy crime fiction that doesn’t shy away from reality checks,
  Pobi is now a name to add to your list of essential reads.”
  
  —The House of Crime & Mystery (blog)
  
  “The plotting here is airtight, but, above all, the novel delivers a
  frightening, Nietzschean horror show composed of equal parts hubris and
  unintended consequences. Fair warning: expect to sleep with the lights on
  after you turn the final page.”
  
  —Booklist
  
  “So gripping the reader feels metaphorical hands around his throat, [Harvest]
  builds to a bloody, heart-stopping confrontation with a killer whose identity
  leaves both Hemi and Phelps shocked and disbelieving. If ever a suspense
  thriller deserves five stars, [Harvest] does.”
  
  —New York Journal of Books
  
  Praise for
  
  EYE OF THE STORM
  
  “Heartbreaking and chilling.”
  
  —Andrew Pyper, author of The Demonologist
  
  “An author to watch.”
  
  —The Globe and Mail
  
  “A most imp