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.
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  **_Experience a heart-pumping and thrilling tale of suspense!_**
  
  
  **_Originally published in_ THRILLER (2006),**
  
  
  **_edited by #1_ New York Times _bestselling author James Patterson._**
  
  
  In this Thriller Short, #1 _New York Times_ bestselling author Eric Van
  Lustbader examines the emotional side of life as a spy.
  
  
  Max Brandt is an intelligence operative, and he’s good at what he does. But he
  loses the will to live after the death of his wife, so he joins the Agency.
  His first assignment places him in immediate danger, but due to his grief, Max
  welcomes the end. Yet he fails to comprehend the toll secrecy and lies can
  take. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to live as an outsider,
  this story is for you.
  
  
  Don’t miss any of these exciting Thriller Shorts:
  
  
  **_James Penney’s New Identity_** by Lee Child
  
  
  **_Operation Northwoods_** by James Grippando
  
  
  **_Epitaph_** by J. A. Konrath
  
  
  **_The Face in the Window_** by Heather Graham
  
  
  **_Kowalski’s in Love