A thriller novel is all about action, suspense, unexpected twists and high stakes. Each scene moves into the next, and the descriptions are pared down and spare.
Thriller Novel
Thrillers are more about the plot rather than character. I’ve talked about character driven tales. Thrillers aren’t these kinds of stories. When writing a thriller, plot twists, and action scenes, and page-turning prose are the most important part. Emotional insight takes a back seat to twisty plots.
The thriller lives right next door to a mystery, a horror and a crime novel. It has a tendency to blend elements of all of these novels, often beginning with a crime (often a murder) and then having the protagonist become victimized by the antagonist for most of the book, while they are trying to solve a mystery so that they can overcome the villain before the book ends.
The nice thing about the thriller being a blend of several genres is that there is a little more wiggle room. If you are into mysteries, but you also like a good suspenseful book, then thriller is the way to go. You may even think you have a crime novel, only to start querying and find out that it’s a thriller. A good way to figure out this is to have your beta readers give you an idea where they think it fits, if you aren’t sure.
This genre of story often has a ticking clock. There is a very serious problem that has to be solved or else. The clock is constantly ticking, causing the reader to turn those pages to get to the end.
Word Count
The thriller word count is around 90,000 to 100,000 words. These can be a little longer than other genres, because of the expected complexity of the plot.
Thanks for reading. Let me know if you like this, or if you have any thoughts about writing a thriller novel, or if you would like to read something different! Thanks!