I had the pleasure of attending ThrillerFest this past weekend in NYC. It was a great opportunity to hear from some of my favorite authors and learn a bit more about the craft of writing thrillers.
One panel titled “Tricks of the Trade: Are There Must-Haves in Thrillers?” was particularly interesting as it looked at those items that are essential for thrillers — and some that are not. Here are my notes from the panel.
Of course, everyone agreed initially on the standards needed in thrillers: tension, pace, momentum. Then, it got interesting.
Information, the panel noted, can be a problem. While a certain amount of information is essential — backstory, description, etc. — it can also be a speed bump that hurts the pace of the story and breaks the tension.
Speaking of pace, the speakers raised an issue with pacing in general. Thrillers, it seems, can have too much. Panelists mentioned a particular thriller affliction called adrenal fatigue, where by the end of the story the reader is quite spent from the effort. Humor is one way to address this, cutting the tension, making the story fun to read, and then allowing the author to ratchet the tension back up.
Sex? In thrillers, the panel said, it’s not the act itself but the sexual tension that makes this work in the context of a thriller. Think sitcoms here. Moonlighting. Cheers.
Toward the end, the panel took on the question: What spoils a thriller? Here are some of the peeves discussed.
- Not wrapping up all the loose ends. Don’t forget the roundup.
- Poorly crafted character and voice.
- Too much backstory dumped in the beginning.
- Writers inserting themselves into the story. Authors need to be invisible.
Members of this ThrillerFest panel were: Karen Dionne (moderator), Mike Cooper, Joe Moore, William Craig Reed, Larry D. Thompson, Norb Vonnegut, F. Paul Wilson.
Thanks for posting this – this info is helpful. Failing to wrap up loose ends at the end of a book is one of my pet peeves too.
Yes, I hate that myself. Though the backstory dump at times has stopped me cold before I ever get to the end.
Farrell, thanks for posting your notes from ThrillerFest. I’m jealous since I wasn’t able to attend.
One of my pet peeves is the full-out gallop right up to the end of the book rather than letting the story end naturally and organically. Sometimes, it’s almost as if the author tired of the story and just wanted to finish it. Was anything like this addressed?
Not specifically, Ari. But perhaps they got at this in the pacing discussion and the idea of adrenal fatigue.
The panel discussed the need to create opportunities for the reader to take a breather, and then build back the tension again. Humor was mentioned as one way to do this, but there were others. Seems like this might solve the problem you are discussing.