WesselEbersohn

Posts Tagged ‘writing tips’

The best way to deal with the police in your story is realistically. Police and criminals all have to swim in the same sea, as the saying goes. Within any one police officer there will be good and bad, community interest and self interest, bravery and fear. They are human beings like the rest of us. Give them the dignity of treating them that way.

We have been discussing cops lately. In the last rule I said that they should be treated with respect, but the corrupt cop is a genuine target for a writer. It may surprise some thriller writers to realize it, but most policemen are not corrupt. When they are though, they become a great added source of tension to a thriller. The corrupt cop has plenty of opportunities to exercise his fall from grace and you can certainly exploit those.

Some thriller writers who have private detective heroes, routinely show the police as being stupid, while the hero is brilliant. This is juvenile stuff. The police are certainly not stupid. That kind of portrayal of them will not appeal to any except the most prejudiced or the stupidest reader. Treat the cops with respect. It will make your writing more realistic – and better.

What about the police? Good solid conservative thriller writers have heroic police officers. This is fine, because most often the police are, in fact, on the side of the angels. But if you make them too good that is going to read like the nonsense it is. They occupy a rough world and their clients are not choir boys. To survive they have to learn to deal with violent and unpredictable people. They too have to learn to be violent. You will have to show that.

So romance is a possibility, if a risky one. Bitter romance is perhaps a better option. Then there is raw sex. No moonlight and roses here, just a couple of bodies getting it together. The thing to be careful about with this strategy is that it needs to be an integral part of the story. The objective, after all, is not to write a porno. Make it so much a part of the story that the narrative cannot unfold without it. Then you may have a winner.

Last time we thought about romance in your thriller. Another possibility is a bitter romance. The hero or heroine thinks that the one who comes into his or her life is the very one and only, only to discover that hidden motives are guiding the lover’s behaviour. Everything seems wonderful but in fact the lover is leading the protagonist into a trap or waiting for an opportunity to administer the poison. This may be a better idea than a conventional romance. It can add to the tension, instead of diluting it.

So what about a bit of romance in your thriller? A love story can add an extra element to a thriller, but do be careful. Remember what it is you are writing about. If you get too tied up in the love story, the tension may evaporate – and with it your readership. Most of all, a thriller must be exactly that. It must thrill people, send shivers up the readers’ collective spine if possible. Never let anything get in the way of that, not even true love.

The last rule was about looking after the flat spots, the bits that come between the high points. While the flat spots are important, it is essential that they fascinate the readers. Your readers must read them as eagerly as any other part of the book. This is the part of the thriller when you lay out the background to the story. It has to hold the attention of your readers. They have to be turning the pages eagerly to experience the unfolding of the story. That way they will still be there when the excitement heats up.

Remember the flat spots. Your book cannot be all gun fights and car chases. If you have too many climaxes, then you have no climaxes at all. Imagine a song in which there were only high notes or an orchestral piece that consisted only of crescendos. You need the quiet passages in order to make the climaxes count.

Abigail is convinced that this man, Leon Lourens, is the next target. She has some sort of past with him. I don’t know what it is though. I cannot imagine an affair. After all, she is a highly educated, very intelligent black woman and he, as far as I can make about, is a fairly brainless white, blue-collar worker.

I described him that way to Rosa yesterday and she told me that I was disgusting. This is a good man and I sound like a brainless intellectual snob, she said. How would I like it, if someone described me as a physically under-developed, eccentric Yid. I thought about that and apologized and said I wouldn’t call him that again.

On the other hand, he is not a player in any way. Why would anyone want to murder him? It makes no sense at all. He is altogether too boring to murder.

Yet, Abigail is convinced he’s on the list. What list? I asked her. Who compiled it.

Wessel was here again this afternoon. He apologized about the way he refused my not unreasonable request for a share of the royalties. He explained that it is not easy making a living as a writer and he needs all the money.

I told him to think nothing of it, but not to think that I was going to give him any more stories.