Novelicious.com | The Women's Fiction Blog for Readers and Writers

Writing a Psychological Thriller by C L Taylor

1. The ‘What If…?’ Question

I always start my novels with a ‘What if…?’ question. For my most recent novel The Lie the question was ‘What if four friends had to turn on each other in order to survive?’

2. Mind mapping

Once I’ve got my question I begin mind-mapping. I take a large sheet of paper and write my question in the middle, then I start brain storming everything and anything that occurs to me.

I find it useful at this point to ask lots of ‘Who?’ ‘Why?’ ‘Where?’ ‘What?’ and ‘How?’ questions.

Who – are my characters?

Why – is my main character unreliable? (psychological thrillers often feature unreliable narrators).

Where – is the action set?

What – does my main character want?/What’s her goal?

How – do I prevent her from achieving it?

3. Character Goals and Emotional Arcs

Characters need to have a goal, something they desperately want more than anything else in the world. It has to be something that’s difficult for them to attain, there have to be a lot of risks and difficult decisions involved and there has to be real, or imagined (there’s the unreliable narrator again), danger along the way. If your reader likes your character enough they’ll be mentally urging her on to achieve her goal, holding their breath as they turn the pages.

Write Your Novel - Creating Memorable Characters

Creating characters is probably my favourite part of writing (apart from finishing and drinking celebratory wine, that is), but the best ones seem to just show up and start talking. To be quite honest, I don't like to think too hard about how they're created, which leaves me in a bit of a bind when they don't obligingly spring fully formed from my subconscious.

Luckily, there are a few methods that work really well for creating new characters (or developing existing ones). The one that works best for me is to open a blank document, separate to my WIP (work in progress) and to just free-write everything I know about the character. Just the act of typing while focusing on the character often releases all kinds of details I didn't realise before.

If this doesn't work, then you could try writing a conversation between your character and another person from the story. There's no pressure to write well or to construct something useful for the book as it's not going to be used (although you may end up with the seeds of a new 'real' scene). Alternatively, you can 'interview' your character by asking basic questions (in writing) and just 'listen' to their answers, or drop them into a random dramatic situation (being fired from a job, splitting up with a partner, doing a skydive) and see how they react. I realise this all sounds a bit mad, but it can be surprisingly productive.

Write Your Novel - Do You Have to Outline?

You're starting a novel... Do you have to write an outline first?

No! As with everything in creative writing, there are absolutely no set-in-stone rules. You take what works for you and leave the rest.

So, outlining. Writers are often described as falling into two broad types; those who plot their novel first before beginning to write ('plotters') and 'pantsers' (those who 'write by the seat of their pants'). So, a pantser may have a character or two in mind and, perhaps, a setting, but will dive into their first draft with only the vaguest idea of story, while a plotter will map the entire thing out, complete with sub-plots, scene summaries and character sheets.

Of course, these are the two extremes; there are plenty of people who fall somewhere in between, or even people who use the different techniques interchangably throughout their writing process.

The important thing to know is this; either (or both!) is completely fine. Whatever it takes to get the words written.

As a die-hard pantser who has been through the process several times, I can honestly say that I do outline. I just do it after I've written my messy first draft. That's the point at which I stand back, work out what the story is and structure it. Yes, it involves a complete and painful rewrite (sometimes more than one), but it's the way my brain works so I don't fight it.