Still not sure if my work qualifies as thriller

This is a bit long. I have a few questions at the end.

When I was first trying to decide what genre I wrote in, "Thriller" seemed the closest. My characters are in peril, there are extremes of emotion, crimes of passion or fear, pursuit, quite a bit of running around. I am discovering that most books claiming to be thrillers seem to be about private detectives, or spies. I had always thought of a thriller as something of an open field, instead of specifically about people trying to solve mysteries or crimes. Now, I am thinking that I must write "Suspense" I guess because although there are crimes and running around, and certainly the threat of personal injury from bad guys, the stories I am writing deal mainly with deeper discoveries and understandings about ones self.

When I first looked up the meaning of thriller, I felt that my novels were in that category, just as "a Room With A View" is essentially a mystery/thriller, but is also a costume drama/love story, and a few Hemingway books were mysteries or thrillers, and yet were love stories as well. My confusion is what to do with a novel that crosses many boundaries. I am also beginning to think this might be of the same ilk as a romance novel but one like "Cold Mountain," or "The English Patient." This adds to the confusion.

I may be confused because since I am in the midst of writing it, and did not set out to label it at the get-go, and did not follow any specific guidelines (a thriller must be written thus...) I find myself in areas where one type of fiction predominates. Yesterday, I wrote a hard-hitting fight scene, but the day before it was a tender love scene.

I've started to collect books that are "like" my book. Cold Mountain, The English Patient (has more war/spy related stuff), The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises. All typical "doomed love" stories where the hero engages in a struggle for the love object? Question: Are these Romance Novels? I'm not trying to make trouble, these are fabulous books and I am a first-time novelist. It's just that they cover similar ground. (Action/adventure + doomed love).

I was wondering if any other "thriller/suspense" writers have the problem writing books that could work under many different genres. As well as anything anyone might have to say about my problem.

Thank you

I highlighted the parts of the definition that pertain.

sheadakota said:

The definition of a thriller is this;


Thriller/Suspense:

The dramatic conflicts of thrillers/suspense are fraught with peril: a life-threatening danger that jeopardizes the protagonist, his or her loved ones, or even the whole world. The stakes are often large—death and destruction to lives, the downfall of an entire nation, an ecological disaster. However, thrillers can also simply portray riveting psychological tension between two opposing characters. Thrillers and suspense fiction are paired together because thrillers often utilize suspense elements in the development of the story—evil lurking just around the corner that motivates the protagonist to hunt down and capture the villain-at-large.

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I'm going to say "no" to the last part. The protagonist is not trying to capture and turn in the villain at large. In sense, the bad guy is behaving as though the protagonist is the villain at large. His motivation is to rid himself of a rival and convince the love interest that he was really the right guy for her (while behaving like an insane stalker, and beating the stuffing out of her new boyfriend, the protagonist who wants nothing to do with him). There might be something of "The Fugitive" in it. Innocent suspect due to circumstantial evidence, must run for his life.

Although both thrillers and mysteries often involve the protagonist solving a crime and bringing bad guys to justice, the central conflict of thrillers/suspense focuses on developing an urgent sense of imminent jeopardy rather than solving a mystery or the detection of a crime. Thriller/suspense protagonists must win at all costs against a menacing, pernicious threat—or else things are going from bad to worse, and fast. Subgenres include psychological, supernatural, military, espionage, political, medical, legal, erotic and literary thrillers. Thriller/suspense is also included in the general grouping of “genre fiction,” “category fiction,” “mainstream” fiction,” or “mass market fiction.”

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Yes. This is why Thriller/suspense seems to work so well. I have concentrated on taking the jeopardy from a 27:1 long shot of being maimed or killed to a 1:1 chance or lower. I personally would not bet on my character making it through the end.

Writing this has actually created a new Idea, which has got my creative juices jumping around. My main character is already somewhat unlikeable. He's mean, cocky, and a handful. Few people like him. The "villian" on the other hand is a party animal and a go-to guy. He is loved by everyone. I just thought that I should write the parallel story (like an every other chapter thing, from his POV) in which I make him into a sympathetic character, (the lovers cheated on him at first), and then watch him slowly descend into revenge, and possible murder via jealousy and "madness" (willingness to kill to get what he wants).

I hadn't actually thought about telling his side of the story. I had really kept it to only the character set that was involved in the main story. After all, in the DaVinci Code, the "other side" was seen.

Hmmm. That might work...

Melenka said:

I have a similar problem with categorizing my novel. The hero is an anti-hero. To most people, he would be a bad guy. The heroine is admittedly skirting the edge of sociopathy. Everyone is a criminal in some way, though they all have different reasons for it. Their working together is a combination of mistake and accident. Sure, if they don't take out the bad guy he's going to take out the heroine, which adds urgency, but if she hadn't gone after his operation (for very good reason) to begin with, he wouldn't have sent people after her and none of the characters would ever have met.

It's crime fiction, but instead of solving one, they're planning and will commit it. Where does that sort of thing fall?

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cool and well thought out, when you need a beta reader, call me