Mystery, Suspense, Thriller...Differentiations, anyone?

RunawayScribe · Feb 1, 2009

Mystery seems self-explanatory - you don't know who your bad guy is, hence the mystery. How do you define a suspense story versus a thriller, though? What are characteristics of each? Is it concrete or debatable?

jeseymour · Feb 3, 2009

Is there a difference between suspense and thriller? Is thriller more of the adventure type genre, like Michael Crichton? I see Jurassic Park is called a "technothriller." Is suspense even a category? Sorry, no answers, just more questions.

Kate Thornton · Feb 3, 2009

RunawayScribe said:
Mystery seems self-explanatory - you don't know who your bad guy is, hence the mystery. How do you define a suspense story versus a thriller, though? What are characteristics of each? Is it concrete or debatable?

The mystery is not always the who - very often it is the why.

RJK · Feb 3, 2009

I think the difference between suspense and thriller is the degree of suspense and what is at stake. You can have suspense while scratching off a lottery ticket. A thriller, on the other hand, requires a bit more to lose. The villian finds the envelope containing the launch codes for all the nuclear missiles in the US. Can you stop him from opening it?

Usually, there has to be a great deal at stake for you to consider your story a thriller. That's not to say the life of one person can't be considered a great deal.
You also normally need a ticking clock in both suspense and thriller genres.

Clair Dickson · Feb 3, 2009

My understanding is that the difference between suspense and thriller is pacing. Suspense is slower-- perhaps a slower build-up or maybe lulls in the action. Thriller is non-stop-action-suspense-tension- bambambam-- can't breathe it moves so fast.

There's romantic suspense... but no romantic thriller.

RickN · Feb 4, 2009

jeseymour said:
I see Jurassic Park is called a "technothriller."

For some reason, my county library system classifies Jurassic Park as a horror novel. It's the only Crichton novel classified that way. Even the sequel (The Lost World) is in the Suspense section.

dpaterso · Feb 4, 2009

Online article, worth a read:

"Mystery vs. Thriller" by Janet L. Smith
http://www.mysterynet.com/books/testimony/mystery-vs-thriller.shtml

-Derek

ISSTARLATHERE? · Feb 17, 2009

I think Alfred Hithcocks "The Macguffin" Is what seperates the genre. Hitchcock knew it didn't matter to th audience if there was a bomb in the briefcase or papers,the not knowing added to the mystery and suspense. With thrillers you know it's a bomb in the breifcase and how long before it detonates.

Georgina · Mar 8, 2009

Nathan Bransford wrote a good post on this subject: The Difference Between Mysteries, Suspense and Thrillers. It's worth reading the whole thing, but this is the takeaway:

Thrillers have action
Suspense has danger, but not necessarily action
Mysteries have mysteries, i.e., something you don't know until the end

scarletpeaches · Mar 8, 2009

Mystery - who dunnit?

Suspense - something's gonna happen!

Thriller - ZOMG I KNOW WHO DUNNIT AND WHAT THEY DONE BUT NOT HOW IT'S GONNA END!!!

MarkEsq · Mar 8, 2009

scarletpeaches said:
Mystery - who dunnit?

Suspense - something's gonna happen!

Thriller - ZOMG I KNOW WHO DUNNIT AND WHAT THEY DONE BUT NOT HOW IT'S GONNA END!!!

So what is my novel - starts with a disappearance which the prot wants to solve, but other murders occur and he himself is put in danger until he figures out who did it, and why. You kind of know who probably did it, the story is about whether the MC can prove it, why the guy did it, and whether the MC will get deaded trying to prove it. And it's set in Paris.

International mystery suspense thriller?!

scarletpeaches · Mar 8, 2009

Clearly, it's chicklit.

MarkEsq · Mar 8, 2009

scarletpeaches said:
Clearly, it's chicklit.

My MC is pretty hot. And he gets laid twice. Internationally.

fullbookjacket · Mar 27, 2009

I've gotten a couple of comments from agents that my thriller novel builds too slowly for the genre. I really don't get it. A body is discovered in unusual, if not downright impossible, circumstances in literally the first paragraph. The pace slows for the next few chapters, to be sure, but circumstances pile up until everything hurtles along at a breakneck pace from about halfway on.

Trouble is, the agents that looked at it stopped reading at 75 pages because of the pace.

My wife, on the other hand, feels like the pace roars out of the starting gate.

I'm thinking about marketing it as "suspense" from here on out.

Clair Dickson · Mar 27, 2009

fullbookjacket, it might work to call it suspense.

It might also help the book to REALLY evaluate whether you 1) *REALLY* need to say the things you say in the next couple chapters and 2) really have to say it as you've done so.

I don't know if this applies to you, but many newer writers will give all sorts of backstory on the characters, talking about the stuff before the book, and not the book. To the writer, ALL of that information is necessary. Most readers, couldn't care less. Not only that, but many new writers do a lot of telling about their characters in those slow parts in early chapters instead of showing. This gets many books rejected.

If you want, PM me and I'll take a look at it.

linton · Mar 28, 2009

fullbookjacket said:
I'm thinking about marketing it as "suspense" from here on out.

Might be a good idea. Thrillers have to move from start to finish.

Mystery, Suspense, Thriller...Differentiations, anyone?

RunawayScribe

It is what it is.

jeseymour

Kate Thornton

Still Happy to be Here. Or Anywhere

RJK

Sheriff Bullwinkle the Poet says:

Clair Dickson

A dark core to every cloud

RickN

dpaterso

Also in our Discord and IRC chat channels

ISSTARLATHERE?

Georgina

Sushi at midnight

scarletpeaches

MarkEsq

Clever title pending.

scarletpeaches

MarkEsq

Clever title pending.

fullbookjacket

Clair Dickson

A dark core to every cloud

linton