Thriller
Thriller itself is hard to define, partially because of a lot of the definition comes from the individual subgenres--plus the fact that a lot of people get it confused with mystery.
But here's some basics that are pretty consistent across all Thrillers:
Thrills: Thrillers are exciting, dangerous, with unexpected twists and turns. The reader never knows what will happen next--only that something is going to happen.
High stakes: While money might work as a motivation in a mystery, it isn't high enough stakes for all the things that the bad guy is going to do in the book. They have got to be big stakes. *** Note: This is a very common problem when trying to write a thriller.
Complex plots: Thrillers also have very complex storylines. Because the stakes are so high, a complex storyline is needed to pull it off. Unfortunately, the minus of this is that storylines can get overly complex very easily.
Stories aren't always what they seem: A thriller may start out appearing to be one way and take a complete left turn into something entirely different--and it may take 2/3's of the book for all the elements to come together and everyone to figure out what's going on!
Credibility: Thrillers also push the credibility, partially because the stakes need to be so high. However, it also easily plays up very nicely with elements that we all think, "I know that can't really happen, but what if it did?" What if someone found the Elixir of Life? Or a dinosaur bone with flesh on it? Or found the Alexandria Library?
Action: A thriller isn't a thriller without action. Where in a mystery, your basic action is the detective getting hit over the head, a thriller has far more action and also tends to be far more violent.
Technobabble: A lot of Thrillers--not all though--will be based on some form of technobabble. That is, the readers of the particular subgenres will be expecting to see the appropriate lingo that goes along with the subgenre.
And if a writer can come up with a new subgenre that catches on, it can go to blockbuster. Many thrillers have been used for movies.
Subgenres (Thrillers may fall into more than one subgenre):
- Medical Thriller (Tess Gerritsen, Robin Cook)
- Techno-Thriller (still selling, but not as hot as it used to be; Clancy)
- Action-Adventure Thriller (Clive Cussler; Preston/Child--Jaws was an action-adventure Thriller. This is one of the hardest subgenres to write because so much action is required)
- Serial Killer Thriller (James Patterson, Jeffrey Deaver; the goal of these books is pretty much to kill lots of women in horrific ways. This is easily the most popular of the subgenres. It's very hard finding a thriller that doesn't deal with a serial killer.)
- Legal Thriller (John Grisholm; note--these are actually not realistic if you look at the legal system, but if they tried to be realistic, the stories would be be boring)
- Renaissance Thriller (my term for it; this is popularized by Dan Brown. I have since seen a number of books based on things from the Rennaissance)
- Eccesiastical Thriller (this came from my library actually; Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code also falls into it)
- Political Thriller (Vince Flynn; politics drive the story)
- Romantic Thriller (M.J. Rose, Holly Lisle--has major romance between the lead characters; storylines usually revolve around serial killers)
- Military Thriller (W.E.B. Griffin, Dale Brown--anything Special Ops or submarines, military aircraft)
- Literary Thriller (can't give any examples, but I have seen books listed in PW as this; I don't think there's a lot)
- Historical Thriller (again, can't give any examples, but I have seen books in PW as this; I don't think there's a lot)
- Forensic Thriller (Patricia Cornwall; this is a sister to the Medical Thriller, but the focus is on forensic technology)
Word Count: For a first time writer, 90K-120K.