Writing Your Thriller - How to Use Life Experiences and Imagination in Fiction

Having written and published 33 novels, I have some experience in writing fiction.  The most oft asked question I get, when doing book signing and author talks is, how do you work up a story line?

USING LIFE EXPERIENCE TO CRAFT FICTION

The answer is simple:  I draw on my own life experiences just as any good writer does.  Look at plotting a story as you would ripples in a pond.    What happens when the rock hits the water?  The rock and water are the junction points for the primary theme of your novel.  The ripples are the actions that are generated by that primary them.  Let's use my latest novel, Angels In Mourning, as an example.

This thriller uses a private detective as its protagonist.  I wanted a classic feel to the book, so I made him a noir style, 50's-60's somewhat hard boiled P.I., Set in a modern storyline.  The experience I used to build the story was a child abduction.  And for this, I used my own experience.

A quarter of a century earlier, my son was abducted my his mother, and disappeared for four months before the Private Investigator we hired found him.  I let this simmer in my head for a long time -- a very long time -- before I put this experience to work.

PUTTING LIFE EXPERIENCE TO WORK IN FICTION

In crafting my novel, I used this experience, but magnified it strongly.  Instead of a family abduction, it became a non-family abduction by a predator.   The emotions I had felt during the period my son was missing, served to fuel my writing and infuse the characters with emotion on the subject.  But, a good storyline needs more than one antagonist, two is okay, but more can be better -- if handled properly.

I used  the murder of my protagonist's best friend, to set up diverging lines of possibilities, each having the ability to flow toward separate conclusions, which is a good ploy to utilize to keep the reader flipping pages. 

Utilizing your life experiences in every aspect of your writing, be it newscasts that pique your interest, scenes you have come upon while out and about, such as car accidents, disturbances at sporting events, crimes that have been perpetrated on you or on acquaintances all can be used to strengthen and build your novel.

USING IMAGINATION WITH EXPERIENCE IN CRAFTING FICTION THRILLERS

Flying in an airplane and analyzing the passengers around you is a great method for character building.  Picture yourself in an airplane;  a man sitting near you has Middle Eastern features.  Imagine that during the flight, this man and several others take over the airplane.  They kill an older man who didn't obey them fast enough.  Then they hold the passengers hostage until the police negotiate and/or overtake them.

You wonder what happens to the man who was killed.  If it was your father, what would you do?  Those thoughts formed the basic idea for one of my thrillers, The Hyte Maneuver, which was a successful novel in both hardcover and paperback -- a serial Murder Thriller that focused on the surviving passengers of the hijacking.

MY FICTION WRITING EXPERIENCE

From my background, I've given you two examples of how to use life experience and your imagination to write a successful thriller.  You can bring your own experiences, no matter how trivial or how potent they may have been and draw on them to liven and heighten your writing, as I have done over the past 30 years.

Death on the High Floor: A Legal Thriller, By: Charles Rosenberg

Currently the market for the genre of legal thrillers is abundantly populated and while many legal thrillers do turn out to be pretty decent reads - there are some that really are of a better class. Death on a High Floor, written by lawyer-turned-author Charles Rosenberg, happens to fall into the better class of legal thrillers. Available in paperback or e-book edition, this book is a very well written legal thriller that captures the reader's attention immediately with its tightly devised plot. The story continually moves at an exciting pace and the creative plot twists continue to keep the reader absorbed until the very last word.

Death on a High Floor starts out like most legal thrillers; there is a murder of senior partner Simon Rafer and a central character that seems like the most likely suspect - sixty year old senior partner Robert Tarza. Robert Tarza is a seasoned partner in the Los Angeles based law firm of Marbury Marfan and a known collector of very rare coins. It is Robert Tarza's dealings with his rare coin collecting that lends to evidence placing him as the main suspect in this murder mystery. The rare coin aspect of this story also leads into some very interesting plot twists. The central plot of the murder mystery is exactly where this book's similarity to the others in the genre ends.

As the story develops, other characters are introduced that are seemingly just as viable as Robert Tarza as potential murder suspects; such as Jenna James the intelligent, ambitious and attentive young lawyer that eventually becomes a major player in Robert Tarza's defense. The fun in reading this book is not only moving along with the story as the murder mystery is unraveled; the fun is in the well paced and realistically written court room scenes and pragmatic dialog between characters. This story does not lose a step; the enthralling pace throughout the story remains consistent. Also, this story works better than most because of the down-to-earth portrayal of the drama, the novel court room antics, and the original encounters with the press, photographers and bloggers. The author's expertise as an attorney is well represented in the verbiage that is used both in the court room and among the attorneys within the story. Death on a High Floor is not over laden with confusing legal terminology and it is very easy to follow for readers that are unfamiliar with the legal world. Although the eventual conclusion of the story is predictable, it is the road to the end of the story that is not.