Then, whenever I was watching a show that wasn’t quite to my liking, I’d start thinking of that same word.

Then, whenever I sat down to work on something of my own—yup, here came that word again.

The word was “SHARP,” but it doesn’t mean what you think it means.

Lemme back up.

It might be helpful to know that, back in those playwriting days, I was specifically a horror playwright. I point this out because the mechanics of a horror play are a little different than your garden variety stage drama or comedy. Sure, the principles are the same—you’re trying to tell a good, satisfying story just like any other playwright—but there are a few additional expectations that make writing a horror play just a little bit harder. After all, you’re also looking to conjure up suspense, dread, and fear in your audience, and those are really challenging emotions to evoke without the benefit of a forced camera perspective or a narrow frame or post-production special effects or one of those soundtracks where everything gets really quiet AND THEN GETS REALLY LOUD.

When writing suspenseful, speculative stories for the stage, where you mostly only have the benefit of some props, a set, and whatever the human body and/or voice can do, you have to learn a few additional tricks. You have to learn how to fashion suspense and instill dread and fear using only your two dramatic fundamentals: characters and circumstances.

That’s where “SHARP” came in. Not only was it a short and pithy descriptor for that feeling a good, dynamic story gives you, it was also a handy acronym for a few key ingredients to keep in mind. Things that were present in the plays I was enjoying. Things that were absent in the ones I was not. Things I wanted to make sure my own work contained.

Lemme back up again, though.

What About the Nonsense Word?

I can hear you asking, “Wait, but the title of this article says it’s a ‘nonsense’ word! WE WERE PROMISED A NONSENSE WORD!”

The thing is, I’ve always been bad at leaving well enough alone; it wasn’t long before I started thinking of other letters to add to my pithy catchall. “SHARP” quickly expanded into the far more unwieldy “SHARPAWIDUS,” which I’ll admit, isn’t quite as snappy and sounds more like either an obscure dinosaur or a dubstep DJ (but perhaps I repeat myself).

Still. It gets the job done for me. “SHARP”—later “SHARPAWIDUS”—became a sort of checklist. Not a prescriptive formula or anything so crass; more like, an Aristotelian collation of elements I’ve observed are particularly satisfying, and which I can consult whenever I feel like I’m stuck in the writing or revising trenches.

I’m not a playwright anymore (at least in any dedicated way; you can’t ever truly leave the theater behind). Now I spend my energy and time writing books, my first and truest love. And despite the fact that every novelist has an unlimited budget when it comes to elaborate set pieces and special effects, as well as an ability to direct the audience’s eye to specific things no matter how small, I find I still constantly refer back to the lessons I learned as a playwright to help craft a style of suspense that’s necessarily rooted in character and circumstance.

In fact, my newest book, When the Wolf Comes Home (wherever books are sold, April 22, 2025), was written in an explicit attempt to marry both approaches. I wanted to embrace the novel’s ability to create elaborate set pieces of action and chaos and external threat, but also ensure that as much of the breathless, seat-gripping, palm-besweattening suspense came as much from the characters and their circumstances as any no-budget play I’ve ever written. (So far, early response seems to indicate that I did my job—Stephen King even called it “a classic”—for which I’m exceedingly grateful and gratified.)

When Writer’s Digest asked me to write a little about creating suspense, then, I figured I could trot out the old classic tricks like “short sentences,” “onomatopoeia,” “escalating action,” “show the bomb under the table” (all of which are classics for a reason; they are definitely effective tricks you should use) . . . or I could introduce you to my friend, SHARPAWIDUS, in the hopes that, at the very least, it’s ridiculous enough to help you unlock your own nonsense word to describe the things you think should be in a good, suspenseful story.

I should probably tell you what the hell this all means, though, so lemme back up a bit more.

SHARPAWIDUS

Stands for:

Stakes
Humor
Anticipation
Resistance
Plots
Animosity
Withholding
Interruptions
Decisions
Unsustainability
Stichomythia

Some of these might need some elaboration, so, you know the drill by now. Lemme back up one more time.

Stakes

This one’s obvious, I know, but it’s amazing how often remembering stakes is the key to everything. Think they’re high enough? Raise ’em. Is it the next chapter? Raise ’em again. But what does it mean to raise the stakes?

It means you’ve gotta give your character(s) something they clearly don’t want to lose, and then make it more and more likely they’ll lose it. Better yet, make them lose it and see what else they stand to lose now. Whether it’s their safety or their innocence or their understanding of the world—or whether it’s an arm or a head or a loved one.

As soon as we really feel what matters to your character(s), the more we’ll begin dreading the idea that we might have to get it taken away. That’s where the suspense comes in . . . and then rises as we watch the character(s) try to deal with / prevent their losses in hopefully unpredictable ways.

Humor

This one might be the hardest to calibrate. Too much humor and your suspense deflates. Not enough humor and the experience becomes a slog. The trick, I find, is to make sure the humor is grounded—or, to put it another way, that it’s coming from the inside, not the outside.

One way I like to think of it is to remember that no character wants to be in tension . . . but you as the author don’t have to give your characters what they want. If the tension is still there after the joke fails to dispel it? Oooh, that can make for some exquisite suspense.

Anticipation

Another obvious one, almost to the point of redundancy, but it can be helpful to remember that when we talk about “suspense,” we really mean a feeling of anticipation. When we know something is going to happen next and we want to know how it plays out.

You can help facilitate this feeling by putting approaching landmarks on the story timeline. Give the characters things to anticipate, whether they’re big events (the prom is next week!) or tiny reactions (she’s going to be so mad at me!). Mix this ingredient with a little bit of Interruptions (see below) and you’ve got some combustible suspense fuel.

Resistance

Not in the Star Wars Rebel Alliance sense, but rather something more internal. In fact, this idea actually comes from acting training. Some of the best notes I’ve ever received as an actor were reminders to resist the story you’re trying to perform.

A few examples: The most compelling way to play drunk is to try to act as sober as possible; the most realistic-looking way to perform a fall is to try to remain standing while your body goes down; the most effective way to elicit sobs from the audience is have your character desperately try not to sob.

Taking the premise of this idea into the writing realm, then: If there’s an emotional state you hope to create, or a payoff you hope to reach, the more your characters can actively resist it—until the absolute breaking point—the more engaged and invested your reader will become. Note that this doesn’t mean avoiding or ignoring the situation; I like the word Resistance because it very much implies an active fight against what may or may not be inevitable.

Plots

Note that it’s “plots,” not “plot” (nor “plotz,” bubbeleh). I don’t mean this in a “Good books have a story” way. You already have a story; why else would you be writing? Rather, to activate that story, make sure your characters are plotting things. It doesn’t have to be George R. R. Martin-level schemery, but it’s often not enough to say every character needs a “want”—try giving them each a private plan they’re actively following, too.

The suspense comes from wondering which plots, if any, will succeed, and watching them ricochet in unexpected ways. To quote William Shakespeare (another playwright of some note): “O, ’tis most sweet, when in one line two crafts directly meet.”

Animosity

It’s great when someone central to your story dislikes something—or someone—so much that it propels them. The thing I like about this word is it implies an activating, animating force. It feels more dynamic than just plain old hate.

Also, hate is hard to hide; animosity can be tucked away for later. It can create false pretenses, betrayals, uncomfortable alliances, etc. All the stuff of good, suspenseful drama—particularly if the reader knows about this animosity but other characters don’t. (I find this is a particularly useful element to keep in mind when juggling an ensemble.)

Withholding

Here’s a technical one. Whether it’s depicting a character’s reaction before revealing what they’re reacting to, or ending a chapter on a cliffhanger, or having someone remember something important but not revealing the memory until a choicer moment, withholding bits of information from the reader is a great way to keep them on the hook for more.

The tricky part is to not overdo it, because then it can start to feel like a cheat. Or worse, we can forget what we were supposed to be waiting for in the first place.

Click to continue.

Interruptions

This is a big one, and it’s kind of like the external version of Resistance. If you want to keep people on their toes, don’t let your scenes end the way they’re supposed to. There’s probably an ending or a button that feels *correct* to you, which means chances are the reader feels that way, too.

That’s a great opportunity to knock people off balance a little. Interrupt that *correct* ending with something that forces the characters to make another, messier decision, big or small (We love Decisions!). I like to use Interruptions as a rule for dialogue, too.

In life, the opportunities to monologue are few and far between. One of the best acting observations I ever got (from director Anne Bogart) is something I’ve carried over into my writing: Almost always, the person you’re talking to knows what you’re saying before you finish your sentence. Choose the moments where a character can speak uninterrupted very, very wisely. (See also “Stichomythia” below.)

Decisions

If I can be grossly reductive for a moment, I think the main reason we love stories is because we’re creatures who learn by example. We’re fundamentally compelled to see how hypothetical situations and/or conundrums might play out. (That’s why stories where the reactions seem arbitrary or ungrounded can feel almost like a betrayal.)

As such, the more Decisions you can force your character(s) to make, the better. As long as those Decisions feel believable, or at least intriguing, we’ll keep leaning in to see what happens next. There’s such delicious suspense to be found in waiting to see what a character will do . . . and also then whether or not they did the right thing.

Unsustainability

The worst things in life are the best things for stories, aren’t they? If there’s a situational element or a relationship or a character trait in your story that we just know is going to fall apart, we’re gonna be watching with glee and/or horror for the moment we’re proven right.

Stichomythia

One more technical one. This is a dramaturgical term describing when two characters trade alternating lines of dialogue in what would otherwise be a single verse speech. What it really means, though, is that great, tennis-match-feeling of characters trading short, snappy reports until the exchange builds to a climax. This is a wonderful technique for dialogue writing (see Interruptions) above, but the concept of stichomythia can carry into the structure of a good suspense scene, as well.

Rather than play a rising event through one character’s POV, try breaking it up into alternating character perspectives, so we get a more panoramic sense of a situation that’s bigger than one person can take in. This helps things move faster and also allows you for all sorts of mini-cliffhangers that ratchet up the tension even further.

(I think, as far as text layout goes, Stichomythia might also be another word for “skimmability,” too. This might be controversial, or even heretical, to say but in a good action scene, skimmability can be an asset. You want your reader to feel a certain rush trying to find out what happens next, and short lines that alternate information make for a great way to build a breathless momentum.)

***

And there you have it! “SHARPAWIDUS.” What do you think? Too unwieldy? Too general? Too obvious? Hopefully I backed up enough to give you enough runway to—

Oh wait! I totally forgot one more letter! One more essential ingredient to suspense. Maybe even the most important one. Namely:

WEREWOLVES

I mean, what is a werewolf but a ticking time bomb? A character who knows a bad thing is going to happen at a predictable, but unstoppable, time—and also a character who can’t always be themselves. A shapeshifter. Every good suspense story needs a shapeshifter, right? 

Take, for instance, When the Wolf Comes Home. It’s a story of a young woman named Jess, who’s a frustrated actress living out in LA, working the graveyard shift at a depressing 24-hour diner. One night, after a particularly dreadful shift, she stumbles home, only to find a scared little boy hiding in the bushes. Before she can figure out what to do with him, a horrifying wolf-like monster attacks her apartment complex, and Jess winds up running for her life with the little boy in tow. She quickly realizes this monster is the boy’s father and, unfortunately for her, he’ll stop at nothing to get his son back. Jess is about to learn that when the wolf comes home . . . no one will be spared . . .

Did I mention it’s available wherever books are sold, April 22, 2025?

Thanks for reading.

Check out Nat Cassidy’s When the Wolf Comes Home here:

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In this interview, Alafair discusses how a frustrated moment with friends inspired her new suspense novel, The Note, her advice for other writers, and more.

Name: Alafair Burke
Literary agent: Sloan Harris, CAA
Book title: The Note
Publisher: Knopf
Release date: January 7, 2025
Genre/category: Fiction/Suspense
Previous titles: Find Me, The Better Sister, The Wife, The Ex, and more
Elevator pitch: Three lifelong friends—May, Lauren, and Kelsey—reunite for a weekend in the Hamptons. When a practical joke lands them in the middle of a high-stakes police investigation, they’re not sure whom to trust—even when it comes to each other.

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What prompted you to write this book?

On a vacation with two girlfriends, a stranger stole a parking spot from us, and in our frustration, we started imagining the things we might do to even the score. And I somehow turned that into a crime novel.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

The book was done about a year and half after the first kernel of an idea. The central idea didn’t change, but I got to know the characters better along the way. Most of the editing and massaging had to do with getting the relationships between and among May, Kelsey, and Lauren just right. I think most of us have friends we’d ride and (maybe) die for, but who also frustrate us. These are those friends while the limits are being tested.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

Inside baseball here, but I moved to a new publisher with this book. I followed my longtime editor when she made a change. It was a nice reminder that writing is a team effort from beginning to end—designing the jacket, placing the book in stores, trying to bring it to the world. In some ways, it’s like a debut all over again with the same excitement and jitters.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

Definitely. When I began the book, May, Lauren, and Kelsey were recent and fast friends. As I wrote, I realized I wanted them to have longer and more complicated entanglements, carrying the potential for secrets that even they may have forgotten about. I love books where the past comes back to catch the characters by surprise in the present. And giving them a childhood connection definitely changed the nature of the friendship at the heart of the novel.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

Hard to say without spoiling it, but I think a lot of us show various faces situationally. A badass at work; a caretaker at home; the funny, confident friend at happy hour; and someone else entirely on social media—not to mention the persona people conjure up when they imagine us on our worst day. Over the course of a novel, May, Kelsey, and Lauren realize they might find happiness if they live a genuine life 24/7.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Write a book you’d love to read. Work on it every day, which is probably impossible—but try not to skip two days in a row, and never three, and most definitely never four or five. And once you’re done, listen to and value the voices of others, but also remember that you are your best first reader.

The post Alafair Burke: Writing Is a Team Effort From Beginning to End appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In this interview, Pip discusses how her own experience with writer’s block helped inspire her new thriller novel, The Close-Up, what surprised her in the writing process, and more.

Name: Pip Drysdale
Literary agent (if one): Mollie Glick, CAA Gallery Books
Book title: The Close-Up
Publisher: Gallery Books
Release date: December 3, 2024
Genre/category: Thriller/Suspense
Previous titles: The Sunday Girl, The Strangers We Know, The Paris Affair, and The Next Girl
Elevator pitch: After reconnecting with an ex—now a Hollywood Star—a struggling author discovers the dark side of fame when a stalker begins reenacting violent events from her thriller.

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What prompted you to write this book?

This novel was inspired by a number of things including … writer’s block and failure. A lot of Zoe’s experiences with writer’s block and trying to “get over” her failed novel mimic mine. When it happened to me, it felt like the end of the world, like I’d never write another book. I did—I’ve written three since then—but I really wanted to dissect how crushing artistic disappointment can be and delve into the desperation of trying to get out of it. The Close-Up is an exploration of how far we might go to realize our dreams, while also delving into the dark side of what happens when our dreams do come true.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

About two and half years from first idea to publication. But aside from the opening paragraph which I wrote immediately, the first year of that was really just spent thinking, researching, reading, and dreaming. The bulk of the first draft was then written in about eight months and then there were edits and rewrites. And yes, the idea definitely evolved as I wrote and got to know the characters.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

There were a lot of surprises in the writing of it—there always are. That’s the magic of writing a book, when you think it’s going to go one way but then your characters do something to shift the course of the story, and it is so much better than anything you might have thought of upfront.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I hope it does two things: 1) entertains and 2) makes the reader nod in recognition of the truths held within it.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Probably: keep going. Even if it’s only one line at a time, one word at a time, just keep moving forward, inch by inch, and eventually you’ll get there.

The post Pip Drysdale: On Failure as Inspiration appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In this interview, Marcus discusses the unsettling question he was asked that led to his debut novel, We Used to Live Here, his advice for other writers, and more!

Name: Marcus Kliewer
Literary agent: Liz Parker (Verve)
Book title: We Used to Live Here
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Atria Books, Emily Bestler Books
Release date: June 18, 2024
Genre/category: Horror, Psychological Thriller
Elevator pitch: Eve Palmer, people-pleaser to a fault, lets a seemingly harmless family into her new home after the father claims to have grown up there. But of course, the “15-minute” nostalgia tour quickly turns into an ever-escalating horror show.

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What prompted you to write this book?

When I was a kid, we visited a house my parents used to live in. The new owner asked my parents if they had “ever experienced anything strange here.” There was more than a hint of reluctance in the question, which deeply unsettled me. Up until that moment, most adults telling “ghost stories” always seemed excited to share, but this guy looked embarrassed, ashamed even. It felt like he was reaching out to my parents for some kind of external validation.

That seed of a memory lodged itself into my psyche until, over two decades later, it inspired We Used to Live Here.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

We Used to Live Here has gone through many iterations. Initially, I wrote it as a one-part (much darker) story on the horror subreddit r/Nosleep. Due to overwhelming interest in the world and its characters, I expanded it into a four-part series, which Netflix bought the screen rights to. After that, a separate book deal resulted in this novel version. Between all three versions, it’s been nearly a three-year process.

In some ways, the story structure and characters have dramatically evolved, but the foundation has always remained: Eve Palmer allows a peculiar family into her home and soon comes to regret it.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

The biggest shock was getting blurbs from well-established authors. It’s still surreal to have anyone reading my work, let alone writers I’ve looked up to for years. When the first quotes came in from Alma Katsu and Nick Cutter, I literally had to sit down.

With this being my debut novel, the entire process has been quite the learning experience. I’d say learning to schedule my time and focus on writing has been the biggest thing. I come from a 9-5 job background, so it’s both a blessing and a curse to suddenly have so much freedom. If I get too rigid with my schedule, it stifles creativity, it I get too flexible, I never get anything done. It’s a balance I’m still figuring out.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

Adapting a short series into a full-blown novel was much harder than expected. I’m always looking for things to cut and ways to crank up the pacing. But in this book, I had to lengthen and expand, all the while trying to maintain the tension of the original story. It felt like dismantling a finished car, only to rebuild it into a double-decker bus.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

Some readers might learn a lesson about the dangers of people-pleasing, especially if they grew up in a hyper-religious environment and/or live with anxiety. As an anxiety-ridden, recovering people-pleaser myself, I found it quite therapeutic to write. But ultimately, I’m trying to tell a scary story—if people feel uneasy while reading it, I’ve succeeded.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Write for five minutes a day, at least four days a week. (It’s amazing how often a five-minute session can turn into 30 minutes, or 60…) If you can’t think of anything to write, find a book or a screenplay or any written work you love, and copy it word for word, typing as fast as you can with no regard for errors. Nothing has improved my craft more than this.

The post Marcus Kliewer: Write for Five Minutes a Day appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In this interview, Kimberly discusses the process of writing about a place that she loves with her new thriller, The Paris Widow, her advice for other writers, and more!

Name: Kimberly Belle
Literary agent: Nikki Terpilowski, Holloway Literary
Book title: The Paris Widow
Publisher: Park Row Books
Release date: June 11, 2024
Genre/category: Suspense/Thriller
Previous titles: The Widows series (Young Rich Widows, Desperate Deadly Widows), The Personal Assistant, My Darling Husband, Dear Wife, Stranger in the Lake, Three Days Missing, The Marriage Lie, The Ones We Trust, The Last Breath
Elevator pitch: A dream vacation turns tragic when Stella’s husband Adam goes missing after an explosion in a Parisian square. But according to French police, the bombing was no accident, and Adam wasn’t an innocent victim … but the target.

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What prompted you to write this book?

This is my favorite question because I wanted to write this story for SO LONG. It started with the fact that I live half the year in Europe, so it only makes sense for me to want to set a book there, in a place that I know and love. There’s a lot of Stella in me—her wanderlust, her love of exploring new and exciting places. Paris gets the starring role, but the destinations that made it into the book are some of my favorite spots in all of Europe.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

Like I said, the idea was one I’d been batting around for years, but once I got the approval from my editor, The Paris Widow took me about eight months to write. That’s pretty standard for me, as I work from an outline so much of the plotting is done before I write the first word. Sometimes the story changes as I go, but The Paris Widow stayed fairly true to the outline. The only real change came with the flashback chapters; originally, they were to be from Stella’s POV until I realized they would be much more interesting coming from Adam. He disappears in the bombing that opens the book, so his chapters were an easy way to give insight into his backstory and motivations.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

When I’m under contract, it can sometimes be a struggle to come up with a premise my editor is as excited about as I am to write it. Sometimes it takes pitching a half dozen ideas before we land on my next story, but The Paris Widow was one-and-done. I sent her a couple paragraphs, she made a couple tweaks, and voilà—I got the green light. It wasn’t so much of a learning moment as it was confirmation to find a premise that I am passionate about, and the rest falls into place.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

One of the early tweaks my editor made was around Adam’s profession, which the book’s crime centers around. Originally, he was in finance, but my editor preferred something less complicated and more concrete, and boy was she right. The trading of rare antiques is a profession that lends itself perfectly to shenanigans, and it became a central part of the plot. Turns out the antique market is flooded with blood antiquities—treasures ripped from temples and churches and tombs in war-torn countries, snuck over international borders, and sold for big bucks on the black market. My research was both shocking and fascinating.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

First and foremost, I hope readers will feel like they’re right there, strolling along the banks of the Seine or standing under the Eiffel Tower when it lights up at night. This is one of those stories where the setting is just as important as the characters, and I hope that the reader gets swept away to foreign lands for a few, spine-tingling hours, no passport necessary.

But secondly, I hope readers will be just as appalled at the trade of blood antiquities as I am, at the many people who take a cut and then turn a blind eye when the pieces land in respected galleries and museums. There are real-life heroes out there working to stop it—and I based my character Kat on one of them—but like most illegal activities, there’s too much money involved. Kat and her courageous counterparts are fighting a losing battle.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

The best advice I can give to any writer, aspiring or otherwise, is to keep writing. Don’t wait for an agent, a publisher, a contract, just keep writing and editing, every single day. Treat your writing like the job that it is. Set your alarm and go to “work” every day, five days a week, because if you wait for inspiration to strike—or for a story idea to land in your lap—you’ll never get anything written. Some days you’ll end with a lot of words, other days you’ll stare at your screen and pull out your hair. In the end, it all evens out and before you know it, you’ll have a whole book.

The post Kimberly Belle: Treat Your Writing Like the Job That It Is appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(5 Reasons to Set Your Thriller in an Isolated Town.)

Now imagine you’re seeing these settings through the lens of your characters’ inner lives—the fears, paranoia, or mind games they’re playing with us or themselves. Watch how the tension deepens and the terror builds.

Even a familiar setting like the Manhattan courtroom in my 2022 thriller First Victim can take on sinister meaning when filtered through the psyche of my protagonist, the Honorable Alice D. McKerrity. Suddenly the place where justice is supposed to be dispensed and innocent lives hang in the balance becomes an arena where good spars with evil and a shocking revelation will force Alice to confront her long-held secrets and choose between justice and revenge.

The Metro North is the backdrop for my 2024 thriller The Man on the Train, whose midlife crisis turns into his wife’s worst nightmare when he meets a mysterious woman on his daily ride from Scarsdale to Grand Central Station. An ordinary commute becomes a twisting journey into Guy Kingship’s buried past—and a decades-old, unsolved murder.

When we imagine the places that scare us the most because they harken back to childhood terrors (the monster in the closet or hiding under the bed), nothing ratchets up suspense like a house—the more dark and unsettling history in its bones, the better.

From the moment the unnamed heroine arrives at her husband’s ancestral estate in Daphne Du Maurier’s 1938 quintessential gothic novel Rebecca, she’s plagued by growing unease. Dominated by the ghost of Maxim de Winter’s first wife and her obsessively devoted housekeeper, Manderley becomes an extension of the heroine’s increasingly fearful state of mind. The house mirrors her apprehensions—and ours that we project onto her. We’re emotionally invested in the main character, who can make us seesaw between belief and doubting what’s right before our eyes.

Nowhere is this psychological phenomenon more evident than in paranoid thrillers like the 2001 film Memento, in which the protagonist Leonard Shelby struggles to recover the lost pieces of himself and find his wife’s killer by returning to places in his recent past. But he—and we—don’t know if these are true memories or the inventions of an amnesiac or a traumatized mind.

Nor are we sure if the evil stalking the heroine in her late aunt’s Edwardian London townhouse in Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play Gaslight is real or a symptom of her anxieties as she becomes more and more isolated from the outside world. She’s terrified she’s losing her mind and denies the truth of what her senses tell her, which makes her the ultimate unreliable narrator.

Check out Debbie Babitt’s The Man on the Train here:

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The torment of being caught between fearing for your sanity or accepting the reality of supernatural forces at play doesn’t get more frightening than The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson’s 1959 gothic horror classic. Jackson is quoted as saying she couldn’t have written a ghost story if she didn’t believe in ghosts. The plot follows four people whose lives have been touched by the paranormal staying overnight in a mansion in an unspecified location plagued by a history of suicide and violent death. “The horror does not lie in Hill House (monstrous though it is) or the events that take place within it, but in the unexplored recesses of its characters’ – and its readers’ – minds. This is perhaps why it remains the definitive haunted house story.” (the Guardian).

What about the town that’s so entrenched in the protagonist’s memory it becomes a character in its own right?

The fictional Wind Gap in the “boot heel of Missouri” in Gillian Flynn’s 2006 debut novel Sharp Objects is where journalist Camille Preaker returns to cover a murder. But the past has its claws deep in Camille’s tortured psyche, a reminder that none of us can escape history destined to repeat itself in an endless loop of recrimination and retribution. Despite toxic family relationships, Camille’s town is part of her DNA.

The same holds true for Repentance, the faith-driven, superstitious Baptist town in northwest Arkansas that’s the beating heart of my 2021 debut Saving Grace. The love of my heroine Mary Grace Dobbs for her town goes beyond the tragic events that shadow its history—“a place that’s part of me for better or worse. A connection that runs deeper than blood.”

For built-in terror, there’s no place like the woods, where you can get lost and never find your way home. That’s what happens in Harlan Coben’s 2007 thriller The Woods, where four teenagers disappear there and only two bodies are found. In Tana French’s 2007 thriller In the Woods, three children go into the woods and only one comes out. The woods also plays a crucial role in Saving Grace, where young girls disappear over two time periods and where a real-life Boogeyman lives.

Then there are the stories where character and setting become so inextricably linked that you can’t tell where one leaves off and the other begins. Like the Bates Motel in Psycho, Robert Bloch’s 1959 novel that was immortalized in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film, whose remoteness and flashing Vacancy! sign eerily mimics the precarious mental state of its isolated, cut-off-from-reality proprietor. Or the Overlook Hotel—many theories still swirl around the symbolism of the name—in Stephen King’s 1977 novel The Shining, that gradually takes control of the mind of its caretaker protagonist, a man beset by psychological demons.

Whether they’re houses that haunt us, home towns that lure us back, or woods waiting to ensnare us, it’s the human factor that keeps us glued to the screen and breathlessly turning the pages to see what these wildly unpredictable creatures are going to do next.

The post Settings That Build Psychological Suspense: The Human Effect appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In this interview, Mary discusses what surprised her in the writing process of her new suspense novel, She’s Not Sorry, her advice for other writers, and more!

Name: Mary Kubica
Literary agent: Michelle Brower, Trellis Literary Management
Book title: She’s Not Sorry
Publisher: Park Row Books
Release date: April 2, 2024
Genre/category: Suspense
Previous titles: The Good Girl, Pretty Baby, Don’t You Cry, Every Last Lie, When the Lights Go Out, The Other Mrs., Local Woman Missing, Just the Nicest Couple
Elevator pitch: An ICU nurse gets too emotionally involved in the care of an unconscious patient who is believed to have jumped from a bridge, only to learn the woman may have been pushed and that her own life might now be in danger.

Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]

What prompted you to write this book?

I’m a huge fan of suspense novels (probably no surprise there!) and find that as a reader, what I love most about this type of book is not necessarily discovering whodunit, but that moment where the rug is pulled completely out from under you and everything you thought you knew isn’t true. That was my inspiration for She’s Not Sorry, and I built my story around a reaction I hoped to elicit in readers.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

From idea to publication, She’s Not Sorry took about two years, although there was nearly a year after I was finished with it where it went through the process of creating cover art, proofreading, printing galleys and building early buzz. The concept itself didn’t change much from conception. Once I had a first draft done, revisions were more about finessing the characters and the pace of the book, and making sure all the pieces came together in the best way possible. Because the protagonist is an ICU nurse, I also wanted to make absolutely certain I portrayed nurses realistically and that my research and medical terminology were correct. I had a few nurses read a draft of the manuscript for accuracy.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

After nine books, I’m finally getting the gist of the publishing process, but it’s still a thrill every time, from the moment the book leaves my hands until it finds its way into readers’ hands. One thing I have learned and seen is the effectiveness of word-of-mouth and social media. There is nothing as powerful as a book that gets people talking! The other thing I’ve discovered over the last 10 years is how welcoming and supportive the author community is. I’m grateful to have made many writer friends throughout this process.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

I’m not a plotter, so every day is a surprise for me! I never know what my characters are going to do or what secrets they might reveal to me. With this book, I knew the biggest twist going into it, but there was still a lot to learn about the characters and their motivations. There are also some subplots in She’s Not Sorry, including one about a man who is attacking women on the streets of Chicago. I didn’t know at first that this would be part of the book. I added it in for atmosphere, and then over time it became a very relevant part of the story. I also learn and am constantly surprised by my research, much of which focused on nursing—especially nursing in the post-Covid years.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

Mostly I hope readers will be entertained and that the twists will knock their socks off, but this is the type of book that makes you think about the people we put our trust in, and about what we might do in a similar situation, if our own lives, our reputations, or the lives of our loved ones were at risk.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

The biggest piece of advice I can share is to go easy on yourself and to know that every book once started as an awful first draft. It’s a process, and few—if any—authors sit down and write a masterpiece on the first try. All books go through many drafts. Getting feedback from others is extremely valuable too, so be open to that, but also know that feedback is subjective and you don’t have to take every bit of advice you receive.

The post Mary Kubica: Feedback Is Subjective appeared first on Writer's Digest.

Writers have only one tool—description—to invoke sights, sounds, atmosphere, mood, and so much more. Learning to effectively wield that tool makes the difference between writing that delivers information and writing that sings the story to life on the page.

In this online writing course, you will learn how to effectively use descriptive techniques to elevate your writing into an immersive reading experience for your readers, including agents and editors.

Click to continue.

If you want more online education, see the full list of WDU courses here.

Last Chance to Register for Mastering Suspense, Structure, and Plot!

In this comprehensive overview, you’ll discover 13 thinking, writing, and revising tactics to help you write tighter, more polished first drafts. Your stories will include thematic heft, tantalizing plots, and lyrical prose that ripples with sensory clarity.

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Catch Up On “Writer’s Digest Presents” Episodes Now!

Are you caught up on the “Writer’s Digest Presents” podcast? Listen below to our latest episode before our new one launches this Tuesday!

The post Description: Bring Your Writing to Life appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(A Conversation With David Baldacci.)

“Dean, tell us the story of how you got started writing. Didn’t your wife say, ‘Okay, you have this amount of time’ or something? Is that a true story?”

“Yes. I was writing and selling, but not making a living, and I was teaching school. I sold a number of short stories. I guess I might have sold a paperback novel for not much money, and one day my wife said, ‘I know what you want to do is not teach school. You want to write fulltime.’ So, she said she would support me for five years…”

“This was her idea, then?”

“Yes, and if I made it in five years, then we’d be fine, and if I didn’t, then I’d have to go back to teaching school.”

“From the businesspeople I speak with and the business books I’ve read, five years is the time they give all startups to see if they can become profitable and solid. That five-year mark was highly intuitive of her.”

“I sometimes say, I tried to negotiate her up to seven years, but she has Sicilian blood, so she wins every negotiation.”

I laugh. “So, I assume you worked like crazy for those five years.”

“It was a daunting five years. This was long before I was a bestseller or anything, so the years included the number of things I had to write, and, struggling, to get paid more for them.”

“How did it work out, then? Obviously well, because here we are.”

“At the end of five years, my wife was working. She quit her job, and we were working together on my career because her background was in accounting, and my background is I can’t balance my checkbook.”

“That’s amazing. And kudos to you both for knowing your strengths!”

“It was like kismet, and we found that together we could make this work in the future.”

“How has it been to work with your spouse, especially when she’s handling the accounting?”

“She often says the mistake was quitting her other job because she works more hours when she’s working with me than she ever did working for somebody else.”

“Funny. That brings up a point, though, because I get emails from people writing to Killer Nashville—the writers’ conference that I produce—asking for advice. And they think that, ‘Okay, I’m going to write a book. That will take six weeks. And I’m going to have it out in, you know, six months,’ and I tell them it’s totally unreasonable. So, your wife, many years ago, was being very logical, at least with the five years.”

“Yeah, she knows that you don’t build a writing career in a year, and even though I was selling and continued to sell, I was working in basically the bottom of the market. So, it was a slow, arduous climb.”

Check out Dean Koontz’s The Bad Weather Friend here:

Bookshop | Amazon

(WD uses affiliate links)

“That’s interesting, because when I discovered you as a reader, you seemed to be a super-seller right from the start.”

“I know from the outside, my career was this big, smooth arc. But I began writing in ’68. And my first bestseller was in about ’85. So, when you think about all the time there was between those years, it takes a while, or it did for me. There are writers who walk on the scene, and they’re a hit from their first book. I didn’t know a lot about what I was doing, so I was struggling my way. Bad agents. A lot of things complicated it. But ultimately, here we are.”

“So how does a writer, like someone reading our conversation here, become a success such as yourself?”

“I don’t know because every step of my way I’ve been told ‘You’re doing the wrong thing.’ I use Odd Thomas, as a perfect example. When I delivered that script, my publisher at the time hated it. You have to remember; I was already a number one bestseller. But he despised the book. He wouldn’t even talk to me about it, and had my editor tell me he hated the book. I had said, ‘I think I’d like to write more with this character.’ So, the publisher, through my editor, came back and said, ‘Okay, I might let you write more of this, but you have to give me other novels first. So, then the book was put into advance copy. It went out to reviewers and all that. I think that book got more than 100 reviews and all but two of them, I could have written myself.”

“It was that well-received?”

“The reviews were kind of a thing, where people would say, ‘Did your mother write this review?’”

“They were that good?”

“And booksellers loved it. It went on to go through, I think, 14 or 15 printings, and I ended up writing eight Odd Thomas novels that have sold worldwide over 40-million copies and produced about 500 editions.”

“And your publisher and editor hated it. Sort of tells us that if someone in power doesn’t like it, it might not be a fact that we should set the quality of our work by.”

“Here was the key publisher in my life who said, ‘This is terrible,’ and that has happened to me again and again, and it doesn’t mean I don’t respect those people.”

“Sounds like it means you’re ahead of your time, or maybe you have a pulse on the market the publisher and editor didn’t have.”

“I think it means that if it’s a little bit off from what they’re used to seeing, and almost everybody’s going to be a little off, unless they’re slavishly imitating somebody else, then that’s why you have a situation where something like Harry Potter couldn’t find a home. I have a whole lot of stories like that, where authors write books that people say, ‘Oh, this is not publishable,’ and then bang! The right person finds it and says, ‘I like this.’ And then amazing things can happen. So that’s why it’s very hard to say when you need to give up, and it’s very hard to say how you become successful.”

“The key then may be to write the book you think you need to write and leave it at that.”

“It’s a struggle. My career has never been easy. We got to an altitude, but it wasn’t very easy. I wish I could say it was a piece of cake, but unfortunately it was not that. I won’t use the word for what it was, but I’ll go back to the stories of time before my ‘success,’ which people find hard to believe. I had several paperback bestsellers that were selling a million copies in paperback, and my publisher at the time was saying, ‘That’s good, that’s great, but you’ll never be a hardcover bestseller, because you don’t write the kind of books that can be hardcover bestsellers.’”

“That’s really strange. So, what is the criteria of a hardcover bestseller? If you’re selling books, seems to me that would be the criterion. You’re making me wonder if any of those publishers and editors had a clue.”

“I never understood that. Finally I said, ‘Look, you have to make the effort, at least at a minimal level, or I’m going somewhere else.’ And she made a minimal effort, and it got to the bestseller list. And then it went through a bunch of printings. So then there was a book after that called Lightning, and then a book called Watchers.”

“Loved that book.”

“They kept climbing higher on the bestseller list, but the publisher kept resisting it.”

“This is so strange, but I’ve also heard numerous similar stories from other writers. It’s like there is a preconceived notion of someone as a writer and who they are and they are boxed in that false confine.”

“I came to a book called Midnight, and it became number one, and she called me—you know you’re on the list about 10 days ahead because they print the book review section ahead of the newspaper—and said, ‘I have great news. You’re going to be number one on the New York Times.’”

“As my wife says, ‘Success is the best revenge.’”

“Well, before I could say ‘Whoopee,’ or anything, she said, ‘But wait. I want you to know this will never happen for you again because you don’t write the kind of books that can be number one.”

“Oh, my gosh! Where was her brain?”

“We then had together five books that all reached number one, and every single time she told me that it would never happen again.”

“Obviously the class optimist.”

“At that point, I said, ‘I think I have to find another publisher who may believe it can happen.’”

“I don’t blame you.”

“That has sort of been the way my whole career has gone. I think in part, it’s because I do things they’re not expecting.”

“Isn’t that what a writer is supposed to do? It’s interesting, because I’m a filmmaker, as well, and in film it’s okay to direct or write all different styles and genres of films and no one seems to blink an eye. But when a literary writer goes off the lather-rinse-repeat cycle the bean counters go nuts saying ‘you can’t do that’ or ‘you need to change your name’.”

“I don’t deliver the same kind of book every time. And so, there’s a kind of reaction to it like that. My current publisher hasn’t given me that pushback. They’ve been very good about it. But up until this publisher, I got it all the time. I have friends who are bestselling writers, and I don’t think they had as hard a time as I did, but I also know that every month we’ll talk about how difficult it is to maintain. And that’s just the way it is. You have to be in for the struggle. If you’re in for the struggle, it ends up being a lot of fun. So, if you love doing it, the struggle doesn’t matter.”

“Have you ever felt trapped by your own fame?”

“It’s the downside of this. Right now, it seems, because of social media everybody wants to be famous.”

“Should they?”

“No, they shouldn’t. The downside of it is worse than the upside.”

“That’s interesting. Because you are famous. And you’re recognizable.”

“Now, I will say, being a novelist, you don’t run into a lot of people who come up to you in public and say, ‘I read your book. I hated it,’ and spit on your shoes. Mostly they come up to you to tell you how much they love what you do, how you changed their life, and all of that. But you do lose anonymity. You can be in a restaurant thinking nobody knows who you are and having dinner with your wife. And then, toward the end of the evening, two or three people come up to that table to say how much they like your work, and you realize, ‘I was under observation.’ So, I better not have been picking my nose or doing anything else, and that’s kind of a strange thing to lose.”

“It’s intrusive if you’re having a private moment, but in many ways, that’s flattering, too, isn’t it?”

“Not that I love to pick my nose, but it’s kind of a strange thing to lose anonymity. And then there are a few people out there that are not nice people, and that’s why you need to have security at a certain point in a career.”

We won’t go into security here because I don’t think most of us are at that point where we need it. But I think the important thing from our conversation is the trajectory that writers take (from being unpublished to needing security), the conflicting visions they have along the way with those who are on their team, and that, in the end, as Dean Koontz has done brilliantly, the writer needs to stick to his own vision and his own heart because this, as Dean proves, is where bestsellers come from. The takeaway here is: Be patient and never stop believing in yourself. Give yourself at least five years. And follow your own heart. These are your stories, and they are going to be as different and brilliant as you are.

___________________

Dean Koontz is the author of many #1 bestsellers. His books have sold over 500-million copies in 38 languages, and The Times (of London) has called him a “literary juggler.” He lives in Southern California with his wife Gerda, their golden retriever, Elsa, and the enduring spirits of their goldens Trixie and Anna. https://www.deankoontz.com/

The post A Conversation With Dean Koontz on Giving Yourself Five Years to Make It as a Writer (Killer Writers) appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In this post, Jahmal discusses the inspiration behind his debut crime novel, Smoke Kings, his hope for readers, and more!

Name: Jahmal Mayfield
Literary agent: Jackson Keeler at InkWorks
Book title: Smoke Kings
Publisher: Melville House
Release date: February 6, 2024
Genre/category: Crime fiction/suspense and thriller
Elevator pitch: Four young political activists, grieving after a personal loss, begin carrying out their own vengeance, kidnapping descendants of long-ago perpetrators of hate crimes and charging them reparations, a scheme that works until they target the wrong man.

Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]

What prompted you to write this book?

During the George Floyd protests, I came across Kimberly Jones’s viral video, “How Can We Win?” Her eloquence was matched by her rage. At one point she says, “And they are lucky that what Black people are looking for is equality and not revenge.” That got me thinking about scenarios where that wasn’t the case. Many books start with a “What if?” and I thought that was a provocative jumping off point.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

I completed the draft that helped me secure my agent in about six months. We then spent another six months working through 13 drafts until we had a manuscript that we were confident enough to put on submission to editors.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

I knew intuitively that the people in publishing working behind the scenes must love books, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the enthusiasm and passion of everyone I’ve engaged with at Melville House.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

One character started out as a different ethnicity in the early drafts, and another character stepped in for what I’d intended as a brief cameo but refused to leave. Both changes challenged me to move outside of my own experiences to craft characters that, hopefully, ring true in their authenticity.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

As a country, we’ve been grappling for a long time with difficult questions surrounding racism, systemic injustices, stolen and/or forgotten legacies, and reparations. Far too often those who attempt to shine a light on these matters are criticized and silenced. I’m hopeful that the entertainment of Smoke Kings can lead to meaningful conversation around these issues.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Read widely and with a keen eye. Which books have you read that really grabbed you? Study those books to determine everything the writer did that worked for you as a reader. I devoured a book recently and the “cast” of characters populating the novel really struck a chord with me. There was a character that was easy to dislike, another who was underestimated because his true identity was unknown to the other characters in the story, and a third that the others unknowingly trusted even though that character was a traitor. The distinctions and interplay between those three led to a very involving story. 

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