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Let’s take a closer look at thrillers.

Thriller definition

Thrillers are often confused with mysteries and suspense and are often grouped together. The reality is there’s probably not a huge difference, and many aspects of the genres overlap, but perhaps a thriller is more about taking a reader on a journey to see if the threatening element or crime will actually be prevented, stopped or halted in some way.

Reedsy editor Anne Brewer described further differences this way: “In a mystery, the plot is driven forward by the protagonist, a sleuth, who is investigating a murder … In a thriller, the action is driven forward more generally by elements beyond the protagonist’s control.”

Another defining characteristic is that there is often no mystery about who the bad person is in a thriller. We may know who the culprit is from the get-go, but the tension in the plot is about if the protagonist can manage to keep a step ahead of them.

Whatever the definition, a good thriller must create hair-raising plot twists, page-turning tension and horrifying bad guys or scenarios that keep the reader on a desperate mission to finish the story to find out what happens.

RELATED READ: How to Come Up With a Killer Plot Twist

Types of thrillers

Psychological thriller
A psychological thriller delves into the inner workings of the mind. This might be of the main protagonist themselves, like in Stephen King’s Secret Window, so you might not actually get a sound idea of what is really happening until the end. Or it might involve a character that is mentally disturbed, like the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, who FBI Agent Clarice Starling interviews in order to apprehend another serial killer.

Action thriller
In these thrillers, there is far more physical danger and the characters may face a shootout, car chase, fist fight, or other action sequences to stay ahead of the game. In an action thriller, these are the focus of the story.

Supernatural thriller
In these thrillers, there are plenty of terrifying paranormal elements. Stephen King’s Pet Sematary is an excellent and disturbing example of a family that discovers a mysterious graveyard in the woods that is capable of resurrecting the dead.

Crime thriller
In a crime thriller, crime features prominently, like a murder or other serious crime. John Grisham wrote plenty of these stories where both crime and legal elements help form the plot.

Political thriller
Assassination plots are key components of political thrillers. Excellent examples would include Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October, when the crew of a Soviet submarine try to defect, or Richard Condon’s The Manchurian Candidate about a Korean war veteran and political nominee is brainwashed into becoming an assassin.

Mystery thriller
In a mystery thriller, the plot focuses around solving or unravelling a mystery. The environment is always fast paced and intense. Theft, murder or suicide are often common themes.

Legal thriller
In these plots, court cases or the legal system are a key feature. John Grisham wrote many of these kinds of stories, like The Firm, about the corporate corruption of a big law firm and The Client in which a young boy hires a lawyer after he witnesses a suicide and needs protection from the Mafia.

Spy thriller

Secret agents, surveillance and geopolitical tension are all great ingredients in a spy thriller. Think of a plot like Robert Ludlum’s Bourne trilogy and the shadowy groups, assassination attempts, and covert agencies of the U.S. government involved and you’ve got a recipe for a great spy thriller.

Science fiction thriller

The science fiction genre comes into play in these kinds of thrillers. Mutation, zombies, monsters, scientific experimentation, mad scientists or something similar may all come into play. Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park novel, that became such a global movie success, is an excellent example of how “scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should” as character Dr Ian Malcolm says.

Historical thriller
A historical thriller is set in a time period considered historical in which the plot involves a mystery or crime. Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code is an excellent example of how a thriller can weave through the past and present.

Military thriller
This thriller uses real or fictional wars as part of the plot, with military objectives or technologies often a key feature and military personnel featuring as main characters.

Tips for writing thrillers

Choose your genre
Once you’ve selected from the options above, you’re ready to move into the next stage of writing a thriller.

Brainstorm
The next phase in writing any novel is to brainstorm ideas. You may wish to see our blogs Writing a Novel: 5 Things You Must Know or Advice for first-time novel writers to help get you started. Think about the kind of characters you can develop, what their goals or motivations might be, and how you can develop conflict, mystery, or suspense into the story.

Keep the reader engaged
Whatever the types of characters, genre, or suspense you opt for, you must keep your reader engaged throughout. A thriller is thrilling by definition, so if your story has plot holes, character goals are achieved too easily, or the characters’ story arcs are too flat, you will not keep the reader hanging on a knife’s edge. Make nothing too easy to achieve and keep raising the bar and shifting the barometer within the story and you should achieve this end.

Pacing

A key to any good story is pacing, but more so with a thriller. You want to keep action scenes quick, so the high stakes are always clear. But there are times you may want to shift the pace, bring in a twist, and vary the amount of action so it’s balanced, but continually moving forward. And finally, you want all that pacing to lead to a climax where everything comes to a final crescendo and is resolved.

Study the best thriller writers

Stephen King, Agatha Christie, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, Dan Brown, Robert Ludlum and John Grisham are all renowned for their thriller plots. Read and learn how they develop suspense, create the right kind of mood and tone, continually shift the plot so the reader is forever challenged, suspense is kept heightened, and the pacing is fast and active.

RELATED READ: Character Motivation: Types and Examples

Examples

A lot of examples have been mentioned above in the types of thrillers, but here are some classics.

The Shining

Stephen King’s 1980 psychological thriller became a film starring Jack Nicholson. The story focuses on the central character of Jack Torrance, a struggling writer and recovering alcoholic. He becomes the caretaker of a secluded hotel in the off-season, accompanied by his wife and son Danny, who possesses psychic abilities referred to as “the shining”. These enable him to see past tragedies at the hotel that become increasingly more powerful and dangerous. They also influence Jack’s sanity, which ultimately threatens their lives.

And Then There Were None

Agatha Christie’s best-selling crime novel delves into the mystery thriller genre, following strangers invited to a solitary mansion off the British coast, where they are murdered one by one, apparently according to a rhyme that hangs in every guest’s room.

The Bourne Identity

All the novels in Robert Ludlum’s three-part trilogy featuring Jason Bourne deserve mention as an excellent spy thriller, but here’s the first at least. The premise of the first book is that Bourne is seeking to uncover his true identity as a deep cover agent and it is packed with plenty of action, violence, incredible survival ability, shadowy agencies and intrigue it’s no wonder the films made Matt Damon a star.

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Every story has a beginning, middle, and an end. But what happens in-between are plot points. This article discusses the importance of plot points, which are the major events that propel the story forward to its conclusion.

For the purpose of this discussion, I have analyzed J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone using the three-act story structure and seven plot points. I explain when the plot points occur in the book at the end of the sections, so you can skip ahead to the next section if you don’t want spoilers.

What Is a Plot Point?

A plot point is an event that will change the course of the story. It is a major event that is significant enough to influence the character’s arc toward the story climax. Plot points impact the story in a big way.

Your story is comprised of many scenes that all lead up to the story’s climax. Think about your scenes as pieces to a big puzzle. All the scenes are needed to complete the puzzle, and without plot points, your story will be missing key pieces to the narrative puzzle.

Here are some things to consider regarding plot points:

• They will move the story forward in a significant way.
• They should be a “big” enough moment that readers will remember.
• They should push the protagonist in a certain direction toward the finish line.

It’s important to differentiate plot points from other scenes in your book. Every scene must serve a purpose. Some scenes build character development, while other scenes are action-packed, quiet, or reveal clues along the way. Every scene (puzzle pieces) are needed, but not every scene is a plot point.

The seven plot points are:

• hook
• inciting incident
• plot point one
• rising action
• middle
• plot point two
• climax

Let’s look at these plot points in more detail and learn where to place them in your book.

The Three-Act Story Structure

The three-act story structure is the most commonly used model in fiction storytelling. Aristotle believed that every story could be divided into three acts, and that each act must build on the previous one to reach the story’s climax.

Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. When you structure your novel into three parts—Act I, Act II, and Act III—there are certain plot points that occur along the way. This is what it would look like:

• Act I: Setup: hook, inciting incident, plot point one
• Act II: Confrontation: rising action, the middle, plot point two
• Act III: Resolution: climax, denouement

While every story is different, there is a formulaic model for where plot points should be placed in the story arc to create an engaging story for the readers. There are other story structure models, such as the four-act story model, but the three-act structure will be analyzed in this article.

The three acts in your story each serve a different purpose, but they are all equally important.
The sections that follow define the purpose of Acts I, II, and III, as well as the plot points in each act.

Act I: The Setup

hook | inciting incident | plot point one

It can be argued that the first act of your novel is the most important. Act I is an introductory phase known as the setup. This is where you will introduce the protagonist and write exposition to establish the setting, tone, and mood, as well as the protagonist’s main conflict.

Act I will offer insight into the protagonist’s world (i.e., what their life is like). Backstory will help develop the character and their world.

The plot points in Act I are: the hook, the inciting incident, and plot point one.

• The hook will grab the readers’ attention.
• The inciting incident significantly changes the protagonist’s life in a major way.
• Plot point one marks the beginning of the protagonist’s journey.

Act I is comprised of the first 15%–25% of your novel.

The Hook

How many times have you started a book only to put it down because it didn’t grab your attention? It’s likely that the story didn’t have a strong enough hook to pull you in.

The hook is important because it establishes the first connection of developing the protagonist’s character. It sets the stage for the character’s journey and the main conflict. The hook should include some backstory about the character and their situation.

The Hook: Harry Potter is an orphan who lives in the cupboard under the stairs in the Dursley’s home. He has a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, and he doesn’t know how he got the scar. The Dursleys (his aunt, uncle, and cousin) are cruel to him.  

The Inciting Incident

The inciting incident is the most important part of your story. Without an inciting incident, the story wouldn’t exist.

The inciting incident is the point of conflict when the protagonist’s life changes in a dramatic way. Something must happen that will trigger your protagonist into action, altering the course of their character arc.

If there isn’t an inciting incident in Act I, readers will most likely stop reading because there isn’t anything to spur the protagonist into action. It’s all about forward momentum. The protagonist now has goals and motivations because of the inciting incident.

The inciting incident take place within the first 15%-20% of your novel.

Inciting incident: Harry receives a letter from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He learns that his parents were wizards who were killed by Voldemort, a powerful, dark wizard (the antagonist). Harry survived the attack but was left with a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead. Now Harry has a choice to go to Hogwarts to learn about his past and how to become a wizard.

Plot Point One

Plot point one is the point of no return. This is the moment in the story where the protagonist has to engage. The situation that arose from the inciting incident pushes the story arc forward and leads to plot point one. The protagonist has to act and can’t back down from the central conflict.

Plot point one should occur between 20%-30% of your novel, and it marks the end of Act I.

Plot point one: Harry boards the Hogwarts Express at Platform 9 ¾, a secret passageway at King’s Cross railway station. This is where Harry’s journey begins. He can no longer back out of his decision—the point of no return—so off to Hogwarts he goes!

Act II: The Confrontation

rising action | middle | plot point two

Act II is the middle section of the book and is known as the confrontation. It is usually the longest, accounting for roughly half of the book. This is the part of the story where the protagonist gets their feet wet. They are adjusting to their new situation, which arose from the inciting incident and plot point one. They are learning about their world.

In Act II, the protagonist learns more about other characters, makes friends and forms a tribe, and also makes enemies. The protagonist will learn more about the antagonist, and his or her goals will start to take shape as a result.

The plot points in Act II are: the rising action, the middle, and plot point two.

• The rising action creates roadblocks for the protagonist.
• The middle is a major plot twist.
• Plot point two is the final turning point before the climax.

Keep in mind that Act II is about the protagonist learning, observing, and analyzing, not necessarily succeeding. The protagonist will flounder along the way. He or she will have some small victories, but it’s more of a learning process.

The Rising Action

The rising action can be viewed as a series of roadblocks that the character has to overcome. It isn’t one standalone scene like the other plot points, but rather multiple scenes that continuously build on each other, which, in turn, further develops the story and the characters.

As the protagonist learns more about their journey, they will encounter many obstacles. There will be a character shift in the protagonist’s actions and their adaptability in situations.

Rising Action: In many scenes, Harry is being tested. Harry is almost sorted into Slytherin, a house known for the dark arts and wizards, but the Sorting Hat places him in Gryffindor instead. Harry is constantly at odds with his nemeses, Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape. He is suspicious of Snape.

The Middle

The middle is a plot point in the story when something life-changing happens to the protagonist. It has to be a major event—a plot twist—that will challenge the protagonist. If something major doesn’t happen in the middle of your story, the readers will feel cheated and let down.

The protagonist will shift from being reactive and observant to being proactive and active. The character is forced to make decisions in order to achieve their goals.

The middle should occur halfway through your story, around the 50% mark.

The middle: Harry and his two best friends, Ron and Hermione, venture into the forbidden third corridor. There they discover Fluffy, a three-headed dog, guarding a trapdoor. They are now curious about what the dog is guarding.

The pivotal moment in the middle plot point is how the story unfolds after the incident. The history of the Sorcerer’s Stone is revealed. The stone can be brewed into an elixir, which will grant the drinker immortality. Harry and his friends conclude that the all-powerful stone is hidden behind the trapdoor. Harry suspects that Snape is attempting to get the stone. All of these scenes are prompted by the middle plot point.

Plot Point Two

The end of Act II wraps up with plot point two. This is the point in the story when all hope seems lost for the protagonist. It marks the story’s final turning that leads to the climax. The character will have succeeded and failed in their goals, gathered information, and developed a solid plan of action for the climax.

Plot point two should occur around the 75% mark in your story.

Plot point two: As punishment for leaving their dormitory after hours, Harry and his friends are serving detention in the Forbidden Forest. Harry and Draco stumble upon a ghoulish figure killing a unicorn. Harry is defenseless against the ghoul, but he is saved by a centaur. It is revealed that Voldemort was the dark ghoul in the forest, and he is after the Sorcerer’s Stone. Harry now has a goal: to do everything in his power to stop Voldemort.

Act III: The Resolution

climax | denouement

Act III is the final act of the story, also known as the resolution. The climatic scenes will reveal whether or not the protagonist can achieve their main goal.

The plot points in Act III are: the climax and the denouement.

• The climax is the most dramatic scene(s) in the book.
• The denouement ties everything together.

In Act III, the protagonist has to be active and take center stage. Everything in the novel has been leading up to the climax of the story, where the protagonist will finally be put to the test.

Climax

The climax is a series of events that brings the story arc and the character arc together into one big, explosive finale. The climax of your novel needs to be the most dramatic scene. It can be one scene or a series of climactic scenes, but the climax scene itself must have a wow factor. Readers have been waiting for this moment, so the payoff has to be worthwhile.

The protagonist must be present in the climax scene. This is the moment of truth: your protagonist is up against the biggest, most dramatic and complicated thing imageable. The protagonist must face the antagonist in some way.

By this point in the book, the protagonist will have undergone significant transformation and change. Their character development needs to be tangible. They may not win, conquer, or overcome in the climax, but their character growth will be evident in their actions in the final scenes.

The climax should happen somewhere around 90% in your story.

Climax: There are several climatic scenes that build up to the story climax. Harry, Ron, and Hermione go through the trapdoor to get the Sorcerer’s Stone. They face many obstacles until Harry is the only one left. Harry faces off with Professor Quirrell/Voldemort to protect the Sorcerer’s Stone, and he wins!

Denouement

The denouement, also known as the resolution, is the conclusion of the story that ties up loose ends. It isn’t a plot point, but rather the result of all the plot points throughout the book.

The dust is settling from the big climax, and everything will now fall into place in the conclusion. The main conflict has been resolved, so it’s time to wrap up the story.

Keep in mind that the denouement should not be too long, as this will affect the pacing and detract from the dramatic climax. Nobody wants to read a story with an awesome climax only to have to read another ten chapters that don’t lead anywhere.

Denouement: Dumbledore gives Harry answers about his parents, the Sorcerer’s Stone, and explains what happened to Voldemort. In the end, Harry is a hero.

Plot Point Tips

Now that you’ve learned about the three-act story structure and the seven plot points, it’s time to examine your own story.

If you’re just getting started, write down what you think the plot points are without looking at your manuscript. Then refer to your manuscript and see where the plot points are placed in the story. Sometimes, you may think a scene is a plot point only to realize that it isn’t. If your inciting incident doesn’t occur until 40% of the way in the book, you’ll need to move it sooner. If your middle plot point does not result in a big enough plot twist, you should revise it.

If your plot points are weak, nonexistent, or misplaced, use the advice in this article to really focus on those key events. Your novel is only as strong as its weakest plot point, so make sure they all stand out.

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What is scene by scene writing? Our friends at ProWritingAid[1] bring up a few good points on this topic, starting with determining what kind of fiction writer you are. Are you a pantser or a plotter? “People who prefer to write by the seat of their pants are pantsers. Some writers prefer the term ‘discovery writer,’since you discover the story as you write…If you’re a plotter, or what some people call a planner, you spend a lot of time planning your novel before you ever sit down to write.”

Other tools for writing scene by scene include building a scene chart, a timeline[2], and interestingly, writing your synopsis first. You’ll need a synopsis when marketing your book to various publishing agencies anyway, and creating one before you write your book will aid you in determining different scenes better than a straight outline will. The scene chart they recommend comes from Annie Neugebauer’s website, with a link to download the MS Word document[3].

Once you’ve written your scenes (an 80,000-word novel will have around 50 to 60 scenes)[4] and done your self-edit, you’re ready to send your manuscript to a professional editor. The first pass will be the highest level of editing, the structural edit, to make sure your novel is structurally sound, scene by scene.

What is a structural edit? Editors Canada offers this definition:“Structural editing is assessing and shaping material to improve its organization and content.” Sounds simple, right? However, they go on (and on) with what a structural edit really entails, listing 14 different responsibilities of the editor[5]. Here are the main points (and as we know, the final point, communication, is sometimes the most difficult).

• Assessment: Assess the overall organization and content of the material to determine its suitability for the intended audience, medium, market, and purpose.
• Organization: Reorganize material to achieve a coherent structure and sequence, a logical progression of ideas, and a narrative or expository flow and shape appropriate to the audience, medium, and purpose
• Content: Identify and either recommend or make appropriate deletions (e.g., to remove repetitive, irrelevant, or otherwise superfluous material) and additions (e.g., to fill gaps in content or strengthen transitions between sections)
• Communication: Communicate clearly and diplomatically with the author or project supervisor to confirm structure, request clarification of content, and propose or negotiate broad editorial changes.

What are Fictionary’s 38 story elements? As good writers know, “A great story is made up of a collection of great scenes structured in a compelling order. Fictionary shows you how to use the 38 Story Elements to create remarkable scenes, link them together, and finish a novel your readers will love.”[6] This is where artificial intelligence, combined with the trained human eye, can help. Fictionary.co has developed software for exactly this scene-by-scene structural editing. Included in this advanced editing process are 38 separate story elements to be noted, tracked, and improved upon to make you, the writer, the best storyteller you can be.

We won’t list them all here, but the main categories are character story elements, plot story elements, and setting (location) story elements. Your certified Story Coach editor will edit your novel scene by scene, indicating where each of the 38 story elements are strong, could use improvement, or are missing altogether. (Of course, not every scene needs to contain all 38 story elements, so please don’t panic.) Each scene is named (by the editor, if you haven’t named them already using the scene chart mentioned earlier) for ease of determining exactly where improvements can be made, saving you much time and effort; no more scanning your entire novel to find a specific line that needs tightening.

Two of the best features of Fictionary’s Story Coach editing are the report generated afterward, and the visual charts and graphs of your story, broken down scene by scene so you can see at a glance where your story is strong and where it can use tweaking.

Where can you find a certified Story Coach for structural editing of scenes? FirstEditing.com has partnered with Fictionary to train their fiction editors in StoryCoach Editing[7]. The training is extensive (some would say exhausting!), and these Fictionary-Certified editors are ready to help you improve your story structurally, scene by scene.

Not every novel is a candidate for this type of editing, however. To see if yours qualifies, contactFirstEditing and ask for an evaluation of your fiction novel to get started on your journey to becoming a successful published fiction author today.

1 https://prowritingaid.com/art/1136/novel-planning-with-a-scene-chart.aspx

2 https://prowritingaid.com/art/1064/ways-to-get-your-story-unstuck.aspx

3 https://annieneugebauer.com/the-organized-writer-2/novel-scenes-chart/

4 https://storygrid.com/how-many-scenes-novel/

5 https://www.editors.ca/publications/professional-editorial-standards/b-standards-structural-editing

6 https://fictionary.co/learn/fictionary-story-elements/

7 https://www.firstediting.com/editing-service/story-coach-editing-services/

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