Thrillers - Writing a Bestseller

Of all the types of fiction written, the one that has consistently captured public imagination is the thriller. This is surprising when one considers that the genre has been around for barely more than a hundred years - far less time than the romance, the comedy, the tragedy or the historical epic. But in that short space of time the thriller has become the genre of choice for much of the reading public as well as for many writers seeking to become instantly successful. It has also provided much of the fuel for the movie industry that has grown up during the same period.

Even so, writing thrillers is not necessarily a path to easy riches - for each well-known success story there are tens of thousands of anonymous failures. And the thriller is, in any case, not a genre - it is a whole family of genres encompassing mystery, suspense, adventure, politics, technology, espionage and the whole broad range of human experience. The thriller is, in effect, about life - albeit focusing on the most interesting elements, which are distilled and concentrated into a stylised form.

This ten module course, with its carefully structured approach, aims to separate the reality from the myth in the most practical way. Examples are drawn from both published thrillers and from pieces written specially for the course to illustrate specific principles and points of style. 

Each module includes a statement of intent, a reading list, a summary of the subject matter covered by the module and practical writing assignments to enable the student to demonstrate what has been learned and get tutor's feedback  Topics covered include:

• Getting ideas
• Development of Plot
• Different genres of thriller
• Descriptive technique
• Narrative style
• Dialogue
• Characterisation
• Beginnings and endings
• Methods of work
• Getting published