“Makes a living by travelling, talking a lot and sometimes writing stuff down. Galericulate author, polymath and occasional smarty-pants.”

John Dolan hails from a small town in the North-East of England. Before turning to writing, his career encompassed law and finance. He has run businesses in Europe, South and Central America, Africa and Asia. He and his wife, Fiona, currently divide their time between Thailand and the UK.

He is the author of the Time, Blood and Karma; Children of Karma; and Crimes of Inhumanity mystery/thriller series featuring PI David Braddock. John’s latest David Braddock PI novel, For the Hell of It, has just been published, and is available on Amazon worldwide in Kindle and paperback formats.

Sometimes, I get asked the question, “How do you go about writing a thriller novel?” (Though I also get asked, “What made you think that style of haircut was a good idea?” and, “Do you happen to have a spare cigarette on you?” But I digress.)

The thriller genre does have a number of specific elements – ‘rules’, one might say – although these are more fluid than you might think. We’ll come onto that in a minute.

Most folks would probably agree, however, that a thriller requires suspense and tension, twists and turns, and a certain amount of conflict built into the narrative. There must be something important at stake, and characters are often flawed, but at least some of them must be relatable, or interest is soon lost, no matter how compelling the plot is. Moreover, there needs to be a steady build-up of dread/excitement as the narrative progresses, and some kind of credible end resolution.

So far, so obvious.

However, when you examine the components of a good mystery novel, the above list would be rather similar. While the solving of a problem/crime tends to take centre stage in a mystery, and danger is at the forefront in a thriller, the other characteristics can blur together – especially in novels where there is a real depth of characterisation and the narrative has psychological ‘layers’ to it.

But then, how strictly do most writers follow the rules (whatever they are) anyway? For sure, we are all familiar with those authors who write to a formula; and there is nothing wrong with that. Many readers enjoy the comfort of knowing what they are committing to – this seems to me to be especially evident in the ‘cozy mystery’ format.

But I always struggle with which box to put each of my David Braddock PI novels into. Are they mysteries? Well, certainly there are puzzles to be solved. But is there tension and danger? Well, yeah, if I’ve done my job correctly. So, I tend to label each one according to which element shouts the loudest. Indeed, my Braddock novel A Poison Tree hovers on the border of literary fiction – mainly thanks to all the pretentious vocabulary I slipped into it. The danger of this, of course, is that I disappoint both thriller and mystery afficionados. In this, I’d like to think my books are unique. (He smiles wanly and takes off his Panama hat.)

In fact, I suspect there are a number of authors who struggle with the idea of which tyrannical marketing shelf their novel should sit on. Because, in the end, unless we are outright plagiarists, we write stories. They come ultimately (and sometimes unbidden) from our subconscious. They are informed by books we have read, or movies/TV programmes we have seen, by people we have encountered, and experiences that have left a mark on us. Our subconscious doesn’t work in terms of marketing labels. It roams free. The brain is a kluge. At least, mine is, as my long-suffering wife Fiona will testify.

So, the answer to the question, “How does one write a thriller?” is that one doesn’t. Not unless one is writing to a well-worn formula. Otherwise, one sits down for weeks/months at a laptop to capture a narrative that the little person at the back of one’s head has devised, and hopes that the efforts will attract an audience.

Yeah, I’m being pompous, of course. A tad. I blame society and my parents for that. It can’t be my fault, surely?

By the way, if you haven’t needed to Google what a ‘kluge’ is, congratulations. I might want to employ you as an editor in the future.

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