Feed Them A Line
Many of the thrillers that I have read start with a shock of some description - a dead body, a face at the window or a man with a gun. This is the hook, the part of a story that makes a reader want to read more. Sometimes the beginning of a thriller is actually the end and the rest of the book tells you how it happened - some private eye novels do this and it is a trick that I have used in my not quite finished Two Women A Week.
Once you have engaged the reader's attention then you have to keep up the pace, word by word, scene by scene and page by page until the end of chapter one - then what?
Draw Them In
When you get to the end of a chapter you have to leave your readers wanting more and the only way to do this is to leave them on a knife edge. How is this done? Well if you can't think of anything at the time you can always take Chandler's advice and 'bring on a man with a gun'. Then of course you have to decide what to do with it at the start of chapter three. You can't use the death of your hero or heroine as a hook - or you wouldn't even get your reader to the end of chapter two, unless this was fantasy or science fiction where they have more than one life. This is why planning is important, you could have a third person behind the door, or approaching the gunman from behind to keep your protagonist alive.
A Word Of Caution
Don't bring out all your big guns too soon. You could end a chapter with suspicious footsteps, your hero or heroine turns around....what they see is at the start of the next chapter and could be good or bad it is up to you. You need to use these three tricks or devices in every chapter you write - although you'll want to draw it all together at the end - but maybe not, you might want to leave some threads hanging to have your readers on tenterhooks until the next book comes out.
__________________________
I love reading and writing thrillers. I can discuss the genre for hours and not get tired. I also love writing and would like to pass that love onto others. The more stuff that is out there the more we all benefit.
