Write a thriller: Find a good ‘What if’

A “What if” situation is a great way to start your plotting

A “What if” question can spark your entire thriller. Try to imagine any situation and make it problematic. Heap trouble onto a situation in which you normally feel safe or even happy. That makes it a tense situation, and tension makes a thriller. Carry a notebook or a recording device everywhere, because you never know when the idea will come to you.

In his book “On Writing,” Stephen King writes: “The most interesting situations can usually be expressed as a What-if question:

What if vampires invaded a small new England village? (Salem’s Lot)

What if a young mother and her son became trapped in their stalled car by a rabid dog? (Cujo)”

You can take most thrillers and find the original What-if within them. What if the Nazis had won? (Fatherland by Robert Harris.) What if a man gets an email containing information known only to him and his dead wife? (Tell No One by Harlan Coben)

If the question is intriguing or shocking enough, you can build tension around the chase to answer it that’ll last right to the final page of the book.