Hiding
by Jenny Morton Potts
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Published by: Cahoots Publishing
Publication Date: February 2018
Number of Pages: 323
ISBN: 1976862817 (ISBN13: 9781976862816)
Check out Hiding on Amazon | Goodreads
Synopsis:
Keller Baye and Rebecca Brown live on different sides of the Atlantic. Until she falls in love with him, Rebecca knows nothing of Keller. But he’s known about her for a very long time, and now he wants to destroy her.
This is the story of two families. One living under the threat of execution in North Carolina. The other caught up in a dark mystery in the Scottish Highlands. The families’ paths are destined to cross. But why? And can anything save them when that happens?
HOW TO PUT THE THRILL INTO A PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER
By Jenny Morton Potts
Let’s call this process ‘thrilling’.
First out of the trap, is the big thrill. That’s the premise of the entire book. That’s the Eureka you have moment in the bath where you run to your laptop (or device of your choice), forgetting your towel, and without regard to water among electronics, you type out your thrilling idea, fingers a-tremble. This big thrill does need to be original in your mind. It may be that somebody, somewhere in the world has thought of it already, has even committed a variant of it to a published book. But you need to feel in your head and heart that this is your pearl, your genius, your big thrill.
Naturally, you have all the usual base elements in your psychological thriller that any novel will have: wonderful characters, precision pace, witty dialogue, interesting settings and masterful structure. But additionally, you will have lots and lots more thrilling which should include extra twists, red herrings and chapter cliff hangers.
There is one ENORMOUS factor to be aware of constantly, during the creation and again most vigilantly during editing. This is the most thrilling thing: Jeopardy. You need to keep the stakes high almost all the time. Other than when you are lulling the reader just prior to a thrill blast, you need to be ramping up tension whenever you can. Go through each sentence forensically, turning up that anxiety dial wherever possible. Play on characters’ fears and weaknesses.
Thrilling is at its peak importance at the outset. You want to hook your reader into your lair of foreboding in the first paragraph, ideally. Get into the ‘what’ right away. Then the ‘who’. The ‘where’ and the ‘how’ can snake along. And the ‘why’ can creep up behind.
Imagine your thrilling in the score of ‘Psycho’. Listen to that on YouTube is a limber up before writing. Feel the steady sweep of the string section and your jeopardy growing on the page till it reaches that Hitchcockian screech of the violin bow.
Use adjectives to thrill. Keep your online thesaurus open. Adjectives are your thrilling friends.
Use dialogue to ramp up suspense. Have someone say something quite unexpected. Or shocking. Interrupt something relatively bland with a noise or a smell that implies danger. Knock the reader off their stride. Interjections can be valid or red herrings.
Lay the thrill trail carefully with clues; again, real ones and faux ones. Let the book buyer take part. They’ve invested in this and it would be respectful and kind to let them feel clever. (Then again, nah, pull the rug from under them! Unnerve them, keep them guessing. That’s what they signed up for.)
As you edit, and the prose or the dialogue takes an unintended lull, strike! Or delete.
Remember, the thrilling must build and build, always with the high rise denouement in mind.
Thrill ‘em thoroughly, and they’ll be back for more. Once they’ve recovered…
(I must now go and recover from that attack of metaphor, a condition I have to live with.)
About Jenny Morton Potts
Jenny is a novelist, screenplay writer and playwright. After a series of 'proper jobs', she realised she was living someone else's life and escaped to Gascony to make gîtes. Knee deep in cement and pregnant, Jenny was happy. Then autism and a distracted spine surgeon wiped out the order. Returned to wonderful England, to write her socks off.
Jenny would like to see the Northern Lights but worries that’s the best bit and should be saved till last. Very happily, and gratefully, settled with family.
She tries not to take herself too seriously.
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2 comments
I read this book and it was indeed, thrilling!
I’ll have to put it on my TBR list