Customer Reviews

The Ingredients Of A Good Thriller

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So awhile back the book The Ingredients Of A Good Thriller by Chris Wood wandered across my desk. It's no surprise that I spend a significant amount of time reading, but often I'm not really analyzing the structure or the makeup of how the story unfolds. I thought it might be interesting to start paying a bit more attention to that aspect of writing, hence the reason for reading this book.

Contents:
Starting Points
Different Types of Thrillers: Plots; Settings; Crime Scene; A Good Start
Characters: Overview; Sleuth; Sidekick; Villian; Victim; Anti-Hero; Red Herring; Enabler
Showing and Shaping Characters: Showing Character; Making the Goodie Really Good; Making the Baddie Really Bad; Dialogue and Language; What Type of Language?; Comic Relief; Relationship Trouble
Approaches and Details: Atmosphere; Make'em Flinch; How to Make A Kill A Crowd Pleaser; Setpieces; The "Pow" Factor; Milk The Suspense; The Feel of It; Humour Potential; Music That Thrills; Use Reality
Last But Not Least
Don't Give Up!; Recommended Crime Films; Recommended Crime Books; Afterward; Conclusion - The Essentials

On the positive side, Wood does a nice job hitting on all the major elements that would need to be present in a thriller. You obviously need to determine who your characters are, how they behave and interact, and how you can consistently carry that through the plot. You also have to understand dialogue (a pet peeve of mine). If it's not realistic, then the writing falls flat. His recommendation to pay attention to conversations you hear all around you is excellent. Think of it as a free workshop in learning how real people talk.

Where I had issues with the book was in the expected target vs. all the examples. The back cover starts out with "Ever wanted to write a thriller?" The intro mentions "read and watch", but still the main assumption seems to be writing. But the overwhelming number of examples in the book refer back to movies, scenes from movies, or setups of movies. So if you haven't seen the particular film he references, you lose something in the translation. Also, some of the references don't go into detail as to *why* that's a good example. For instance, "enabler" characters are listed as certain performers in movies... Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting, Paulie in Goodfellows, Ronny Cox in Beverly Hills Cop. If you've seen the film, these references might make sense. If you haven't, then it's entirely lost on you. And since I read much more than I watch movies, I didn't get as much out of this as the writer probably intended from his reference point.

The Ingredients of a Good Thriller worked for me in terms of starting to "meta-process" what I'm reading from the viewpoint of a writer. And in a large-type 223 pages, I wouldn't expect an exhaustive coverage. But I'm still not convinced that using film scenes to teach writing technique is a good match, unless you're prepared to watch a movie first, and then analyze it immediately afterwards. And in the case of this book, endless references to films I haven't watched does me no good...

Chris Wood's slender 221 page soft cover book `The Ingredients Of A Good Thriller' is a highly readable and surprisingly entertaining exploration of the necessary elements the would be novelist must consider when sitting down to write a good thriller. Understanding our human fascination for mystery, intrigue and justice he succinctly covers the major and minor categories found within this literary genre pointing out the necessary, optional and open-ended components to producing a successful and memorable novel.

Positing the all important question "what grabs the attention", Mr. Wood enhances his ideas and concepts by comparing the material with examples from well known books, feature films and television series. Personally I enjoyed this approach and believe in doing so he successfully illuminated and brought to life his ideas. It also served the purpose of keeping the reader focused and interested from beginning to end.

`The Ingredients Of A Good Thriller' is a useful, pragmatic, insightful and enjoyable read whether you plan to become a novelist or not. Maybe it's not the ultimate sourcebook for the novice writer, but it's certainly a solid place to begin.

This book is perfect for the murderer in all of us. It almost tells you how to get away with the perfect crime, covering all the mistakes writers usually make before planning their grisly task. It is always informative and easy to read. Keep it close - very close.

This book was OK I guess. I didn't dislike it. So I won't give it a star rating lower than a 3. But it just did not live up to expectations for me. I did not find it to be particularly well written. And it could have been outlined better, too. It has the following 6 chapters:

0. Introduction
1. Starting points
2. Characters
3. Showing & shaping characters
4. Approaches & details
5. Last, but not least
6. Afterward

The title informed me that the book was going to tell me about the "ingredients" of a thriller. As a result, I expected to see chapter titles that named ingredients. But you can see for yourself by looking at the chapter titles I have just listed - there are no ingredients of a thriller listed.

At the end of the book there is a summary of the "vital stuff" a thriller must have. In all fairness, it really is just a list of what a good story must have:

>>Situation
>>Subplots
>>Characters
>>Setting
>>Audience motivation
>>Am I underlining too much?

Funny thing was I read the vital stuff first and then turned to the front of the book where the author warned me that I might want to read the vital stuff before proceeding. My response to that is: Why didn't the author just put that stuff up in the front of the book? In my humble opinion he should have just done that. Then in the first chapter we are told about the different types of thriller genre. Or I should say, we are told some of the genre. Where was there mention of the political thriller, the action thriller, and the psychological thriller? Oops! There wasn't any.

Let me say at this point that my all time favorite movie series is the Bourne trilogy: Identity, Supremacy, & Ultimatum. And I had hoped I would be able to read through this book and be told about the various "ingredients" for a thriller and be able to think about these three movies for examples. And I would have been happy if I could have done so. The book would have gotten 4 stars or better. But no, I couldn't do this. Action thrillers were not mentioned in the book. And the ingredients were not adequately explained. 3 stars!

In this book, Chris Wood (the author) laid out all the ingredients of a good thriller (as the title says it all). It is short, and to the point. He also included examples of a good thriller book (The Godfather, Get Shorty, Capone, Goldfinger etc) and movies out there (The Usual Suspect, The Departed, The Big Lebowski, Pulp Fiction, etc) and explain what is great about them. The book also have the 5-6 pages summary (located in the last couple pages of the book titled "The Vital Stuff") of what the book is all about.

There are some caveat about this book (and to align your expectation from this book):
1. As the author clearly pointed out, this book will help you if you already have a story. This book will not give you the idea of a story which you will need to find/form yourself.
2. You will also need to know a lot of thriller books and movies out there because the author uses a lot of books and movies as an example when making his points and unless you know those movies/books that he is talking about, you might not fully understand his point. Having said that, if you are planning to write/produce a thriller, I would have guessed that you would already have a lot of knowledge and experience about this genre (if not, I would recommend you to do so)
3. A lot of the items covered in this book are common sense (and more of a checklist), so if you are already an expert in this field, you might not get any new or groundbreaking tips/strategy.
4. Be creative, and throw in some new ideas/concept and some of your own flavor. Don't just copy other people's work.

The content shows on what are essential in a thriller:
- Character
- Plot/Subplot
- Setting
- Crime scene
- Great start
- Suspense moment

The book also talk about subcategories of this thriller genre:
- The Gangster Story
- The Cop Story
- The Private Eye Story
- The Serial Killer Story
- The Whodunnit Story
- The Heist Story
- The Passing Detective Story

Example of the Plot (it's all about people based on their flaw according to the author):
- Greed
- Gluttony
- Lust
- Pride
- Sloth
- Wrath
- Envy

Some of the other interesting things that I learned from this book:
1. have a great start to capture audience interest and attention
2. give some of the important detail upfront (some give away), which will let the audience think about their own plot/theory
3. don't go too far (that people will find it too unrealistic or unbelievable)

For those who doesn't plan to write (but like to read this genre, you can learn a lot as well, and become a better judge of whether a thriller that you read/watch is a good one.

In conclusion, I recommend this book for thriller and drama writers and producers, and I also want to re-emphasize the caveat/prerequisite of this book that I listed above.

Sidarta Tanu

The last theoretical manifesto of thriller-writing I read was Chandler's `The Simple Art of Murder'. Chandler was blowing his own trumpet and uttering a blast of it against the monstrous regiment of women (Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers etc) who dominated the genre in his time. What he produced became a famous piece of literary criticism, maybe indeed a piece of literature in its own right. What Chris Wood is doing is both less and more ambitious. This book has no pretentions to being literature, but the thriller genre has come on a lot since the day of Philip Marlowe, and Chris Wood offers would-be authors a handy manual of tips on what to try to achieve and particularly what to avoid.

He casts his net quite widely, including James Bond stories, the Godfather series, Graham Greene's Brighton Rock and other productions outside the `whodunit' category that Chandler restricted himself to. I suppose this is only realistic - it would not make much sense these days to try to exclude so much of what has become the mainstream. If the consequence of that is that a good deal of the advice offered could apply generally to novels that are nobody's idea of `thrillers', then that is a consequence we just have to accept. Chris Wood proceeds mainly by examples, and without actually having counted the examples I'd guess that more than half of them are taken from films. Even assuming that his advice is aimed at authors and not film producers or directors I still have no real problem with that until he raises the matter of background music, which surely should have been restricted to a footnote at the most. On the other hand, if films can feature so prominently, why is there not more about detective series on television? Some of these, e.g. Morse or Inspector Frost or my own beloved Taggart series, are genuine pukka `mysteries' as we used to say, and those should at least form the basis of any treatise on `thrillers'.

The points made seem sound and sensible for the most part to me. I am not about to write any thrillers myself, but I have read plenty of them in my time, and I could certainly consider adding to my experience any thriller written to the Chris Wood quality assurance standard. We should probably be grateful that he has put the effort into pulling the threads together even to the extent that he has. Chandler followed his own advice and produced out-and-out masterpieces. Perhaps Chris Wood will do the same. Meantime by way of practical assistance I can offer him a few corrections he might like to make when the book is reprinted. Surely it is Hannibal Lecter, not `Lector' as he has it throughout? On p 47 I also think he probably means Nigel Stock. Starting from p 29 when I started to notice there are the following errata -- p 29 `in's'; p31 `inciteful'; p 33 `mains'; p 64 `who's'; p 65 `gargantuum'; p 71 `mislead'; p 90 `reigns'; p 131 `Potempkin'; p 142 `breath'; p 159 `plaigarism'. Among the many helpful don'ts, don't neglect accuracy.

While the self-publishing industry has created opportunities for thousands of aspiring writers to share their creative visions with the world, many of the works I've been paid to read simply do not belong in the public arena. Thankfully, there is now a terrific resource available to help ensure that your forthcoming book won't be one of them.

As the title states, The Ingredients of a Good Thriller provides would-be authors with an ingredient list for creating a novel that people will not only want to read, but also be happy to shell out their hard earned money for the privilege of doing so. It's not a recipe book, merely a list of elements necessary to develop your own formula, but extraordinarily useful nevertheless. As a longtime reviewer for Clarion Reviews and ForeWord Magazine (as well as for Amazon, of course, though they don't pay me for this stuff), I applaud the information contained herein. Honestly, I'm seriously tired of the drivel that some folks try to pass off as literature these days.

The subtitle is "a simple guide to noir, cops, gangsters, heists, [etc.] in book and film, and how to make that genre work for you as a writer." That's quite a mouthful, but it describes this book very well. Contents include essential elements such as plot, settings, crime scenes, characters, dialogue, language, comic relief, and atmosphere. Various types of characters such as the sleuth, sidekick, villain, victim, hero, and enabler are described in detail, along with tips and tricks for making villains truly evil and heroes positively good. Examples are pulled from books and movies that most readers will already be familiar with.

The writing is clear and concise, with a wry wit that makes a textbook-like tome thoroughly enjoyable. The only major drawback in this otherwise exemplar book is that the information is not in-depth enough in many places to work as a stand-alone resource. Sadly there is no suggested reading list (beyond some examples of good books/films to read/see) to supplement the materials. The font and spacing are quite large, making the book appear larger then it really is, yet it does cover all the bases well enough to get you started.

Surprisingly there is no biography or author credentials in the book beyond a short statement that he is a writer and journalist who lives in Manchester, England. When I asked for more information via e-mail, he promptly replied that he used to work on films as well as write for a number of publications, including The Guardian, The Big Issue and The New Statesman, He used to teach English and Media and has stories published in England and France, although they were neither thrillers nor full-length novels. I didn't bother to fact check his assertions since I believe that the quality of information in this work is sufficient to back up his contentions.

Overall, The Ingredients of a Good Thriller is a very good resource for aspiring writers, particularly those who intend to go the self-publishing route. If you make it through the hoops and sign with a major publishing house you will be assigned the assistance of a professional editor who can shore up any inadequacies, but self-published novelists generally make due without. The challenge, of course, is that you won't make it through the first gate without covering all the bases described in this book. Either way, it's a valuable tool.

Lawrence Kane
Author of Blinded by the Night, among other titles

While there is some good and sensible advice about writing a book in the thriller genre, it is presented in a context that makes it difficult to apply. Most of the ideas and concepts are presented in reference to a movie or a story, which is helpful if you are familiar with the story. However, if you are not, then a reference such as one to the movie "Untouchables", "Ennio Morricone provided the score, which absolutely crowns the material, adding both real class and many emotional boosts", is of little help.
Not being a movie buff, most of the references to movies were of no help to me, but those that I knew were quite accurate. For a thriller to be effective, you must avoid "audience tension fatigue" in the sense that there must be valleys in the level of excitement. If the audience is kept on edge too long, it reaches the point of routine and the effect begins to fade. As Wood points out, a moment of levity, even if based on a gross situation, makes the next point of tension that much better.
Reading this book in isolation will not do a great deal to improve your skills at writing a thriller, for it must be used in concert with the references. Writing a quality thriller requires significant knowledge of the circumstances as well as an ability to imaginatively see them in a different way. As people who understand writing always state, there really are only a few basic plot patterns, everything written is just a different expression of a fundamental idea. This book gives you the pointers, both in terms of ideas and references to quality expressions of the ideas.

I have to say that this book came in for review at the perfect time. I am about to take my characters in my own book series, "The Adventures of Fos & Prissy," into the world of murder and mystery, and this book gave me some great tips. I love good timing!

What is this book about? It is what it says, a book that is full of ingredients that will help you organize and fine tune your story. Author, Chris Wood, gives us the main points in writing a good thriller. He talks about the setting, the development of characters, how to line up suspects, throw in some red herring, and also some 'what not to do's.' His words and ideas made me think and I agree on his seven deadly sins that can very well cause someone to murder or harm another. But I really do think it all comes down to the one, envy in every area of life that make so many fall, sad but true. Mr. Wood gives many good little tid-bits neatly packaged and easy to access at a time of need.Sometimes his advise wasn't something I didn't know, ( other times it was), but certainly was something I needed to be reminded of. His book is like a good outline that you can have by your side to check yourself from time to time, and we all need to do that as writers.

I always feel its a good thing to get another's input when you are creating. And if someone writes a book that will help us to make our story richer, that's good for all writers. A few tips here and there can only enhance what we are creating and make for a better project, right? This book delivers what it tells you it will. In my opinion it will be a help to many in their writing projects as they strive to achieve that perfect story. A welcome helping hand. Nice job Mr. Wood.

If you are thinking about writing a thriller as a novel or screenplay, "The Ingredients of a Good Thriller," should be in your Writer's Toolbox, along with Stephen King's excellent book, "On Writing." Chris Wood's prose is straight-forward and engaging as he leads you through the elements of a good thriller with numerous examples from successful films and books. I especially appreciated his insights on character development and setpieces. Finally, I found the author's listing of Recommended Crime Films and Books at the end to be a good launching point for further study and refinement of the ideas presented in the book. While this book will not give you a good story to write, it will deliver the tools necessary for you to turn a good story into a great one.