by M. L. Buchman
I just finished the post-first-reader draft of my first-ever techno-thriller (and if I could squeeze more hyphens into that sentences...). I found the experience to be...educational to say the least.
I've written thrillers before. My Dead Chef foodie-thriller series follows television's top chefs as they are hunted and killed on air. These light-hearted romps all have several things in common, but one of those is having a romance down the core.
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More info at: https://www.mlbuchman.com/thrillers/
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These aren't romances, but rather have "strong romantic elements" as we say in the industry. Like my 50 romance novels (and even my several SF/F novels), a romance lends a structure to a novel. There are first meetings, intimacy, conflict, growing affection, and happy-ever-after resolution (or at least happy-for-now in the non-romances).
In my latest novel, I set out to write a pure techno-thriller. I didn't even want to mimic a Clive Cussler style where Dirk Pitt is falling happily in lust with the book's heroine. Even Lee Child's ever-so-remote Jack Reacher has something of a romance arc in most of his tales.
In this one? Not even a smidgen.
Why did I do this?
Partly to challenge myself--it's a piece of how I'm constantly striving to improve my craft. Take the romance core that I've learned over the course of 60 novels and almost every one of my 100+ short stories, and toss it aside. Learn something new.
Also, far more than romantic suspense, a thriller is about pacing. By removing the romance, I was able to focus all of my attention on the critical thriller element of pacing.
...and it was like I'd forgotten how to write.
Thoughts jumbled. Events seemed to just happen for reasons I, as the writer, couldn't figure out for the longest time. (I have learned as a writer to generally trust my instincts. If I insert something odd, there's probably a reason my subconscious put it there. So, even if I don't know why it's there, I almost always leave it in.)
Character arcs! Oy vey! Character arcs, with no underlying romance superstructure, were total chaos. A character's growth in a romance is most of why we read them. We want to go on the journey with them. It's how we know who the hero and heroine are, they're the ones going through the most change. That's who the reader consistently identifies with.
Sure. Great. Fine.
But what about all of the other possible character arcs outside of romance?
That was the harrowing challenge of my thriller. My main character had to find a whole other path. Also, they had to go through it without even once breaking the drive-ahead pace that's so essential to a thriller. It was an amazing and educational experience and, yes, there will be more of them.
And then, after I finished that draft and sent it to the copyeditor yesterday, I pulled up a military romantic suspense I'm working on, the second novel in the new series that started with a Novel #1 serialization this month:
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| https://www.mlbuchman.com/shadow-force-psi/ |
Let me just say, "WHOA!" Suddenly character superseded pacing, sentences and paragraphs were longer, and there was a radiantly clear character arc (two of them actually, as it's a romance).
It's like coming home to an old friend...and not quite recognizing them. I'm sure that by the time I've done another day or two of writing, the familiar and comfortable world of romance will wrap it's gentle hug back around me. But for now, my brain is still in thriller world.
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| Coming October 2019 |
M.L. "Matt" Buchman has over 60
novels, 100 short stories, and a fast-growing pile of audiobooks out in the
world. M.L. writes romance, thrillers, and SF&F…so far. Recently named as "The 20 Best
Romantic Suspense Novels: Modern Masterpieces" by ALA’s Booklist, he has also been selected three times as "Top-10 Romance Novel of the
Year." NPR and B&N listed other works as "Best 5 Romance of the
Year." As a 30-year project manager with a geophysics degree who has:
designed and built houses, flown and jumped out of planes, and bicycled solo
around the world, he is awed by what's possible. More at: www.mlbuchman.com.
8 comments:
I love the way you continue to challenge yourself, Matt. I have to admit, writing a thriller with no romance doesn't appeal to me. Although now that I've thought about it, my core story is not limited to romance plots. You've given me food for thought.
Yeah, it was kind of a crazy challenge, but it came out of several people's comments that my latest big rom sus titles were almost more thriller than romance. And I do love the thriller genre (my first Night Stalkers book, "The Night Is Mine" was actually a thriller that was bought by a romance house and then we twisted its tale to fit and launched all those series). So, I decided to go and revisit the thriller concept and do it in its purest form. Soooo different!
Read this post wondering if you've ever been bored for more than a few days or maybe months. You have a strong stripe of "challenge myself" which is to our (the readers) benefit. So "Drone" is your thriller and the "hero" is a "heroine"? Or is Miranda a man's name and you're playing with the reader?
Interesting post. Romantic elements are great for adding depth to characters but, you're right, thrillers need fast pacing. I'm starting a new mystery series and have been contemplating how much romance to include.
Judith, Miranda is the heroine (female type) of the whole series...and, because I'm a masochist, she's also an unreliable narrator. Whee!
I was bored one summer, just after we had moved between 6th and 7th grade and I knew no one. I was gonzo bored out of my skull and swore I'd never be that way again. In retrospect, I think that I've overcompensated. (Oy vey have I ever.)
Linda, It actually wasn't slowing down the thriller that worried me. My Dead Chef series that I mention in the post has 1-2 love stories up the middle of each one. They're obviously not the dominant factor, but those are definitely thrillers as well, just with SREs. "Drone" is stripped right to the bone for romance but, for me, that didn't decrease my character development time, it just refocused it on different aspects of the characters.
Wow - I'm sitting here gobsmacked at all you've written, lots of romance but lots of other stuff too. That's the kind of writer I aspire to be. I've got a cosy mystery series percolating in my head and I automatically envisioned a romance thread running through the books. I'm not sure if I could create a character and NOT have her/him fall in love. It would certainly stretch my writing muscle. Thank for giving me something to think about - I think, hehe.
Luanna, Mystery is my one blank spot...Of course I rarely read mystery, so writing it would be a challenge. Out of all those tales, I've managed a grand total of one mystery short story (which is such a cool idea that I want to write a whole series of shorts...in my spare time). GACK!
Seriously though, my best advice to myself at this point is: focus. I've had a good career so far, but I suspect it would have been even more successful (like a lot) if I hadn't broken it up into writing 5-10 series at a time (doing that meant that I was lucky if I wrote a book a year in any particular series because I was trying to feed so many at once). I've been cutting back hard and only have 4 going simultaneously at this moment [2 novel series and 2 short story series]. (Oy vey!) But the advice I'd give several-year-younger self is write a series, finish it, write the next series. At least that's my idea at the moment.
I raise a glass to you for both challenging yourself and being successful. Early on, I too have found romance sneaking into things that I wrote (I thought) without romance in mind. I finally gave in and just decided that every novella or novel has a romantic relationship--whether it fits the romance genre definition or not.
My one challenge involving romance was about 2 years ago when I wrote the third book in my primary series, Sweetwater Canyon, and I couldn't write any sex scenes because the character didn't believe in sex before marriage. Now that was hard for me. I came to realize how much I had taught myself that the intimacy of sex relates to very specific plot and character arc points to move the story forward. Though not nearly as difficult as you not having any romance at all, it was certainly a big learning moment for me.
I'm excited to read your thriller. October is way too long to wait...but...I'll manage it. :)
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