thriller

Thriller is a relatively broad concept, in a thriller, may contain the suspense, horror, gothic, psychics, mystery, crime of one or more elements, it is not dependent on the salient characteristics of bloody horror scene itself to attract the reader, but through creating the atmosphere of terror, suspense, suggested to arouse the reader's imagination, Lead the reader to feel the tension and fear. In short, the focus is not on the perceived terror, but on the perceived fear.

So, what are some tips for writing a thriller? The following I will from the novel environment, atmosphere and theme of the three aspects to describe.

First of all, you need to set up a real and natural environment for the novel. This environment can be the specific space where the story takes place or the situation of the characters in the novel. The more real the environment, the more familiar the reader, the stronger the sense of substitution will be. For example, the grand hotel in Stephen King's The Shining, the big supermarket in The Mist, and the long road in the Ghost Shop are all places that can be seen everywhere in our life, even the places where we have lived and walked. The story takes place in these environments, and readers will unconsciously recall their own experiences and sit in the right place. For example "the clown to the soul," the seven children of different personality, have their own weakness and fear, such as bill stammer, Ben obesity, mike is black skin, Beverly father abused, Eddie sick body, the fear and anxiety might happen to familiar to the people around us, even myself, when reading will resonate. Therefore, the environment of the novel fits the world of the reader, which is a key point to enhance the sense of substitution.

After ensuring the authenticity of the characters and the space in which the events take place, let's talk about the most important part of writing a thriller: creating a scary atmosphere. In my opinion, we can try to create the horror atmosphere of the novel from three perspectives: the setting of horror events, the depiction of characters' psychology and the application of horror images.

The first is to give authenticity to unknowable, supernatural events. Paranormal events are often viewed negatively, but when placed in the trivia of everyday life, paranormal events not only seem authentic, but also achieve the unique thrill of thrillers. For example, in The Shining, Stephen King first used a lot of ink to describe the protagonist Jack, who was surrounded by practical problems such as work pressure, marital crisis and survival anxiety, implying that Jack seemed to have the tendency of schizophrenia. Then he puts Jack in the middle of a series of bizarre events that the reader thinks are imaginary, and the ghost of a former caretaker opens the door for him. Then the reader realizes that everything is real. In this way, the plot is laid out step by step, and the reader is involved in it, which helps the supernatural events to come out naturally and appear believable. Second, deeply depict the character's fear psychology. Character psychology is a character in a certain environment, around the objective things produced by the view, feeling, emotion, association and other ideological activities and emotional experience. Delicate and profound inner description can make readers unconsciously enter the inner world of the protagonist, internalize the psychological activities of the narrator into readers' own inner feelings, and further promote the horror experience layer by layer, and increase the readers' fear. Specifically, you can try to use inner monologue, scenery foil, blank art and other techniques.

Inner monologue is an important expression of the character's heart, because the psychological activities of the character belong to the category of consciousness or subconscious, usually has no logic and randomness, so this technique often breaks the linear development structure, not subject to the constraints of time, space, logic, causality, space-time reversal and jump. For example, Koji Suzuki's "The Ring at Midnight", when he describes watching the video, he uses brackets to show the psychological activities of the protagonist Asakawa, and uses the first person which is more sympathetic to the readers. As the plot pushes forward, Asakawa's psychological activity is also suffering ups and downs. Fear, despair, with Suzuki Koji's description of the video picture, with the protagonist's ups and downs of the heart changes, and around the looming ghost links, let the reader follow the protagonist and death race.

Then the scenery foil method. All scenery language is love language, people in different states of mind to see scenery, will produce different feelings, so through the scenery color or bright or dark description, can also highlight the character fate and emotional emotions. In The Shining, the author describes in detail what the protagonist and his family saw on their way to Yuanshan Hotel: bottomless valleys, dark green Rocky mountain pines and spruce, gray cliffs, waterfalls flying down the cliffs, and a mountaineering team in the Sierra Nevada Mountains that ate the corpses of their companions... The dangerous and grim scenes set off the disturbing psychology of the characters in the novel, rendering an ominous atmosphere, which echoes the terrorist events in the following article.

The white space technique can fully mobilize the reader's imagination. When to present something horrible or situation, does not make specific paint, but will omit the terror of itself, fill up by reader to rely on the imagination, both to weaken the psychological impact of bloody terror, generation with virtual to real, build atmosphere, create suspense, provide readers with interpretation of freedom and complete the puzzle of pleasure. For example, in the movie "Hero Purgatory", the woman in the frozen frame is on the left, the right is empty, without blood, but the silent picture is that the woman has died; "Memories of Murder" ends with Song Kang-ho's indescribable eyes, but the implicit message is that the murderer is still at large; "Seven samurai", the warriors and the villagers were stationed in front of the village ShanDaoKou, warrior chief worry about mountain thief muskets, and there the villagers volunteered to rob, were long hidden stop, the second day early morning long hidden back saying "killed two", but the entailment is hide from the gun play longer, without firing a single person, not a knife, this is the true meaning of white space.

Third, the use of the image with the meaning of terror, enhance the terror effect. Although a good thriller does not pay attention to the description of scary scenes, but the appropriate use of some images with scary connotations, can create a scary atmosphere in the icing on the cake. Such as Stephen king in writing, on the one hand, is good at using the graveyard, cats, crow, and other traditional gothic cross logo, like a shining and indians in the pet cemetery cemetery, confessional "Carrie," mother, "the number one fan" and "spirit" in the long axes and the haunted house in body bags, "mist" in unknown monster, and so on these, Stephen King created the environment of the novel and the psychological performance of the characters are very good props. On the other hand, it also adds the dissimilation image of contemporary literature, the space-time concept of science fiction, supernatural power and other irrational elements to serve the novel to express the spirit and identity anxiety of modern people. For example, the theme of time travel and rift in the Langoriers, the mystery of Ted's identity in the Heart of Atlantis, the psychic function of Kelly and Coffey, and the alienation of the old car Christine all provide media to convey the crisis of alienation and uncertainty of modern identity. In the same way, there are video tapes and television sets in the Ring, and Sadako, who has super powers, is the carrier through which the author conveys his thoughts and worries about human fate in modern society. It is worth noting that the use of scary images should not be too much and too dense, and the description should also be detailed and appropriate, with clear priorities and priorities, focusing on the reaction of the characters in this situation.

Finally, although it is to write terror and fear, but the final foothold is its opposite -- light and hope. Fear is one of the innate human emotions. It can be found in the origins of all cultures, whether it is the dark Brothers Grimm or the warm Hans Andersen. Witches, giants and demons are often portrayed in stories. In other words, the positive meaning can't stand out without the shadows. How terrible is Dante's depiction of hell in the Divine Comedy, how passionate is the yearning of the lost for heaven. In other words, the frightening "destruction", "death" and "darkness" described in the thriller are not the final goal, but the author's hope and redemption for the goodness and remorse in human nature, his sorrow for the anxiety and spiritual predicament of modern people, and his yearning for love and hope. For example, Stephen King, on the one hand, sets most of the protagonists in his works as ordinary people, mostly from typical middle class families. Their inner fear of reality is not rooted in supernatural events or scary ghosts. But the worry of life security, the concern for the loved ones, the frustration of not being recognized by others, the condemnation of their own mistakes, the confusion about the future, and so on, these also apply to everyone in the modern society. But on the other hand, his characters are able to overcome their egos, the evil forces that bully, control or destroy them. As he once said, "Even in a world of cynicism and despair and cruelty, it is possible for us all to find love and discover our potential." In writing, therefore, we must be careful to write about fear and destruction, not for fear's sake, but to contrast its opposite, hope and light, so that the theme of the novel will be greatly enhanced.

This lesson we are from the themes of the novel environment, ambience and conception of three big aspects thriller about some creation method, which also talks about some specific literary technique, create a terrorist atmosphere like inner monologue, scene foil, space technique and so on, in fact, far more than these, you want to be in the specific creation, select the appropriate method. It's a skill level, but the most important thing is patience and persistence, and the ability to extract stories from everyday life, which is what I've felt in my 18 years of writing.

For this lesson, imagine your hero walks into a hospital that has been abandoned for years. Try to create a scary atmosphere with psychological and environmental descriptions.