I attended THRILLERFEST XIII this past week, an annual writers’ conference held in New York City that specializes in (wait for it) thrillers.

Overall, this was a fantastic experience, one I would recommend to all authors whose work at least edges into the crime/suspense/mystery genres. One of the best parts of the conference was Master CraftFest, a day-long workshop in which the first ten pages of our manuscripts were thoroughly reviewed by a professional author. I was fortunate enough to have Gayle Lynds as a teacher.

Here are 8 1/2 lessons on writing that I learned throughout the conference.

1) RESEARCH PUBLISHED NOVELS’ OPENING PAGES: When an agent’s assistant is reading your work they’ll probably only give you a few pages (if that much) to convince them to keep on reading and eventually hand the manuscript off to their boss. Learn what you can about how the professionals open their stories.

Go to your local library/bookstore, find the section that carries your genre, pull books off the shelves and read the opening page or two (TIP: choose books released in the past 3 years). What patterns do you find? How much of the setting is described? What questions are brought up? What are you told? What are you not told? How much backstory is given?

And speaking of backstory…

2) BACKSTORY SHOULD BE EARNED: One thing you’ll probably notice when you read a published novel’s opening pages is that you aren’t given tons of details regarding the characters’ lives. You might not learn until chapter 5 that the heroine accidentally burned down her grandmother’s farmhouse.

Authors are often eager to share their characters’ tantalizing past but the first chapter is seldom the place to give such information. Give readers just enough to peak their interests, trust your novel to draw them in. You can fill in the history later.

Readers are here for the story, not the backstory.

3) BEGIN YOUR NOVEL WITH A SCENE: A lot of older novels start off with something like this: “The city was like a psychotic nurse, tending to our every need while slowly poisoning us.”  Then they go off on a description of the city or heroes that lasts several paragraphs/pages.

For better or worse, most readers these days (including agents) prefer stories that start with a concrete scene that is a) interesting and b) moves the plot/characters forward.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to blow up the Death Star. If your novel is a quiet small town drama, you could begin with an eighty-year-old man getting into his first car accident or your heroine’s high school sweetheart returning with their new husband/wife (who is blind?). You don’t necessarily have to open your novel with intense action if that’s not what your novel is about, but open it with a scene that is significant to the characters and intriguing to the readers.

4) SPEND WORDS WISELY: If you go on for paragraphs describing a place but sum up a character in a sentence, readers will assume the setting is more important than that character (and vice versa).

Don’t barrage us with description of characters/places that only appear once in the story. Give us one or two well written sentences that puts a picture in our heads and then move on with the characters catching the murderer / reuniting with their father / defeating the demonic accountant.

Unless it’s absolutely necessary don’t even bother naming characters who only appear once in the novel. It’ll just be one more name for readers to remember.

5) DESCRIBE YOUR CHARACTERS THROUGHOUT THE STORY: Don’t tell us that your heroine loves ten gallon hats on page 4 and expect us to remember this for the next 250 pages. Remind us of your characters’ significant physical aspects throughout the story.

Obviously, you don’t want to bring up the hero’s red hair / obnoxious ties / mohawk on every page, but do find organic ways to mention their significant physical attributes 2-4 times throughout the story. How do stuffy New England relatives react when our heroine wears a 10 gallon hat to her lover’s funeral? Does the hero have younger siblings who throw wads of paper at their brother’s mohawk? Remind us of what the central characters look like so we can picture them throughout the novel.

6) GIVE US STAKES: If you have your character breaking into a mob boss’ house, the readers will logically be aware that they are in danger. However, that doesn’t mean they will feel the tension. Let us know what the consequences are. What happened to the last guy who crossed the Don? Has anyone else ever broken into this house? What is the absolute worst thing that could happen to the central character (Losing a child, losing the ability to play the piano etc.) and have that be the potential consequence.

7) MAKE CHARACTERS COMPLEX: Yes, we’ve been getting this advice since our Freshman year creative writing class, but how do we make complex characters? Here are a few quick tips.

If your main character is a down-to-earth “ordinary” hero, they should do something extraordinary in the first few pages. They can stand up for someone, or exhibit a talent or power that will make them more interesting than just another face on the street.

If you have a James Bond-like super hero or heroine you need to do the opposite. Display their vulnerability in the first few pages. They might be the best secret agent in the world but give us something that makes us realize they are human. Also, keep in mind that we the readers react better to powerful main characters if you don’t constantly rub it in our faces just how perfect they are.

As for villains, you can make them as dastardly as you want, but it’s usually wise to give us one thing to like about them.

8) MAKE SURE WE UNDERSTAND WHY THE MACGUFFIN IS IMPORTANT: The MacGuffin is the story’s catalyst, usually the object everyone is after. In the first Harry Potter book it is the Philosopher’s Stone. In the first Indiana Jones movie it’s the Ark of the Covenant. In Lord of the Rings it’s the Ring of Power. In Star Wars it’s the plans to the Death Star.

You need to make sure we the readers understand why this object is vital. That’s easy if it has world-ending properties. If everyone is after a magical weapon just have that weapon used early on and the readers will understand its unholy destruction. If the MacGuffin is something that can bring back an ancient “dark lord” make sure we understand the horrible things this villain has done.

Things can get trickier if the MacGuffin is important for financial reasons. Readers just might not care if the main character is after a painting, jewelry or a suitcase of money. You need to give your hero further personal stakes. Maybe retrieving the stolen painting will give them the respect/promotion they desperately need. If they’re simply after money give us a strong reason why the money is important. What will they spend it on? How will it benefit their world? It’s not enough that the Macguffin is fiscally valuable. It also needs to have some personal significance.

1/2) This is only 1/2 of a lesson because it’s much more broad. I don’t have specific advice as to how to follow through with it.

I have been working on my novel The Night Highways for three years now, writing and rewriting the manuscript several times. However, while at the conference I realized that despite all the work I’ve put into it, I’m far from being burned out. The story still feels fresh and I still love working with the characters.

So basically my final bit of advice from Thrillerfest XIII is to write a story that you truly love with characters you want to spend countless hours with. If you need to take breaks, work on something else for a few weeks. If you find yourself growing bored, inject new elements to make things fresh. Do whatever you can to keep yourself excited about the story and that will keep your readers excited.