#suspenseful novel

[joncronshawauthor]

Dive into the Gripping Post-Apocalyptic Thriller "Black Death Survival" - Read for Free Now!

In a society ravaged by a devastating plague, Liam, Jenna, and their young son Tommy must navigate the dangers of disease, desperation, and a menacing cult known as the Doctors. As the world crumbles around them, they’ll risk everything to stay together and protect what matters most. “Black Death Survival” is a gripping, character-driven thriller that explores the lengths people will go to…

[ahb-writes]

Writing Problem: The Scenes Are Void of Meaningful Conflict

Problem: The Scenes Are Void of Meaningful Conflict

Solution: Character growth and story arcs don't occur in isolation. Conflict-guided scenes and conflict-guided storytelling, more broadly, open the narrative to moments in which the characters are continuously tested to validate their knowledge, skills, or relationships.

To drive the story forward with measured purpose, focus on building, developing, and testing a character's desires. If necessary, implement story or relational dynamics to economically assess, judge, and curate a character's failure (and the consequences thereof). Conflict needn't be grandiose; writers must be in tune with the different levels, types, and intensities of conflict that drive their story. Conflict should be multifaceted.

Writing Resources:

A Few Words About Conflict (Glimmer Train Press)

Conflict Thesaurus (One Stop for Writers)

6 Secrets to Creating and Sustaining Suspense (Writer's Digest)

Emotions in Writing: How to Make Your Readers Feel (Jericho Writers)

The Primary Principles of Plot: Goal, Antagonist, Conflict, Consequences (September C. Fawkes)

How to Master Conflict in Young Adult Fiction (Writer's Edit)

Failure, Conflict, and Character Arc (Writers in the Storm)

❯ ❯ Adapted from the writing masterpost series: 19 Things That Are Wrong With Your Novel (and How to Fix Them)

[itsfullofstars]

It's official: I'm publishing my first work of fiction, the unhinged novella SKIN & BONES, on 10/22/24 (just in time for Halloween). Pre-order the ebook now!

A mind-bending psychological thriller told in first person by a broken man who submits to a bizarre medical experiment in an effort to redeem himself, and loses his mind in the process.

It's Fight Club meets The Parallax View meets E.R. meets Shutter Island... and utterly unique in its own right. A quick, propulsive, hallucinatory read, rich with supernatural elements and medical suspense, SKIN & BONES takes you on a journey into the labyrinth of one man's fractured psyche.

Skull art by @paul.hollingworth - and it's NOT AI!

[thepedanticbohemian]

My writing has been compared to Stephen King, Thomas Harris, Dean Koontz, and Peter Straub. Why? Because I'm unafraid to go there when it comes to disturbing imagery. Gory details don't scare me, though they will likely scare my readers. Sort of the point, really. lol

[carriehobbs]

if i can be honest here this is really one of my least favourite parts of the way the romances are written. the idea that you can only really fall in love once (and both the related ideas that, if this love is real, then every other relationship you've had must not have really been love and that, if you have been in love before, your previous love somehow cheapens the current love) is so completely juvenile. it's the kind of line of thought you'd expect to see in a young adult novel marketed exclusively to 12- to 16-year-olds for whom every emotion feels like the most intense, ultimate feeling they could ever have, and who do not yet have the life experiences to understand (or appreciate) the complexities of love. "i've only ever loved this one person this way, every other feeling i've thought was love has just been a poor imitation" is a pretty thought but is ultimately a fantasy (and one that i, personally, find incredibly disrespectful towards people who have been in love and then fall in love again).

it would be one thing if this idea was espoused by only one of the characters. if only n (just as an example) bought into the idea that only one love can be your true love, then that would say something about n's character, their romantic and life history, the way they view and interpret the world, etc. but instead all of the ros seem to follow this line of thought - they've all never been in real love before, if they and the detective broke up they'd never experience this kind of love again, they're all soulmates, etc. and in that way this idea is not a characterization choice for particular characters, but an idea perpetuated by the work as a whole. and in my (biased and personal) opinion, it's a childish and unrealistic idea.

[blazingblorbos]

Phenomenal.

Absolutely phenomenal

Web event releases and literally all it is, is Arlecchino killing 2 (3) men. Congrats. here's your rewards!

I saw a tweet earlier this morning that said

"genshin saw people mad at chiori for throwing a man out of her shop and their honest reaction was making arlecchino kill one in her teaser"

AND I CACKLED SO LOUD so seeing this now, I just had to share it with you all

[shu-bullshit]

Another series for AARP, illustrating Mary Higgins Clark's novel "I've Got You Under My Skin"

There are 12 illustrations in total, I've put some of my favorites here, you could find all of them on my website!

AD: Josef Edmonds

[archergrid]

BE GAY DO CRIME

archergrid.substack.com NEW CHAPTER EVERY WEDNESDAY 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩 Butch/femme 💰 Steal from the rich 👾 Hacker main character 🌹 Butch-fatale love interest 🌶️ Spicy love scenes When her former boss is acquitted of the crime she gave up everything to expose, a hypervigilant hacker masterminds a heist to get her revenge. But when a sexy yet reckless ex-yakuza joins the crew, the hacker’s meticulous plan begins to unravel. "Six of Crows" meets "Mr. Robot" in this snappy sapphic heist full of colorful criminals ripping off a megalomaniacal tech CEO in the South American port city of Valparaíso.

[save-the-data]

Doku Koi: Doku mo Sugireba Koi to Naru A.K.A Love is a Poison | S01E01

Japanese Drama - 2024, 10 episodes

~~ Adapted from the novel “Doku Koi: Doku mo Sugireba Koi to Naru” (毒恋～毒もすぎれば恋となる～) Makino Keisuke (牧野圭祐).

Native Title: #毒恋～毒もすぎれば恋となる～

Genres: #LGBTQ+ | #Suspense | #Thriller

Tags: #Lawyer Male Lead | #Adapted from a Novel

Cast: #Hama Shogo | #Hyodo Katsumi

Links:  GAGA | Viki | YouTube | iQIYI | WeTV | Youku | Tencent | Netflix (JPN)

Catalog: Episode GIF set | Japanese BL | Japanese Drama

[fictionadventurer]

Victorian sensation novels my beloved.

They're like Gothic fiction with a sense of humor.

Mysteries, but less methodical.

They're over-the-top drama with with memorable characters dealing with the craziest stuff you've ever seen.

They don't make them like that anymore.

[writingwithfolklore]

The Reveal Before the Reveal

                One thing every writer needs to master is the reveal. Mystery, suspense, the withholding of information is often the core of interesting plot points and controlling the pacing of your narrative. When it’s been building up for so long, that moment where things start to come together, we unearth that vital piece of information, or finally see the thing that's been under our noses the entire time, it should be exciting and rewarding!

                One way I like to do this is by having a reveal before the big reveal. Instead of immediately finding the body, your mc finally gets into the missing person’s house and sees the destruction. Instead of stumbling into the town cult meeting, we accidentally peek into the mayor’s house and see the cloak.

                Essentially, the reader and sometimes also the mc should put together the mystery a moment before it’s actually revealed. This still creates the big surprise, while having a moment of dread—we already know what we’ll find in the depths of this house, and we already know no matter how much we don’t want to, we have to find it.

                It’s a way of trusting your readers. Surprises are much more satisfying when we put them together ourselves. Having the narrative spell it out for you by immediately showing you the reveal might have the surprise, but not as much of the satisfaction.

                Try it out, what confirms your mystery without spelling it out? What’s your reveal before the reveal?

                Good luck!

[petruchio]

literally any time i read anything on narrative construction im like oh yeah a perfect example of this is how the hunger games does it. like a good story should answer the question of “what does the character want and why can’t they have it” like well katniss wants to save prim and she can’t have it bc the conditions of the oppressive regime make that imposible no matter how much the stakes keep getting raised and that’s the central question the entire trilogy is concerned with and it’s the driving force for every single one of her actions. easy! and perfect. it’s the first line of the book. it’s flawless.

[macrolit]

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie FYI - this is 1 of 12 vintage paperback classics that comprise our current giveaw@y.

[miverras]

"How could she leave the Central Hearth without taking her things with her? She said she would get them before leaving."

"She probably never took her things with her because she may have never left the Central Hearth."

Continuous mystery. The ultimate page-turner.

Found on Amazon, Ebay, Barnes and Noble websites, and more: https://linktr.ee/miverras

[blam-marie]

One Selkie. Two strangers. Three murders.

The small town of St. Adalbert Sur Mer is hiding a dark secret.

Three times during the summer, the lifeless body of a Selkie was dumped into the river. Naked, and with a missing pelt.

Louison is sent by her clan to investigate these murders and catch the killer, but her mission derails when she meets two charming strangers whom everyone in town seems to be falling in love with - including herself. Torn between her rising attraction towards Gabrielle and Adrien and keeping the secret of her origins, Louison must dodge tourists, deadly poachers and wildlife protection agents in a wild quest to find her sibling’s murderer - before he kills again.

Skin Deep is a queer polyamorous story where everyone is hiding something and nothing is as simple as it seems. 

Now available for pre-orders in both ENGLISH and FRENCH

[cate-cassena-author]

Quotes from my novel "Belladonna: The Art of Retribution" now available on Amazon. Buy here.