by Chris Goff
One of the hardest tasks in writing an espionage thriller—AFTER
you establish the rituals that get you into the chair and writing, learn the
rules and conventions so you know when you can break them, develop your
characters, plot the story (as I, too am a plotter) and establish pace—is
imbuing your story with twists and turns and bigger than life events while
making sure the readers BELIEVE it can happen.
Easy? No!
The mark of a great story, as KJ Howe pointed out, is writing
so deftly that the readers lose themselves in the story. The key to getting them
to suspend their beliefs and go along for the ride is to MAKE IT SEEM REAL.
Researching
Professions
Find out what's real and what's not real. You want your character
to ring true. Take your average CIA agent. Not many of us have experience. Even
Francine, our token Rogue Women CIA agent, wasn’t an operative. She trained to
be an operative, as all agents do, but she was assigned as an analyst. As information
came in, she read and quantified the value of the Intel. And if she ever did
work in the field, she isn't telling. Analyst or asset defines a majority of
CIA agents. These are people whose job is to gather, deliver and analyze
Intelligence. So what is the real CIA spook—the field operative--like?
First, there aren't many, and the ones we have are nothing like
James Bond. Your typical spy doesn't jet around in a Gulfstream, doesn't always
were Armani suits or tuxedos, doesn't order room service and have beautiful
women lining up outside his hotel room door. The female version isn't always
drop-dead gorgeous, drenched in jewels and better at Kung Fu than Jackie Chan.
I recently attended a workshop given by an ex-CIA field operative
and here are a few things I learned:
1.
Spies dress just like you and I. The key is to
blend in. A spy doesn't want to be noticed. Imagine how James would stand out
if he showed up fly-fishing to get close to Vladimir Putin while wearing his
tux.
2.
Whenever possible, spies avoid killing people. Dead
bodies tend to draw attention, and—remember—a spy doesn't want to be noticed.
3.
When bugs are to be planted, most spies call in
an "audio team" (so named before video cameras were popular), known
to bug an enemy embassy or residence in under fifteen minutes. Fun fact: one of
the best places to place a bug is on the back of a refrigerator. Makes sense! Have you ever thrown a dinner
party where no one congregated in the kitchen?
Bottom line, if you get the small details right, your reader
will go along with you on the bigger breaches of protocol and your work will carry
an air of authenticity.
Researching Locales
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photo by Dariusz Sankowski |
It’s wonderful to be able to travel to the location of your
story, but it’s not always necessary. In today’s world, you can gather a lot of
information about foreign cities or countries, the way the people live, the
issues the citizens are facing off the internet, in travel guides, in
non-fiction books. A lot of writers fabricate the cities and towns, which makes
it easier. But, if you use Moscow, you better know enough about Moscow to make
it feel real to the readers. If you create a fictional town in Russia, you better
get the feel of Russia on the page.
One of the best compliments I received about my debut
thriller, DARK WATERS, was how “real”
it felt. A friend who had spent time in Tel Aviv, Bethlehem and the West Bank
approached me after reading my novel and told me that the book transported her
back to her time in Israel. The world came to life for her, which made my job
of having her believe my story much easier.
Creating the Action
and Establishing Pace
This is where it gets dicier. To keep things tense and fast-paced,
thriller authors often must condense the time it takes things for things to
happen to an unrealistically short period of time. In real life, very few field
operations happen in a couple of days, or even a couple of weeks. Remember, CIA
agents mostly gather Intel. It takes time to prepare for a mission. But, in
fiction, while the enemy has been preparing for two years to blow up the Hoover
Dam, your operative will have all of two days to thwart the attack.
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Moscow |
How do you make it plausible? Make sure there's absolutely
no other choice for your hero or heroine. If they don't act, Paris will burn,
the President will be kidnapped and life as we know it will end. Ratcheting up
the tension and increasing the urgency are what keeps readers plowing forward and
legitimizes the protagonist's actions. Make sure your heroine has to act, that
she's the only one who can act, and then throw every possible obstacle and
problem in her way. Set the ticking clock, up the stakes, make it personal,
exhaust all the options, and appeal to your readers' own fears and phobias. Use
every available element of suspense. Your reader will have no choice but to
hang on and go along with the action—as long as you keep it REAL.
Bottom Line
Writing is hard work. It's a lot of "butt in the
chair" writing, reading, honing of craft, but there's nothing more
satisfying than spinning a tale that a reader finds thrilling, believable and
satisfying in the end.
What makes you lose yourself in a story and just go along
for the ride?
This blog ends the series on "Writing Tips.” Next up, Gayle Lynds kicks off the Rogue Women series on "Animals - stories and/or do they impact your writing." To get your personal subscription to our blog, just click here.
What a great article, Chris....and how absolutely right-on you are when you say you have to "keep it real." There's a neat word that describes your writing: verisimilitude! And you so correctly point out that an author needs to do the research to get locations right. In some thrillers, authors descriptions of the Situation Room in The White House are way off base. (Obviously, they never even bothered to check out all videos easily accessible on www.WhiteHouse.Gov.) You, on the other hand are the expert when it comes to getting it right. Thanks so much for this post!
ReplyDeleteYou summed up the challenge nicely for writers in this genre. It has to be real enough to earn the reader's trust - even if real spy work is never as thrilling or interesting as our books make it out to be. Good blog.
ReplyDeleteTerrific blog full of great information, Chris! Thank you so much. I particularly love the bug on the back of the refrigerator. So very creative!
ReplyDeleteKarna, S. Lee and Gayle, thanks for logging in. Doing the research is really fun, too! Of course, I think it's a given for our genre and all of you do this well. And we all know what happens if you get something wrong!
ReplyDeleteEverything mentioned here is spot on. Even the part about "butt in chair" which is the toughest part.Thanks for the reminder that the words won't get written on their own!
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