When I first embarked on writing my debut domestic suspense novel, I toyed with ideas for books in other genres, but nothing grabbed me enough to actually start creating a draft. I have always read a wide variety of genres including suspense, thriller, horror, cozy mystery, romance, generational drama, light fantasy and some sci-fi so my *idea* journal had snippets of material for many of these.

My favorite author was Mary Higgins Clark. Her page turning plots, depth of character development, and the clever way she could interweave everything into the final culmination of all that she had built up through the course of the book had me hooked. I knew I wanted to craft stories like that.

It wasn’t until I became exposed to real narcissism that I felt compelled to write a story about relationships and obsession, which all came to fruition in my debut novel, When Love Won’t Die (2014 Splice Publishing).

My first brainstorming session resulted in the creation of a villain, Mel Hanson, a man who had grown up without experiencing love or knowing how to love.

Next, I drafted a brief outline of what being in a relationship with someone like Mel could be like. Eleanor, my protagonist, started to form based on watching women in relationships with narcissistic men and how it affected them.

Write what you know had been advice I’d heard numerous times, so I adapted the place where I lived into my setting, taking creative license with the details for the purpose of fiction.

Now I needed that event that would take the world my characters knew and catapult them into new territory filled with risks, challenges, obstacles and stakes. There had to be danger. There had to be suspense.

So I re-read Mary Higgins Clark’s first 3 books, Where are the Children, A Stranger is Watching, and The Cradle Will Fall. I analyzed them, dissecting her plots, how she created suspense, her characters, their interactions, and their growth. I read them like how-to manuals for writing suspense.

I spent a lot of time working and re-working the suspense aspect of the book, knowing that often it’s what is withheld that creates more suspense than a blatant jump scare. I realized that having a ticking clock upped the suspense. The stakes had to be high. What would happen if my protagonist was victorious? What would happen if she failed?

What I love about suspense/thrillers are the cliffhangers that so many authors have at the ends of chapters—those sentences that beg you to turn the page and read just one more chapter. So I endeavored to work that into my writing.

I created flawed characters. Both my protagonist and antagonist had weaknesses that caused them to stumble throughout the story and often make bad decisions and have to deal with the consequences of their actions.

My secondary characters all had to have a purpose for being included in the story. I loved how Clark worked through relationships with her characters and that inspired me to do the same.

Other techniques I discovered were using different sentence lengths to vary the pacing, having red herrings to throw the readers and the characters off track, and foreshadowing possible future events.

When I finished my first draft, being a naïve first-time novelist, I actually thought the book was complete. Then, after joining a couple of writing critique groups, I realized that although I had created what I believed to be a good story, it still needed a lot of work to become a great story.

After passing the draft through one critique group and a couple of critique partners, I hired an editor (who just happened to be Mary Higgins Clark’s best friend—was that a sign?) to do a thorough edit. She came back with tons of notes on what was working, what wasn’t, and great advice on how to move forward. She was even willing to re-read sections where I had done significant rewrites.

Once I had this new and improved draft, I stumbled upon a contest for unpublished novels in the suspense/thriller genre and ended up placing in the top ten, which helped increase my confidence. Then, a few months later, I participated in an online writing conference where authors could pitch their books to small presses. I was successful and my first book was published in e-book and paperback formats.

Now let’s fast forward to present day.

Looking back, I did learn a lot about writing in the suspense/thriller genre, but after more than a decade of continuing writing, I’ve learned so much more, which has likely helped to contribute to being able to sign with my publisher, Creative James Media, who will be publishing my next two books, They’re Watching and Amorous Obsession (the standalone sequel to When Love Won’t Die).

My revision process has become more thorough and involves using beta readers, a developmental edit, a line edit, and a copy edit, as well as passes to check overused words, adverbs, dialogue tags, and writing tics before I tackle the final proofread.

And I can honestly say, I still continue to learn and hone my craft.

I devour suspense/thrillers and although I read more authors than I can name here, two of my current favorites and B.A. Paris and Freida McFadden. If you haven’t read any of their books, check them out. You won’t be sorry. These ladies know how to write page turners with jaw dropping twists.

Have you written a book? A short story? Poems? What did you learn? Drop it in the comments and keep writing.