All language subtitles for Masterclass - David Baldacci Teaches Mystery and Thriller Writing - 07.Pacing. Tension. and Suspense

Thrillers for me are books that I like

to read. I was a big Robert Lelham fan,

you know, growing up and he started the

Born series, born identity and born

supremacy and all that and that was just

a great ride because it took you all

over the world and you got to see

different cultures and how people

interact and secrets and high stakes and

you know it mattered. Um, so I was kind

of drawn to those stories just because

it thrilled me and I thought it would be

kind of fun to try to write a thriller

like that. Building mystery into your

thrillers, uh, is paramount. It's

important. Um, because all thrillers

have a sense of mystery. You know, you

could look at like a Dan Brown's books.

Um, you wouldn't necessarily classify

them as simply as mysteries. You they're

thrillers. They take place all over the

world and the stakes are very high, but

there are clues that, you know, his

characters follow to try to resolve some

type of issue. You write a story that's

not a thriller or a mystery, the story

is beautiful. It has characters and

dialogue and narrative and all that, but

the mystery component adds another

layer. You have to have clues and red

herrings and twists and deception, and

you're trying to fool the reader until

the end they and before they discover

who did it. It's a house of cards unlike

any other book. And if I start off with

a clue that's here, that clue has to

mean something up here, you know, when

the book is nearing its finish. And if I

get that connection wrong, the whole

house of cards comes tumbling down. So

you have to build those pieces in. And

this is where it's really important to

take the baby steps and to do a little

piece at a time. Not don't try to think

of the whole mystery all at once, how

everything's going to fit together

fluidly and all that. That's impossible.

That's overwhelming. You'll be like

you'll be paralyzed. You won't be able

to write a single word. So just start

with one thing. Please take baby steps.

You don't have to do everything in one

day. And often times for me, you know,

one clue builds upon another clue builds

upon another clue. Give yourself the

time and the latitude to come up with

these things. It's not easy to do. It's

not like they just come off your out of

your brain like a manufacturing line. It

takes time and one often builds off the

other.

What's a thriller without great

suspense? Everybody wants to be on the

edge of their seats, nervous, not

knowing what the next page is going to

bring to them. And that's where I live.

That is my sweet spot. That's where I'm

in my element. So, I love to open

stories with suspense right from the

get-go. I hit the ground running. And

oftentimes, I do that with a loss.

Somehow, somebody loses something in

those very few pages, first few pages,

and all of a sudden the suspense is

there because loss always leads to

retribution to a payback. And people

don't know how that's going to happen,

where it's coming from. It can happen on

the very next page, and all of a sudden,

the suspense is there. I wrote a book a

few years ago called The Guilty. It was

Will Roby. He's on a mission. This guy's

never failed on a mission. and uh he

fails and he can't pull the trigger. The

target is taken out by a backup, but his

career is over because he failed to pull

the trigger. That's a loss for him and

he has to go on this journey to trying

to figure out what's going on with that.

And that builds suspense because when

you're when you're talking about these

types of characters who have lost

something, then all of a sudden you you

have people who are plotting and

planning to do something back. And that

revenge factor builds suspense because

the reader doesn't know what shape or

form that's going to take. And it could

be is Roi going to be walking down the

street and somebody's gonna blow him

away, you know? I don't know. It could

be is somebody gonna, you know, detonate

a bomb in his apartment and take him

out. I don't know that either. So when

people are plotting and planning against

other people that build suspense because

the readers have no idea what that

retribution and the shape it's going to

take.

The difference between a good plot twist

and one that's, you know, out there, um,

is the reaction you're going to get from

people. And the reaction is going to be,

I can tell you what your reaction is

going to be with a bad plot twist. Well,

that was stupid. You know, he didn't,

and the reason it's stupid is you didn't

lay any groundwork for that twist to

happen plausibly. Anyway, so people, not

only didn't they not see it coming, u,

but they didn't see it coming because

you didn't set anything up for them to

see it coming. The great plot twists are

where you've laid a foundation for it

and then all of a sudden the twist

happens and then instead of saying it's

stupid, the reader goes, I should have

seen that one coming. Of course, it

makes perfect sense. And the only way

you do that is to plausibly build a

scenario that allows that plot twist to

happen down the road. And it's detail by

detail, you know, morsel by morsel, clue

by clue. I had spoken earlier about the

opening for the fix when you have a man

and a woman coming together in front of

the FBI building and and Decker is there

observing this and the way I just

gleaned the material the writing you

know something bad is going to happen

when these two people meet but you

really think the woman is going to be

the instigator for it you know and then

the twist happens but if you look the

way I created the male character and

what he was doing all of a sudden you

realize when he pulls out the gun and

shoots her and then shoots himself you

realize I totally missed that because I

was so focused on her. The way the words

were written and strung together, he

told me stuff about the guy in the

opening, but I ignored it because the

woman was a little more interesting. She

was a little more mysterious, but he

played fair. That's a great plot twist,

you know, and but if I hadn't done that,

given them sort of equal time, but

favored her a little bit, if I hadn't

done that and then he pulls a gun and

shoots her, they would have been like,

"Well, that was stupid." You know,

that's not the reaction that you want.

The twists are little details placed

perfectly, strung together in a way.

It's almost like a musical score. If you

have one false note, the whole piece

falls through. Doesn't make any sense.

Um, and that's what you have to do. And

that's why I I I really emphasize the

fact that you take baby steps on this.

You can't think of all this stuff all at

once. This is what you build slowly,

piece by piece. Do not try to push it.

I love getting emails from readers and

you will too. Uh, and here's the phrase

you'll hear a million times. God, I

never saw that coming. You know, I

thought it was, but of course it wasn't.

And as I read along, I was like, why did

that happen? And then you explained it

fully, but again, I never saw it coming.

That's what you want to have as a as a

as a a writer. You want to have readers

saying, I never saw that one coming. And

it could be really something subtle. It

could be that when you say in in in a

novel uh a character like Amos Zucker,

uh three things happen to him in the

beginning of the fallen. He's standing

on the on the porch drinking a beer and

a storm is rolling in. And then um in

chapter 2, he's going to find two dead

bodies in the house, but before he finds

the dead bodies, he's sitting on the on

the porch watching a storm come in,

drinking a beer, and three things

happen. He hears a noise on the street,

a clunk and a scrape. A clunk and a

scrape. A clunk and a scrape. He hears a

car start up, but he doesn't see it

drive off. And he sees the red lights

and hears a plane going over. Okay. Now,

giving those three three elements in the

very opening in the book, readers are

like, "Okay, I know this is important."

And uh let me see which ones are more

important. Okay. The clunk and the

scrapes got to be important. The uh you

know, the car starting up and we don't

know where it went. You know, if he

finds dead bodies, that's got to be

important. Plane going over can't be

important. It's a plane. What are you

gonna do at 35,000 ft?

I just laid the red herring. You know,

red herrings are making people render

mis assumptions about something. They

assume, but it's a misassion. And you

laid it out there for them. It's all

right there. I told you the plane went

over. You I told you there was a red

light in the sky and this noise sound of

a plane going over and you just assumed,

well, it must have been a plane, right?

And later on when you find out maybe it

wasn't a plane, then that's a red

herring. So those are the types of

things you have to think about, right?

That's why I say writers have to be

writers, magicians because you know the

red herring over here and I I have to

show it, you know, but but I don't want

you to focus on it too much. I do

something really interesting over here

and you look over there and then it's

gone. That's the kind of the response

you listen from that would be like I

never saw that one coming.

A lot of times an editorial letters

coming back for me in in my novels my

editor and it's good that he does it

will a comment will be like I don't feel

the time ticking here. I feel like you

know a little bit of focus has been

lost. I don't feel like I think we

strayed a little bit away from the main

plot and I'd like to get you back on the

track to keep this moving forward. I

want to feel the nervousness that

something is about to happen and and

it's not going to be uh you know

prevented in time. So, that's a great

way to sort of instill tension uh in a

read because you want that particularly

in a thriller. Um, it could be you have

to find someone. It could be you have to

prevent something from happening. It

could be you have to uncover a clue for

uh that clue allows something really bad

to happen to somebody or a lot of people

or a place or a geographic location. Um,

but that ticking clock is a great way

and and it has to be set up. It can you

just can't throw it in and forget about

it. If you start a ticking clock in a

novel, you have to keep coming back to

it uh to give the reader uh who may not

be totally aware where you're going with

this to let them know this is a signal,

you know what, this is important. Do not

forget this as you go along. This is

like the psychologist hat again you have

to put on. be aware of your reader's

perspectives of what you're tell when

you're telling the story. Because if you

if you let that lapse too long and then

you bring it up again, you know, 200

pages later, the reader's going to be

confused and sort of disappointed

because they're going to have to go back

and why was that important again? And

then you've lost the total momentum of

the whole story.

In all of my books, I have these major

movements and I I call them it's the

roller coaster ride. So, I bring you up

to the top of the roller coaster. I let

you sit up there for a little while and

then down you go and then that's the

adrenaline rush and then you catch your

breath on the way back up. So, in all of

my books, it's really important. I think

it will be for you, too. Uh, nobody can

sustain 500 pages of crap happening

non-stop. It just one, it's not

believable. Two, it's exhausting. And

the result probably will be that people

are going to be I can't finish this

book. It's just there's too much going

on. And because you're dealing with

people, people can't do that either. You

know, your characters are human. They

they can't sustain that level of action

and activity where bullets and bombs and

stuff's happening all the time. So,

there's got to be movements. And you got

to take a breath. I call them take a

breath chapters, take a breath sequences

where u something really terrible has

happened. Then I deal with the aftermath

of that terrible, but I do it in a way

where wounds are cleaned up. You know,

people might have a dialogue about

something else to totally unrelated.

They might go get some more information.

They might just go out and have a beer.

They might travel from A to B while

they're sort of nursing their wounds.

Um, you slow it down. The best thrillers

uh kind of do that. You know, I I'm some

some of the best thriller movies I've

seen are and some people may not think

of these movies as thrillers I do are

Chinatown, North by Northwest, and Three

Days of the Condor. And in each of those

films, you will see this movement where

crazy things happen and then there's a

lull. Crazy things happens, people catch

a breath, there's a lull. Um, that's

really important because

it's not just you're pacing the novel,

it's the readers are having to pace

themselves as well. I've been to I' I've

been to movies where it's such an

adrenaline rush that I almost feel sick

to my stomach and I don't want to finish

the movie because I just can't take

there's no there's no place to to rest.

You know, it's like you're going 100

miles an hour and there's no offramp for

you to go and just sit there for a

minute and collect yourself. The same

with books, everybody. The reader take a

breath, collect themselves, think about

what they just read, process it,

understand what it might mean going

forward, and then up to the top of the

roller coaster we go again.

One technique that I like to use, I call

it the take a breath and let me give you

a recap. Okay, so really complicated

plot. There's a lot going on. And I'll

get to the point where I'm like, you

know, I sense that a reader, and you as

a writer will probably sense, I sense

that a reader may be getting close to

information overload, too many things

going on all at once. They can't keep

stuff track. They I'm I'm trusting them

to remember something that happened 17

chapters ago in order to make this

chapter make sense. It could be Will

Roby or Amos Decker or John Puller and

they go over the case a little bit.

They're talking to somebody. It's

totally organic, makes total sense, fits

in because detectives do that. They talk

about stuff trying to as they're trying

to figure it out. So, you know, Amos

Decker may say something as simple. So

here's what we know so far, you know,

and he goes through the five points and

that reinforces to the reader all the

stuff that I expect them to kind of have

a handle on now. It's almost like, you

know, taking a refresher course at

school. You know, you failed algebra, so

you take it in summer school to give you

a refresher course. So way back when

their memory might have faltered a

little bit. Now I'm giving them an extra

help. Here's a little boost up. I know

it's tough to follow all this stuff.

Here's a little extra help for you. Now

let's go ahead and move forward. That's

a technique that I've used in a lot of

different books and I've actually had,

you know, fans write an email and stuff

and say, you know, this is great how you

do that because I never feel like I'm

swimming in the ocean and I can't get

back to shore um for giving a little bit

help like that. But at the same time, it

also helps you the writer because it

will clarify for you everything that's

going on the novel. And it may

crystallize such an extent that the

threads going forward are just a little

more focused, a little sharper than than

they otherwise would have been.

I like cliffhers because um they leave

something unresolved. And you as a

writer, what you really want to build is

when you say you want to build tension

and suspense. Just throw those words out

and focus on this word instead,

anticipation. What you want to build is

anticipation. That something is going to

happen. You don't know if it's going to

be good. You don't know if it's going to

be bad, but something is going to happen

as soon as I turn that next page. And a

cliffhanger allows you to do that

because it's like somebody's on a diving

board and they walked up to it and they

pushed down to get momentum and they're

down at this point and then I end the

chapter and then you don't know until

the next chapter when they jumps off the

board what's going to happen. So, it was

almost like you paused in mid-scene and

I love the effect that it has. You can't

use it, you know, in every single

chapter. it would feel too contrived

that way. But as a writer, you have to

pick your spots for that. And if you

immerse yourself in the material, those

spots, I think, will become far more

readily apparent to you. There are

multiple elements you can use uh to do a

cliffhanger at the end of a chapter or

the end of a section of a book to propel

their reader. I I'll give you an example

from Memory Man. Um in Memory Man, you

the first chapter, you learn Damus

Decker's lost his whole family. The

second chapter you learn, you know, he's

living in this residence in, he's a

private detective. He's barely making

it. He's grossly obese. He's let himself

go for the last year and a half. And

he's really almost hit rock bottom.

And um he goes out and does a job where

his job to this guy who's trying to scam

this woman whose father is really

wealthy. Uh he's been hired by the

father to warn this guy off. So, he's

waiting for this guy outside of the

place where they're going to meet and

they go in and Decker's watching him and

the guy's meeting with the woman and all

that and he knows he's a scam artist and

the woman leaves and Decker comes over

and totally in this really cool chess

match between the two totally outplays

this guy and you think at first that

Decker's outmatched and then you know

that Decker's playing seventh

dimensional chess and this guy's not

even playing checkers and then Decker

just blows him away. Okay, that's the

setup. And then, you know, he's at the

residence in and his old partner, Mary

Lancaster, comes up to him and Decker

doesn't want to see her because he feels

embarrassed about how he's letting

himself go and all that. And he's kind

of hit rock bottom. And you're leading

up. You have no idea what Mary's going

to tell this guy. Maybe she's there to

console him, be a friend, how you doing?

And at the end of the chapter, she says,

"I have some news for you." And he's

like, "He doesn't care about your

family." and he looks up and she goes,

"A guy just confessed to killing them."

And that's the end of the chapter. And

you know, not to humble brag, but I I I

would guarantee you in a chapter like

that that the reader is going to turn

the page of the next chapter.

So, I'm going to read a a chapter ending

from Zero Day. It's the very first

chapter in this novel.

And this is, you know, I love to end

chapters on cliffhers because it drives

the reader to to the next page and the

next chapter. And I think you'll find

this, you know, informative, too. To set

the scene up, there's a it starts off

with a mailman who's delivering packages

on his route in this little town in West

Virginia. And he goes into this house uh

cuz he has a package he has to give a

signature for. It's one of those, you

know, ones you have to sign off on. And

the door is a jar. So, he he goes in uh

to get the signature signed. And then

here's how the chapter ends.

An instant later, the wooden front door

was thrown back, the knob punching a

crater in the drywall, and the glass

door was kicked open so hard that it hit

the metal banister on the left side of

the porch, shattering the glass. Howard

Reed jumped from the top step to the

dirt. His heels dug in. He gave one

shudder, sank to his knees, and threw up

what was little was left in his stomach.

Then he rose and stumbled to his truck,

coughing, wretching, and yelling in

terror like a man suddenly deranged. And

he was. Howard Reed would not make it to

the dollar bar today.

And the dollar bar was a place he was

going to go have a drink after he

finished his last round of of mail

delivery. And that that was it. So with

that, you understand that the main

question is what in the hell did this

guy see in the house that caused that

reaction from him? And you know, not to

toot my own horn, but I if you don't

read the next chapter after reading that

ending, then I I have nothing to give

you because it's just, you know, there's

nothing else I can have in my arsenal

that would entice you. And I like sort

of ending it in a scene like that where

for me thrillers are all about

anticipation, you know, and I love

opening lines and I love closing lines

and chapters where I give you something

just enough that you can anticipate that

something is going to happen momentarily

and you just got to find out what it is.

It's like, you know, you can't eat just

one lay potato chip. You got to go for

the whole bag. So for me to set it up

that way, I love to build anticipation

because I know that most readers are

going to be like, I got to read one more

chapter.