Maggie Shayne Quotes

Suspense is one of the ways you persuade a reader to become engaged and stay engaged with your work.

It's not often a thriller keeps me wound up as well as 'Headhunters' did. I knew I was being manipulated and didn't care. It was a pleasure to see how well it was being done.

Suspense is my thing. I think I am able to make people want to keep turning pages. They want to know what happens.

A thriller needs to hold the interest of the reader from the very beginning. It needs to engage with them, hold them in rapt attention, and prevent them from putting down the book.

A thriller must be thrilling. A mystery may or may not be a thriller depending on how much breathless emotion it has, as opposed to cerebral calculation.

I think the thriller aspect of this film [Fifty Shades Darker] is what excited me most.

I love a big, character-rich story with a dark heart, with a compelling mystery or some kind of ticking clock at its center. I want to be lured in by prose, captured by character, and bound by stellar plotting to keep turning the pages.

I think suspense is a big thing.

Every story needs an element of suspense - or it's lousy.

It's a comedy thriller, brilliantly written and it's full of twists and turns at every page. When I was reading it I was desperate to get to the end to find out what happens, it really hooks you.

The thriller is not a recent invention. It probably goes back to the dawn of storytelling.

I think of my books now as suspense novels, usually with a love story incorporated. They're absolutely a lot harder to write than romances. They take more plotting and real character development.

For me a thriller is a very carefully structured story.

Show me a character whose life arouses my curiosity, and my flesh begins crawling with suspense.

Suspense is a real tough beast in terms of the filmmaking.

There are other ways to create tension and drama than to have somebody stabbed through the back with a sword.

No Way Back is my kind of novel - a tough, taut thriller - Mofina knows the world he writes about.

I read what I like to write: romantic suspense. I also love thrillers and novels of suspense, but I can't handle extreme violence and torture.

If you're writing a thriller, mystery, Western or adventure-driven book, you'd better keep things moving rapidly for the reader. Quick pacing is vital in certain genres. It hooks readers, creates tension, deepens the drama, and speeds things along.

To answer that I have to describe what I think is my responsibility as a thriller writer: To give my readers the most exciting roller coaster ride of a suspense story I can possibly think of.

Ultimately, a great thriller is a roller coaster ride. I like to think that's a promise I have never failed to keep, and one that I'd say has served my books well.

Suspense is my thing. I think I am able to make people want to keep turning pages. They want to know what happens. So I can do that.

I'd love to make a thriller.

With thrillers, there's such a fine line between what's good and what's cheesy and corny.

I was so obsessed by Lisbeth Salander and all the characters, but of course if you're going to write a crime novel worthy of Stieg Larsson, you need a plot, don't you?