Webs, Threads, and Dominoes: 3 Best Thriller & Suspense Writing Strategies

Seemingly Unrelated Events, Threads of Meaning, and the Domino Effect

Thriller and suspense is the ultimate page-turner genre. We're talking about the kind of stories that get your heart racing, where you’re piecing together clues and hanging on to the chair arms for dear life.

Readers have been hooked on this stuff for ages.

So, what makes a killer thriller writer?

It comes down to how you cook up a plot that grabs readers more and more as they pull back the layers, like an onion. But hopefully without tears on your end or theirs.

In this article we're going to break it down. There are three big strategies that work together to make a thriller tick:

1. Webs

2. Threads

3. Dominoes

I’ll explain what these things mean throughout the article, but they are the key techniques for creating a complex puzzle that readers can’t help but try and solve, keeping them hooked until the very end.

Today, we will be breaking down these strategies so you can write a thriller story that grabs and doesn’t let go.

Weaving Webs

The first technique we will talk about is “Webs.”

Creating a web is to take events that don’t seem to fit together and make them into a complex puzzle that keeps readers guessing. To do this isn’t just about storytelling, but to immerse the reader in the unfolding of events as if they are experiencing them.

You are not telling the story to them, you are making them an active participant in it.

Readers become a stakeholder in the twists and turns of the narrative because they want to find out if they have put the pieces together correctly or if they've missed the mark.

Image made with Leonardo ai

Crafting Subplots that Separate and Converge

The trick to dividing your story into puzzle pieces is to then give those pieces a sufficient degree of separation so that it becomes more difficult to piece together. No one wants to read a predictable thriller novel.

One way to separate the pieces is to create disparate subplots.

Subplots will make the story richer and more interesting. And as you bring these subplots and storylines together as either key revelations or characters colliding, you create surprises that keep readers excited.

Here’s how to create a narrative web with subplots:

Step 1: As the story progresses early on, begin different subplots that follow different characters or places. This will keep readers wondering how these events are connected and when these people will come together.

Step 2: Slowly drop clues as to how these subplots could be related to each other. Make sure that clues are subtle or use red herrings to distract from the truth. Create suspense around how these plot lines will converge.

Related Posts >>> What Techniques Build Suspense in a Thriller? The Ultimate Guide

Step 3: Bring together the various subplots in big, high-intensity moments that are worth the payoff and the suspense leading up to them. Achieve this with twists, big reveals and the like.

Layers of Complexity

Adding layers of complexity into a story should be a goal for every writer, as far as I am concerned. Layers add depth, meaning, interest, and lasting power to any piece of fiction.

Layers are what makes a story interesting and will keep your readers hooked. Do it well enough, and they may also choose to go back and reread the novel multiple times just to discover how deep your genius goes.

Here’s how to create a web by adding layers of complexity:

Mysteries upon Mysteries

Reader’s heads should be filled with questions as they move through your story. You can think of the “web” we are discussing as all the questions you want the reader to be asking.

And as they learn more (exploring the web) they are finding partial and/or surprising answers to these questions.

Here is a poorly drawn diagram to show you what I am talking about:

I'm a writer not an artist, sorry.

Revealing Slowly

Show a bit more with each step into the center of the web, but don’t let the reveals be too linear or your story may become predictable.

The further the reader goes into the story, the more you reward them for sticking around, but in a way that is creative and unexpected as well, either evolving the original question or creating new ones.

This will make readers more excited and curious.

Layered Internal Worlds

We talked a lot so far about how to layer the plot points and reveals of your story, but the most important part of creating layered stories is creating mysterious and complex characters to act in it.

A multilayered character adds a whole other dimension of depth to the story, and as these characters move through their arcs, they will present a whole other set of questions to the reader.

With complex and appealing characters, the reader will not only stick around to see if they guessed right, but have a stake in whether the character who they have come to know will even make it through alive or unscathed.

Related Posts >>> Write-Ready Characters: A Complete Guide on Character Development Before You Start Writing

Narrative Threads

When writing thriller and suspense novels, the art is often hiding in the small stuff. Skilled writers will drop little hints that might not look like much, but they’re actually very small puzzle pieces interlayed between the larger, more obvious ones.

Slowly these pieces come together and make for some pretty cool “Aha!” moments.

These small details can be tiny clues, points that connect the dots for readers who have been paying attention, and act to create narrative tension and creeping suspense.

The important part is that once you drop in a detail that opens a narrative thread, you must continue the thread, eventually closing it (tying it to the other end) at some point in time in the story.

For example: In F. Nelson Smith’s No Straight Thing, we are presented with a small thread of Lex Rideout’s love for his perfectly cared-for rose bushes. This thread seems meaningless at first until later in the story where the roses play an important role. I won’t spoil it though.

No Straight Thing by F. Nelson Smith

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These can be clues or foreshadowing, but threads can also serve symbolic or much more practical purposes like teaching your protagonist an important skill they will need to use later in the story.

What is important is that threads, once opened, are then strategically tied off by the end. If they are not, there must be a specific reason for it (in other words, you didn’t just forget about it).

One of the most important aspects of this writing technique is that it adds meaning to the story, or at least the perception of meaning. By making sure that every small detail is important and comes back full circle in a strategic way, the whole story will seem more purposeful and you will appear more skilled and deliberate as well.

Believe it or not, this is an important part of being a thriller writer. Because it makes the reader trust you—you come off as knowing what you are doing, and they will be more likely to let their guard down and let you take them on a ride.

Image made with Leonardo ai

God is in the Details

Now that being said, every little thing—like describing something, characters talking, or events taking place—it all matters in a thriller.

These stories are packed with suspense and the aim is to maintain tension for as long as possible without the reader’s attention waning. So there is no room for extraneous detail and digression. All details must have purpose, like I said above.

Here’s some tips for adding detailed threads into the story:

1. You must include only the important stuff that isn’t too obvious. Break large details into smaller ones or add to the build up of the big reveals by opening related threads that foreshadow it.

2. Leave clues and hints that smart readers can use. Reward those people who pay attention. For instance, bring back small pieces of conversations that happened earlier in the story but twist them up a bit to give the line deeper or new meaning.

3. Think in layers again when it comes to detail too. Small threads can build up to become much larger than originally expected.

Tying of Plot Threads

The success of a thriller hinges on the reader’s desire for resolution.

Tying off loose thread ends (both big and small), especially the ones purposefully left hanging, is an art. It’s about giving the reader a satisfying ending without losing the tension you’ve created until the perfect moment of release at the end.

When tying up thread ends, keep in mind that you are giving the reader closure. Wrap up the story in a way that will make them feel good, even if it is good in a sick, evil way like the ending of the film Seven.

Even so, the conclusion must give the reader the answers they have been waiting for since the beginning, and hopefully does it in a surprising way that they never expected. And it should be exciting also.

Just like finishing a puzzle feels great, finishing a book should feel good too. But while the reader should get answers, you don’t have to spill all the beans, if you don’t want to. Leave just enough to think about or guess at to keep the reader coming back for more.

The Domino Effect

In thriller and suspense writing, the dynamics of cause and effect play a pivotal role in shaping the narrative’s intensity and believability.

The choices characters make, every action taken, sets in motion a chain reaction of events that reverberates throughout the story, intensifying tension and moving the plot forward.

It’s like when a small earthquake under the ocean intensifies a wave that rolls toward land and hits like a tsunami.

Cascade of Causes and Effects

The domino effect is the ripple I just described, leading to ever more exciting and bigger things. We all know how falling dominoes work, so I won't bother explaining that. But what you need to keep in mind is the same mechanics are at work in a story.

One thing happens, and it sets off a whole chain of events. Sometimes the chain branches off and converges, but it is always moving in a cause and effect relationship (ie; one pushes the other, as it falls it pushes another, etc.)

The following will help you to create a skilled domino effect in your own story:

• Make sure that it is characters who are both involved in the causing and being affected by everything. Look at how character’s choices drive changes and turns. Remember that one move can start a whole chain reaction, things don’t have to be linear all the time.

• Each domino falling must make things more intense. As they fall, things should build up and the story should get faster so the reader will not be able to look away.

• Sometimes, a small choice leads to big things. Add in surprise effects that mess everything up and present twists and turns that show just how connected and delicate things really are.

Impact and Consequences

The domino effect is about making sure that pieces of the puzzle are all sufficiently connected, but it is also about making a big impact and raising the stakes of the story.

When characters make a move, it doesn’t just affect them and the immediate scene—all actions have consequences that stretch far and affect every little part of the story in meaningful and purposeful ways.

Crafting your story with this cause and effect technique in mind, everything included in it will have more impact on the reader and give the entire thing a sense of unity.

Here are some ways to increase the impact of your story through the domino effect:

1. Show how your characters deal with what happens because of their choices—emotional blowback, reactions etc. This will make the story more real and connect characters with readers.

2. Make events link together (all the stuff we talked about with threads and webs). Let readers see that everything matters and fits into the big picture.

3. Keep readers guessing and make the outcomes surprising. When dominoes fall, readers should never really know what comes next. This keeps things exciting and stops the story from becoming predictable.

4. As the book progresses, ensure that you are continually raising the stakes and things become more uncertain for the characters.

Summary

Crafting a great thriller novel requires misdirecting and bringing together seemingly unrelated events or characters, exploring narrative threads, planting little clues and mastering the domino effect.

These techniques are the core of intricate and exciting plots that grab readers by the balls.

Here are today’s key takeaways:

• By weaving together disparate plots and storylines, you can create a puzzle that challenges even the most intelligent reader, while capturing the complexity of real life.

• Details, strategically placed, build a web of anticipation, involving readers in the story.

• The domino effect, triggered by character choices, fuels tension and emotional impact.

• These three strategies, working together, allow for a layered and complex story that is satisfying, rewarding, and not easily predicted.

With these tools, expect your stories to become riveting webs of suspense, leaving lasting impressions on the minds of whomever picks them up.

What Techniques Build Suspense in a Thriller?

Suspense in a thriller novel is created through intricate plots, complex characters, and the relentless pursuit of justice. Employ pacing, foreshadowing, and unpredictability for increased reader engagement. Add mystery and slight-of-hand with red herrings, misleading clues, and bold tones.

Learn about all this and more in my ultimate guide to suspense building techniques for thriller writers.

Next: Suspense Building Techniques