Nikhil Pradhan says that a tight-knit story decides the fate of a thriller
The Thriller genre keeps you up on your feet and glued till the end. Your brain is super active to know the truth before the author reveals it. But what goes behind making a super thriller? Blogchatter interviewed Nikhil Pradhan on 24th March 2021 discussing the elements of a thriller.
Nikhil Pradhan has spent over a decade telling stories through journalism, advertising and marketing. His work has been reviewed and featured in publications like Scroll, Mint, The Hindu and DNA. He has authored Cold Truth and Yesterday’s Ghosts.
Team Blogchatter started the conversation with an interesting question that what comes to Nikhil first while writing a script, the plot, the beginning or the end? He said that it’s the premise of the story that drives him towards the whole story. He likes to answer ‘what if’ questions first that pops up in his mind.
Narration sets the mood of the reader. Nikhil picks up a narrative that’s fun to write and will be equally engaging when a reader reads it. The team enquired does he pay attention to the detailing of his characters and he replied that it’s the story that matters to him the most. The story should be tight and the rest all fall into its correct place. It was intriguing to know how does Nikhil place the twists and turns in his story without confusing his readers. He says that usually, it’s around 3/4th of the story when twists excite the reader. As the story progresses, the author finds the correct positioning of twists and turns.
When a thriller is coming to its end, it’s important to know who creates a better ending, the author, characters themselves or the readers? Nikhils confides that an author never wants to end his story. It comes to a point in the story where the author leaves his character to take shape. With open-end stories, the readers play a crucial role in deciding the end.
The team wanted to know if there are any other elements also that are important to complete a thriller? Nikhil explains that the story should be tightly packed so that the author revises his work where he should not find any missing leads. As a reader of his own manuscript, the author should play wise so as to appreciate his manuscript if all points are closed amicably. He further adds that no professional writing course can help you if you don’t want to write. The first thing is to love writing then only you will begin as a genre writer.
Blogchatter community is inquisitive to know how much to reveal in the synopsis while they pitch to a publisher? Nikhil answers that it depends on the individual publisher like some ask for detailed synopsis where you have to reveal the whole plot including the end. Whereas, if another publisher asks only for simple synopsis then you can talk about the central plot and characters avoiding the end.
Coming to the end of this session, it was very informative to learn some basic techniques to write a thriller. You can watch the full interview here:
