How to Write a Political Thriller

*Originally published on 5/13/12



With the runaway success of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code", it came as no surprise to see publishers put out as many books with similar concepts as they could. This led to other writers such as Steve Berry and Brad Thor becoming fairly recognizable names with sizable bibliographies of books of the same milieu.

While I don't have any best selling novels under my belt (yet, knock on wood), I have read several books of this ilk, more than enough to notice certain patterns and tropes that keep popping up. For those of you who are contemplating taking a crack at writing such a book yourself, I thought that I would discuss some of these common tropes in order to give you some pointers on how to get it done..

The first thing you'll want to do is find a historical figure to tie the whole narrative to. It has to be a big name that many will recognize, usually an ancient leader. Incorporating real world history is a must, but you'll want to include some sort of major revelation. Maybe they had developed some kind of super-weapon like a virus or chemical that some villain has gotten his or her hands on or maybe there's some secret that is at risk of being revealed. If said secret is exposed, it will change the world, as we know it forever.

Your hero will most likely be someone who works (or worked) with the government. Not a bureaucrat, mind you, but someone who worked in an organization like the FBI or CIA. This allows you to have the character engage in fights (of the gun or fist variety) and have it be believable to the reader. It will also give the character a wide network of associates who he or she can go to for information.

A vast conspiracy of some sort is a must. Whether it's an ancient organization that has worked in secret through the centuries or just a cabal of nefarious political ne'er do wells who are making a play for power, this organization will stop at nothing to achieve their goals and they will throw every hurdle they can in the hero's path to stop him from impeding their plans, up to and including sending armed assassins out to dispose of the hero personally.

Said plan will, most likely, form a sort of puzzle that the hero has to piece together. Naturally, each piece will be located in other parts of the world; giving the story a global scale and making it feel more epic. This also allows the writer to delve into detail regarding the scenery to paint a more vivid picture for the reader.

As cookie cutter as it may sound, you will have to do quite a bit of research in order to make this work. The casual reader may not catch a mistake, but somebody will. As expected, you'll also want to do everything in your power to make the work stand out from the pack, giving your characters back stories and personalities that make the readers care. Nevertheless, this should give you a nice place to start from in terms of bringing your desired work to life.