Thriller authors read. A lot. But inspiration is found not only on the page. It’s discovered on the screen, on long walks, and sometimes…in real life.
Today our Thriller Thursday authors share which storytelling mediums (aside from novels) provide the most inspiration.
Tessa Wegert: I’m a sucker for a gritty streaming crime series – Dept. Q, True Detective: Night Country, Mare of Easttown, and Deadwind are some of my recent and forever favorites. If I can carve out the time, I binge them so I can pay extra close attention to the character and story arcs.
Carter Wilson: Movies and limited series. I’m drawn to how they use pacing, silence, and mood to build tension. Mare of Easttown and The Night Manager are two great examples. Mare is raw and grounded, Night Manager is sleek and morally complex—you watch a man get pulled into a world that both repels and seduces him.
That kind of tonal control is what I chase in my own work. Where suspense and character are inseparable, and the most dangerous things happen just beneath the surface.
Lauren Nossett: Television. I love the long form and getting to know a cast of characters over multiple seasons. If you have a long-running show of five or six seasons, you spend fifty to sixty hours with some characters, watching them face challenges and grow (hopefully), so that they almost feel like good friends! Television provides a great lesson in writing good dialogue (we all know when it’s bad!) and how to be merciless with your cuts. Someone once told me when making edits to think like a showrunner. When you remember that scene costs time and money—actors, props, lighting, cameras—it helps you prioritize what really needs to be there.
Danielle Girard: Real life… That may sound funny as a thriller writer and my life has been blissfully free of the kind of terror characters face in my stories. I do find story inspiration usually comes from character and so much of what I write about is based on my own experience—being a woman, daughter, mom, sister, friend, getting older. The more I live, the more I have to say.
Greg Wands: Probably film. When done well, you’ve got a number of the same elements that make for a great novel: rich character development, satisfying story and emotional arcs, and plot twists that take the wind out of you. A great screenplay can also be really instructive when it comes to writing dialogue in a novel. Because film doesn’t feature the same opportunities for expositional writing that books do, a screenwriter’s challenge is to thread a lot of that exposition through the character’s dialogue without the audience being aware that they’re being fed exposition. It’s a subtle art.
Kimberly Belle: Aside from novels, I get a ton of inspiration from podcasts and TV—especially limited series. There’s something about the structure that feels really close to a novel: a tight arc, a clear beginning and end, and just enough room to really dig into character without dragging out the story. And a good true crime podcast will always get my wheels turning, the darker the better. Half the time I’m already thinking, “What if I took this premise one step further?”
Alex Segura: Not a surprise, but comics! I love the blending of words and pictures. There’s nothing like it.
Vanessa Lillie: I really love television. I’m so happy to be living in this Golden age of binging incredible shows. I find there’s a series for every mood and emotion, so I’m always on the lookout for whatever will scratch that inspirational itch I need at the time.
Tell us: Where do you go for inspiration?
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