David L. Hoof's Blog

For its intended readership, thrillers should be fast reads. Strangely, perhaps, at their best they are arduous to write. In order to sustain pace, dangers that occur need both to be subtly foreshadowed and hit hard and fast. In addition they should be delayed enough that the story's tension is tightened, but delivered fast enough that the readers is at the same time surprised but expectant. As for content, it should be economical and compressed. As literary agent Philip Spitzer says,"It always ruins the story when you need to explain." Dramatize realistically. Respect that the experience belongs to the characters and the readers. The author is just an invisible portal. Less is more. Cut, cut, cut. Make every word not only optimally placed, but essential in every way. Anthony Burgess said that quality is added whenever the writing is better than it should be. He also said that novels are never completed, simply abandoned. Every story could be improved, but as Voltaire held, "The best is the enemy of the good." It you keep trying to make the novel better, you'll never let it go. So how much is enough. My most recent novel A Death in Munich started with revision 1 at 152,000 words. Revision 41, which went to press, was 114,000 words. And I will forever suffer that it wasn't shorter. But what remains moves like lightning. Those 38,000 words cut were just static electricity.