A guide to the main points of building your thriller, from finding your rhino through settling on your McGuffin, to shoring up your middle, and finally to choreographing your denouement.

Techniques for writing a short story (the hook, creating characters, story arc, scene setting in a sentence, snappy dialogue...) and tips on the market and selling into it.

You wouldn’t take a cross-country trip without a map, yet aspiring writers far too often embark on their mysteries without knowing where they’re going. Bring your ideas, your questions, your roadblocks as we explore the structure of a traditional mystery: your cast of characters, the importance of setting, the plot of your story, writing dialogue, and creating the essential conflict that moves your story along.

Whether you’re generating an idea for a new character, forcing yourself to get the current chapter finished, or figuring out what to do with that scene that seemed so good when you wrote it last night, getting into the best brain activation state for the task at hand will improve your work and make your writing session more enjoyable. In this workshop, you’ll learn about seven different brain states that are important to the writing process: the Connect, Reason, Envision, Absorb,Transform, Evaluate, and Stream brainsets. You’ll also learn strategies for accessing these brain states and for switching flexibly among them. Shelley Carson is the author of Seven Steps to Maximize Imagination, Productivity, and Innovation in Your Life.

Strong characters are the foundation of good mystery novels. Who cares what happens to stereotypes, cliches, or cardboard cutouts? Gerry Boyle, author of a dozen character-driven mysteries, will lead a discussion of how to avoid the pitfalls that lead to weak characterization, and ways to make your characters more real and compelling. As Boyle says, it just takes a little extra work.

Point of view might be the most important element in story telling. It’s also the most confusing and daunting. How do I tell this story: First person? Third? Omniscient? Selective third? And which characters will be POV characters--just the protagonist? Or the minor characters and villains as well? Bestselling and award-winning author Gary Braver will help answer these and many other questions by first explaining the need to determine just what kind of story you want to tell—whether an internal (psychological) mystery or an external (action-driven) thriller.