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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38591
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38591
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The defining characteristic of the thriller genre is **suspense**. That is, the audience **expects something bad to happen**.

Suspense can be created if the audience knows more than the main character. For example, when Little Red Riding Hood starts talking to the wolf, we expect her to be eaten, while she is blissfully unaware of any danger.

Suspense can also be created if the audience does not know more than the main character: Little Red Riding Hood might be startled by moving shadows under the trees, but neither she nor the audience know what exactly lurks there.

**The danger should draw nearer as the story progresses** - like a wolf stalking its prey and drawing ever nearer. This way, the reader is always on the edge of their seat, expecting the wolf to pounce at any moment. It might be that the wolf gains some advantage, or Little Red Riding Hood suffers a setback - perhaps she is hurt, and the wolf can now smell her blood.

So how does this relate to your story? First, you must know for yourself what is the danger, the wolf, chasing Freya. Is it Lana? Is it someone you have not yet introduced? What are their goals with regards to Freya? How would they try to achieve them?

Now that you know how the wolf would act, plan their actions to start small and escalate from there. What are the first hints Freya begins to get that something is wrong, that something is lurking under the trees? Does she notice those hints, or does she miss them for some reason, and only the reader knows? (If you're not telling the story in first person, things can happen with your MC not in the scene. Even in first person, there might be things the MC doesn't know while the reader does. You might make use of Freya's amnesia.)

At some point, your MC would have to become active, whether only to escape the wolf, or to achieve some additional goal. This can happen early in the story (the MC acts to find out what chases them), or later (the MC knows what the danger is, and acts to avoid it).

There might be additional stakes - friends, family. There need to be setbacks - every time it looks like the MC is getting on top of things, something new should throw them back down. It's through this painful struggle, through escaping the wolf by the skin of the MC's teeth, that the happy ending is made satisfying. And from this it also follows that the final confrontation needs to be the most dangerous of all. The MC can't go into it with any surety of succeeding. She must face a danger that was sufficiently dramatic to pose a challenge throughout the story, and prevail.

Original score: 5