Episode 1-Introduction

*Note:This is just a copy of postings from my normal blog, the Thriller Writer's Guide. It wasn't really intended for the forums, but I figured I would just post it on here to share it with some of the other members. It's really just intended as a blog geared towards thriller writers to discuss thriller writing in general and help others improve their skill.*


Hello and welcome to the Thriller Writer’s Guide. In this posting, I’m not actually going to get into the thriller writing process, but rather just give a brief introduction to the blog itself and try my best to give you all a general idea of the blog’s purpose, where the idea came from, and where I hope to take it in the future.
Before we get started, I guess I’ll just tell you a bit about myself. My name’s Jonathan and I practice thriller writing as my main hobby and, hopefully, can someday practice it as a profession. I just finished the rough draft of my first novel and plan to start editing and revising it sometime in February before pursuing the possibility of getting it published. I’ve been writing for around seven years and I got into thriller writing four years ago when I was introduced to Clive Cussler. I didn’t get into writing seriously until around two or three years ago and since then I’ve dedicated the majority of my free time towards writing. I am, by no means, claiming to be some kind of expert on the subject. This blog is just meant as a place for me to share my personal experiences and some of the other knowledge I’ve picked up along the way.
The idea to do this blog came when I was browsing around several months back in search of some recourse for thriller writers. I found some sites dedicated to thriller authors, but none geared towards thriller writers intending to improve their craft. I just decided that I might as well give it a try and just share some of the knowledge I’d picked up while writing with other writers. This project is coming at a great time because I’ve been looking for some activity to occupy the time period between now and when I begin the editing process. I am doing whatever possible to stop myself from working on the book and just taking a break so my mind is refreshed when I actually begin, but I need some kind of project to keep me occupied in the meantime. And, for now at least, this blog should give me something to do.
In all honesty, I have no clear idea how long this project is going to run for. It may only be for a few weeks, although it could very possibly carry on for several months or even longer than that. Hopefully, I’ll be able to make a bit of time every several days to update the blog and keep things up and running for a while. Like I mentioned above, I need something to occupy the time when I’m not writing and this is basically my second little project aside from writing novels. Although I will not be making any promises, I would like to keep the blog going for as long as I am writing, which should be quite a while.
The two biggest factors in whether I continue posting and, if so, how frequently, are the response I receive to the blog and the amount of free time I’ve got on my hands. Response from you, the reader, is going to be a critical element in the success of the blog. Although I may be the one that’s doing the actual postings, I’m going to need your help if this blog is going to meet it’s full potential. You can send me comments, questions, or suggestions to thrillerwritersguide@yahoo.com. The amount of time I have is also going to have a large impact upon the frequency of blog updates. I am, after all, a writer and will choose writing over updating the blog. Hopefully, I’ll have the time necessary to frequently update the blog. At the moment, I’m taking a break from writing so the updates will be more frequent. But, after the next month or so, the frequency with which the blog is updated will most likely decrease. My goal is to post at least once a week, if not more. If I haven’t released an update for a while, I may post a mini-episode that will just briefly cover a topic.
Most of the postings will be fairly extensive. I would like to keep them as compact as possible, but there are many topics that you can’t just briefly cover. But if there is a topic that I have to get in-depth with, I’ll most likely just break the updates covering this topic into several shorter episodes within a “series” or sorts
My plan is to cover all elements of thriller writing over the course of the blog. I’d like to cover everything from forming a basic plotline to the actual writing process to editing and revising the rough draft of your work. Depending, I may even do a few postings upon publishing although I’d prefer to wait until I have gained more experience in this specific area. If there is enough response and I have enough time, I may even create a pod cast edition of the blog and basically read through the episodes so that you can listen to them on the run instead of having to sit down and read them. Again, this is going to depend upon the response and the amount of time I’ve got.
That’s it for this episode: thanks for reading. Check back soon for new updates. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions related to the blog, please send them to thrillerwritersguide@yahoo.com. Next time, I’ll be discussing and explaining what exactly a thriller novel is.