During the writing of my historical conspiracy thriller I knew that I wanted to create suspense for my reader. I wanted the novel to race along so the reader couldn't put the book down. A comment from a reader that your book is a page turner is every author's dream. 

There is a lot of learning needed to create a page-turning book full of suspense and intrigue, that also makes the reader worry about the characters who are in conflict. That's when I spotted a writing course for children, which listed the 3 Cs as a learning module.

I dived right in and signed up for the course. Not only because I wanted to learn how to write great novels for children, filled with action and adventure, but because I have already written several and was awarded with an honourable mention for two of my unpublished children's novels in the Writer's Digest writing competition.

Writing Conflict, Contrast And Characters

The Write For Children course had a module that included ‘Getting started’ - which talks about the 3 Cs in story structure: Contrast, Conflict, Character. If like me, you love learning more about creating fictional characters this module will tick all your people-creating boxes.

As always I enjoy the topic of plotting, storyline and theme and this online writing course for children states that there are 5 essential page turning elements:

•  Planning
•  Setting
•  Viewpoint
•  Plotting
•  Characterisation

This may be about writing for kiddies, but learning about topics like these will certainly help any new writers, especially if you are devouring all the writing advice you can get your hands on to help improve your fiction writing to give you a successful novel.

Structuring Your Suspense Conspiracy Thriller

When it comes to learning how to structure your novel that will give your readers the pace a thriller needs, you have to study novel structure.

Another writing course I did on Writing For Young Adults had this as a whole section in the course. It was so intense and detailed, and so extremely thorough and well planned that this kind of learning would be great for any aspiring novelist and writer. You will learn how to put all your planning and research and fictional character profiles together into a structure that will keep your readers turning the pages!

Examples of the details I mention above such as scene and sequel will enhance any of your self-published novels, not just your manuscripts for children's stories, but for any novel you intend writing. This really helped me to ensure the structure of my historical conspiracy thriller, The Grotto's Secret, has all the elements and beats required to get cracking and whip my suspense story into shape.

If you need to learn how to create a great suspense conspiracy thriller that kicks butt, try doing a writing course like the ones mentioned above. It is a serious must-do for all writers of Young Adult Fiction, Children's Fiction and in fact any genre!

Writing courses will arm you with all the ammo you need to create memorable characters, exciting plots and vivid settings.

Find out more about The Grotto's Secret.