What does this question tell me? That the storyline is relatable. Many readers have asked me this question – whether it is fiction or real-life story. So let me share with you all the story behind the story. As I have mentioned on my home page, ‘When the worm of a thought grows up into a crocodile, I write!’
The Concept Behind My Suspense Triller
First, an idea germinated in my mind, that what if a married man went on a dating app despite being in a happy marriage. And as I was thinking about it, the situation evolved from a state of marriage to the state of being hitched! Why? I wanted the storyline to be suspenseful, thrilling, mysterious, but also fun. Keeping the protagonists hitched, but not married, provided me with a lot of elbow room, as the readers who have read Love Swipe Blackmail must have discovered.
With the plot in place, started the character build up. The importance of character build up is underscored by the fact that readers relate to the plot if they relate to the characters. Plot and the characters are interdependent. I might share in one of my later posts, about how one of the characters made me revise the plot by adding a sub-plot. And quite a lot of my readers told me that the sub-plot was even more unexpected than the resolution of the main plot.
So, after refining the plot, I started thinking about what would the main characters be like, what situations would they go through. What help would they need to get over the situation. Can they muster all the help from within, or would they need help to come from the people around them? And then how about the folks who came bearing help? How resourceful should they be? The worm had by now become a crocodile.
To answer all these questions, I went back to the people I know, in my memories. And I thought how would ‘x’ react to a situation that Ravi was in. Or how would ‘y’ help a friend in need. I did not speak with any of my friends while building characters for my novel, but I started recollecting who is good at what and who is not good at what. And during our testing times, how have we friends helped out each other. That is how I built the characters.
As I mentioned earlier, I had decided to write a suspense thriller novel. Would I like to be counted amongst the best Indian thriller authors? Absolutely. would it happen overnight? Absolutely not. I am told by wise people that when you make friends with time and patience, time and patience make friends with you. I wait for more readers like Aakarsh to discover my work and help me spread the word around, and then with time, who knows Love Swipe Blackmail tops the Indian suspense thriller novels’ list.