Don't Live a Dangerous Life? Perfect. Time to Write A Thriller

Think you need to be an ex-CIA operative to write compelling spy fiction? That you have to survive a serial killer to create one? That your suburban existence disqualifies you from writing edge-of-your-seat thrillers?

Nope.

Lee Child calls "write what you know" the worst advice a writer can receive. I think he's right. If we only wrote what we knew, most thriller writers would be stuck telling harrowing tales of lawn maintenance and grocery shopping.

Not exactly page-turner material.

Lee Child offers better advice: "Write what you feel." Take your fears, your shame, your rage, and let them guide you.

It's the difference between surface knowledge and emotional truth.

The Problem Isn't Your Life

Most of us haven't been international assassins. We haven't uncovered government conspiracies or survived in remote jungles with nothing but a paperclip and our wits.

But here's what we have experienced: betrayal. Fear. Loss. Rage. Desperation.

We've felt cornered. Misunderstood. Wronged. We've had that sick feeling in our stomach when someone we trusted lied to us. We've been so angry we couldn't think straight, or so afraid we couldn't move.

Those emotions? That's your raw material.

The Power of Expanding What You Feel

Every parent has that split-second of terror at the mall when they look away and their child disappears. Pure dread. Then relief when you spot them six feet away, looking in a store window.

The trick isn't writing about losing your kid at the mall.

It's remembering that dread and expanding it from a second to an hour. A week. A month.

You don't need to know what it's like to be hunted by assassins. But if you've ever felt pursued—by debt collectors, an ex, your own mistakes—you understand the psychology. That feeling of constantly looking over your shoulder. Of never feeling safe. Of wondering who you can trust.

That's enough.

Research vs. Heart

Of course research matters. You need to know how guns work, what police procedures look like. Those are table stakes that you pretty much need to get right. Because readers need to trust the author.

But research only gives you the skeleton.

The beating heart comes from emotional truth.

I've never been tortured, but I understand humiliation. I've never killed anyone, but I know what it feels like to be filled with rage. I've never been a spy, but I understand keeping secrets that would destroy relationships if they came to light.

These become the foundation for larger, more dangerous situations.

How to Tap Into What Matters

When you're stuck on a scene, ask yourself: What's the core emotion here? Fear? Betrayal? Desperation?

Now think about when you've felt that most intensely. Not the exact situation—the feeling itself. How did it manifest physically? What thoughts looped through your head? How did it change what you did next?

A character facing death should feel recognizable to anyone who's been genuinely afraid. Even if their fear was something as mundane as a job interview.

Your Secret Weapon

Here's what "write what you feel" really means: your most shameful thoughts, your deepest fears, your secret resentments—these aren't things to hide from your writing.

They are your secret weapon.

The rage you've never acted on becomes your villain's motivation. The fear that keeps you awake at 3 AM becomes your protagonist's paranoia. The guilt you carry becomes the dark secret threatening to destroy your character's life.

You don't have to have lived a life worthy of a thriller to write one. You just have to be honest about the emotions you've experienced and brave enough to expand them into something larger, darker, more dangerous than they were in real life.

The Truth About Readers

Readers don't come to thrillers for accuracy. They come for the feeling. The breathless pace. The sick dread. The desperate hope that somehow, against all odds, things will work out.

They want to feel something big and primal and real.

You can give that to them. Not because of what you know, but because of what you feel.

Your boring, safe, normal life isn't a limitation. It's perfect raw material.

Now, go write your story!

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Andrew Bridgeman is a traditionally published international thriller author that couldn’t get a US publishing deal. Subscribe to The Briefing to learn more about the journey of this popular author and how he took his business and entrepreneurial background and applied it to self publishing.

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Andrew Bridgeman's path to writing thrillers has been anything but conventional. A former rugby player, jazz singer, and entrepreneur, he brings a unique perspective to storytelling that has caught international attention—his debut novel is being published in Germany and Hungary. With a creative writing background from Dickinson College and an MBA from WashU in St. Louis, he combines business insight with storytelling craft. After decades in the St. Louis area, Andrew settled in New Hampshire with his wife, Kathy. When he's not crafting his next thriller, you'll find him hiking in the mountains, playing guitar, or exploring the country in his Airstream RV.