“It’s all about generating new ideas. I read a lot, often a novel a day”

Dan Malakin has been a rising star among thriller writers and his stock is set to rise even higher with the publication of The Wreckage of Us on 6th June from Viper Books.

Dan’s new novel will be his third after The Regret (2019) and The Box (2022), which both kept readers in suspense as their narratives played out. Speaking to The Book Insider, Dan has revealed what are the ingredients to a good thriller that keeps those reading on the edge of their seats.

Dan begins by stating one of the biggest problems which faces a writer of psychological thrillers: “There are so many new thrillers coming out, thousands each year, and only so many possible crimes – it’s hard to make something original and engaging based on the plot or the setting alone.”

There is a way though to may your story stand out and Dan revealed: “That’s why character and voice are so important. When you’re spending three hundred or more pages with someone, it’s important that you find them engaging. You have to want to spend all those hours listening to them.”

With character being a driving factor, there is also the twist and turns to consider for a roller coaster ride. Dan added: “In the best thrillers, a strange psychological trick occurs where you grow to care about them as you would real people. Obviously having a killer twist at the end which re-frames everything that’s gone before also helps!”

One of the main issues when it comes to writing a book is having the story to tell. Dan says that this is a process used to let grow naturally from an initial seed in your mind but since becoming published, has had to make it as much of the process as the writing of the novel.

Dan said: “Back before I was a published author I used to have a rather more ethereal take on this: get the seed of an idea from the wafts of the world, allow it to germinate quietly in the mud bed of your mind, carefully tend to it as it grows in strength, and hopefully at the end of this you have a finished first draft. Now I realise that generating ideas is as much of a process as writing itself.”

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Dan added that reading and true crime documentaries all play into the melting pot of ideas. He told The Book Insider: “I focus on that process between drafts. In the weeks or maybe a month while the latest draft cools down, it’s all about generating new ideas. I read a lot, often a novel a day; I nail those Netflix true crime documentaries; I’m making notes constantly. Then it’s back to the next draft.”

So, with this in mind, how long does a story gestate in his mind before he starts committing it to paper, so to speak? It can take a few months to start forming, though he’s not afraid to change tact from original plans.

Speaking about his new novel, The Wreckage Of Us, Dan said that it was a “culmination of three ideas I’ve had swirling for a while.” Expanding more on how it took form, he revealed: “I was actually planning on writing a completely different book, but then from nowhere those three ideas merged together; the skeleton for this book appeared almost fully formed.

“I ran it past my agent who agreed it was better than what I’d been planning to write. The next couple of months were spent sketching an outline; I started writing straight after new year.”

One of the more trickier aspects of story writing can be having the ending and how that will be. Fortunately, Dan knows where he is going with his stories and says that he has the ending planned before he sets off on writing.

Dan said: “Before, in the glorious ethereal days, I used to think that perhaps it was better not to have the ending. That something more original than I could ever plan would rise from my unconscious during the labours of the first draft. Experience has shown that, at least for me, it’s better to know where you’re going before you set out.”

Taking the step to becoming an author is a dream for many and Dan shared what it is like to be termed an author. He said: “Not what you expect. Yes there’s pride in completing a draft or holding a printed book, but it’s also stressful and pressured and time consuming, especially as I have a young family and still work full time.

“If I didn’t love writing so much I’d probably not do it. But I do love writing, I love reading. There is nothing I enjoy more than settling in for the evening with a book I can’t put down, and nothing more thrilling than imagining someone enjoying one of my books in the same manner.”

The Wreckage Of Us is published on 6th June by Viper Books.