Dimitrios Tsafaras ← Back to the author site

Spike's Thriller Writing Academy

Lessons from a four-legged editor.

Every thriller writer needs a tough editor. Dimitri's has four legs, a bowtie, and a strict treats-for-twists policy.

Spike's Thriller Writing Academy — a four-panel comic in which Spike the Schnauzer teaches Dimitri how to write a thriller series.
Lesson 101: Plot Twists — tuition payable in treats.
Previous lesson

Lesson 2: Dialogue — Less Is More

The Professor's Rules

  1. Cut. All of it. If a speech explains everything, it explains too much.
  2. Five words can carry a threat. “I know what you did.”
  3. Short lines. Long shadows. Let the reader hear the silence.

Tuition for this lesson: one treat — paid in full, Panel 4.

Spike's Thriller Writing Academy, Lesson 2: Dialogue — Less Is More. A four-panel comic in which Spike the Schnauzer makes Dimitri cut a long speech down to five words: 'I know what you did.'
Spike's Thriller Writing Academy, Lesson 3: Show, Don't Tell. A four-panel comic on a vaudeville stage in which Spike the Schnauzer, dressed as a magician, teaches Dimitri to show fear instead of naming it: 'If I can see it, I feel it.'
New lesson

Lesson 3: Show, Don't Tell

The Professor's Rules

  1. Don't tell me he's scared. Naming the feeling is a shortcut — and the reader feels nothing.
  2. Show the body. Hands shaking. Sweat on his lip. Eyes on the door.
  3. If I can see it, I feel it. Readers believe what they witness, not what they're told.

Tuition for this lesson: one magic trick — treats accepted in place of applause.

Field work

Research, taken too far.

Dimitrios Tsafaras crouching in the rain holding a roast chicken beside Spike the schnauzer, police lights behind them and a chalk outline of a chicken on the wet cobblestones
The Professor insists it was research. Tuition for this lesson: one roast chicken — confiscated as evidence.
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