Pulp Fiction Thriller Novels What Can They Teach Us?
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Can writers of thriller novels learn from film directors? Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino) has an unusual way of dealing with timelines (and it’s not time travel). Does the serial disconnect of the plot scenes (apart from the typical title scene peek) affect the viewer’s enjoyment, and would it work in print? Although the structure has surely been tried already, this article considers the possibilities and the likely impact for e-readers. So, what can thriller authors learn? Would the patchwork quilt approach work? Obviously, killing off a main character in the middle might remove some of the interest, but then a reader will know that there’s a reason the author has structured it in that way. I’m sure that the quilt approach (with temporal disconnects) has been tried, though I don’t recall reading a book structured in that way.
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 pulp fiction thriller novels - what can they teach us last night i watched pulp fiction, again, and it struck me that maybe as a novel writer i could learn from the director, quentin tarantino i don&rsquo t know how many times i&rsquo ve seen the film, but every viewing brings something new out for me in no way can the plot be described as intricate or deep, but the way the scenes are labelled and stitched together like a patchwork quilt is really interesting and engaging now i&rsquo m sure that there are other films which adopted this approach, with a fractured and re-circulating timeline, but they don&rsquo t come to mind right now of course, a title scene which presages action later in the film is not unusual, but killing off one of the main characters in the middle, and then bringing him back into later scenes &ndash even the final one - struck me as a tad unusual when i wrote the thriller &lsquo gate of tears&rsquo i used flashbacks well they were more like chapterbacks, really to build up the characterisation, and there was a lot of interweaving, as the plot is &lsquo intricate&rsquo to quote one reviewer but there were several timelines, each following a character however, the overall flow of time was forward with pulp fiction, though, there were temporal disconnects, and whole connected plot scenes were not in a serial timeline did it spoil my enjoyment no, certainly not &ndash some viewers and readers like to have to work to figure out the puzzle of the plot, timeline or other details solving those little mysteries that the author / director sets for the reader / viewer is part of the pleasure for many consumers now, film directors obviously have a great advantage &ndash they can use two of our senses, sight and sound, whereas authors have to produce for one sense let&rsquo s leave audio books to one side for now but directors also have an obvious disadvantage &ndash they have to tell the story in 100 minutes in general not only that, the film consumer cannot refer back - excluding of course the rewind button on a dvd player maybe that could influence the way in which directors edit for dvd versions i digress for a film to succeed, the viewer must enjoy it at first viewing for books it may be different and is there a distinction here to be explored here between fiction and non-fiction books, however, can be consumed over an infinite amount of time well, no more than one lifetime maximum, as far as i know replays and refer-backs are straightforward for the reader so, what can thriller authors learn would the patchwork quilt approach work obviously, killing off a main character in the middle might remove some of the interest, but then a reader will know that there&rsquo s a reason the author has structured it in that way i&rsquo m sure that the quilt approach with temporal disconnects has been tried, though i don&rsquo t recall reading a book structured in that way now of course, we have ereaders, and massive consumption of reading material, of variable quality &ndash even &lsquo pulp fiction&rsquo aka penny dreadful is making a comeback as these devices evolve, we are surely going to see inclusion of sound, stills and even video in ebooks i already include hyperlinks in my own ebooks, taking readers to maps and other background material maybe writers will have to start seeing their stories from the perspective of screenplay writers and film directors