Zoe Rankin: 'It’s what you can’t see, and what you don’t know, that truly terrifies'
BY Maya Fernandes
30th Sep 2018
In this interview Zoe Rankin, author of the debut psychological thriller The Vanishing Place, shares her advice for writers looking to build tension.
'The pulse of fear in psychological thrillers comes not from the blood and the gore, but from a growing sense of unease that grips the reader’s mind.'
We caught up with Zoe to discuss her time studying with us, her advice for budding thriller writers and how the New Zealand landscape helped to inspire her debut novel.
The Vanishing Place is a gripping mystery full of family drama and long-buried secrets. What tips would you give to writers hoping to build suspense in their work?
For me, suspense comes from a creeping sense of dread that lingers in unsettling moments – small details that gnaw at the reader page by page until they evolve into something bigger. I think this is achieved by two things. Firstly, by having characters that the reader cares about, that they are emotionally invested in. Secondly, by keeping the reader partially in the dark, so that they remain on edge, always craving an answer to some question and never trusting that the characters are safe.
The New Zealand bush is such an atmospheric setting. What drew you to this location, and how did the landscape feed into the themes of the novel?
I grew up in Scotland, where the mountains have been stripped bare of trees. When I moved to New Zealand, I was struck by the vastness and density of the native forest, known as ‘the bush.’ There is nothing quite like it. In New Zealand, the trees grow into an untamed and impenetrable wall where the greenery swallows you whole.
I find it incredible that in our modern world, where every human movement and interaction is recorded, there still exists this wilderness at the bottom of the earth where you can truly disappear – and where, in real life, people do. I wanted the bush to feel like a character in my novel, a wild and haunting presence, but to show that even this deadly wilderness can be less dangerous than those closest to us.
If you could offer one key piece of advice to writers working in the thriller genre, what would it be?
The pulse of fear in psychological thrillers comes not from the blood and the gore, but from a growing sense of unease that grips the reader’s mind. It’s what you can’t see, and what you don’t know, that truly terrifies. And, if you, the writer, don’t know what’s coming, then neither will the reader.
Your novel has drawn comparisons to writers like Lucy Clarke and Sarah Pearse. Which authors have you been enjoying recently?
Recently, I have been loving Charlotte McConnarchy, author of Wild Dark Shore, and Chris Whitaker, author of All the Colours of the Dark.
You’ve taken several of our courses, including Writing a Psychological Thriller, Edit & Pitch Your Novel and our flagship Writing Your Novel – Three Months course. How did your time with us shape your approach to writing?
I think, when it comes to crafting a manuscript for publication there are so many aspects of the process that remain unknown to a new writer – well, they were to me at least. The CBC courses were incredibly eye-opening, offering advice and guidance on elements of the writing journey and the craft itself that I hadn’t even thought to think about. Doing the CBC courses also helped me to take my writing seriously, something that can be a huge hurdle for aspiring writers, and the shift in mindset really helped with my perseverance and commitment to my writing.
Many of our students find lifelong writing friends on our courses. Are you still in touch with anyone you met on the course?
Very much so. There are two online groups that I remain a part of, one formed when I was doing the Three-Month Writing Your Novel course and the other while doing Writing a Psychological Thriller. We often reach out to each other to share our writing experiences (the highs and the lows) and to share samples of work for feedback. Bizarrely, after years of chatting online, one of the other CBC students ended up publishing almost at the exact same time as me. As a debut novelist, it was wonderful to have someone to share the experience with as it is quite a whirlwind.
And finally, what’s next for your writing journey?
I am working on another nature-centric thriller set in New Zealand, this time in the shadow of a volcano.
Get your hands on a copy of The Vanishing Place, out now from Viper Books.
Zoe was a student on our Edit & Pitch Your Novel and online Writing Your Novel – Three Months courses in 2019, and our Writing a Psychological Thriller course in 2021.
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