How to Write an Exciting Military Thriller Story

One genre that I think is definitely underrated these days is the military thriller genre. There came a time in the early 2000s when there were lots of these and authors like Tom Clancy really helped to shape the genre into what it is today. In fact, some of my biggest influences are military thrillers. Military thrillers are engaging because the genre fits in with so many mediums like movies and video games, which I also happen to enjoy military thriller movies and games. These are stories that are driven by pressure, precision, consequence, and intense decision-making with extremely high stakes. Military thrillers when done well can immerse the reader into an action-packed story. However, it’s important to be cautious when writing these, as you don’t want your story to feel over-the-top and nonsensical. So, for today’s post, I’ll be talking about how you can write an amazing military thriller or military story and book. 

As an author, my series, The Fallen Age Saga, actually draws a lot from military thriller elements. In fact, Book 2, Soldat, was originally a standalone I wrote to be a military sci-fi thriller. It eventually became part of my expansive world, but it took a lot of research and careful time reading and learning to understand how to write a story from the perspective of members of the military, so I’m going to be sharing all of what I know with you all today! Of course, it starts with your characters, which is where my character backstory cheat sheet can come in handy. Sign up today and get a copy to your inbox totally for free!

What is a Military Thriller?

A military thriller is a genre centered on armed conflict, military operations, or national and global security threats. These stories are typically told through the perspective of soldiers, special operations teams, intelligence agents, commanders, or someone involved in the politics of an operation/war. The focus of a military thriller isn’t just on combat (that’s an important element of course), but also on planning, strategy, consequences, and anything in-between.

The most popular military thrillers often take place in modern or near-modern settings and emphasize realism in how military organizations function.

Common elements include:

• Active combat zones
• Covert missions
• Tactical decision-making
• Political, geopolitical, or intelligence-driven stakes
• Realistic weapons, technology, and operational procedures

Unlike standard action thrillers, military thrillers require a bit more work in ensuring it’s plausible and accurate as well as logical. 

Why Are Military Thrillers Popular?

Military thrillers tend to appeal to readers/viewers who crave intensity paired with realism. Military thriller stories tend to provide a unique view of watching trained professionals confront chaos with discipline, skill, and sacrifice. 

They also offer high stakes that are very real and tangible. The outcome of any operation/mission could impact lives, nations, and global stability. Also, characters need to be tactical decision-makers who can think on their feet and use their training and experience, not just luck, magic, or prophecies. 

Military thrillers often confront morals and characters will typically face ethically difficult situations that don’t have clear answers. For instance, you see in many Call of Duty games characters having to contend with what’s right and what’s wrong depending on their mission and the fate of countless lives. 

These books also tend to include constant tension and relentless momentum. There’s never a dull moment, basically. 

How to Write a Good Military Thriller Book

1. Include Realistic Stakes and Intense Conflict

Every military thriller needs some sort of central threat in the plot that grows more and more dangerous as the story progresses. The conflict of the story needs to logically and realistically escalate and increase pressure on everything involved in the story. 

The central threat or the main conflict of the story can be pretty much anything you want that relates to global military operations. The threat can be anything from a country on the brink of a civil war to an arms race to a rogue military unit and beyond. Most military thrillers are also political thrillers due to the nature of armed conflict in the modern world. 

The stakes need to be clear to the readers early on. They must intensify as new information or complications arise in the story. The readers need to understand why the mission matters through consequences that occur in the story. 

2. Realistic Characters Are VITAL

Military thrillers often include protagonists that are typically highly trained professionals. However, these professionals are not superhuman. They need imperfections, flaws, and weaknesses just as much as they need strengths and talents. You may have a character that’s more badass-coded than not, which is fine, but they still need to be compelled by pressure and not perfection. 

A strong military thriller character should be competent but they need to be able to make mistakes just as much as they secure victories. A lot of them often have dark histories or trauma from their past that propelled them into such a life. They are also shaped by things like discipline, training, brotherhood, and loss. 

Teams are especially important in the military thriller genre, as you’ll never really see a professional go without a squad in such stories. Each member needs to have a distinct role such as medic, sniper, communications, technology, etc… These roles need to matter during the plot as well. Team dynamics add realism and tension as well as emotional weight to the story. 

If you want to help build amazing characters that feel believable for your military thriller novel, check out the Ultimate Character Creation Guide, which is a 150+ page workbook that explains everything you need to know about building believable, engaging characters across all genres from the ground-up. 

3. Tactical Realism (Be Careful Here)

One thing that I think is important for a military thriller is to go for tactical realism. You want the story to feel real. You want it to seem like these are actual soldiers and we the readers are basically just going through a go-pro of their life. However, what some authors tend to do in this genre is over-explain. As the writer, you may have a lot of knowledge in tactics, weapons, gear, strategy, etc… but your readers don’t want to just be reading a manual about military tactics. 

You want to focus on decisions and use details to establish credibility, but do so sparingly. You also want to show how the characters act when put in scenarios. No need to go into training constantly. We as the readers have the understanding in a military thriller that the characters are trained professionals; as the writer, it’s your job to show us in the heat of the moment how that training kicks in. 

You don’t need personal experience in the military to write. I certainly don’t, but some things I did to learn were watch movies, documentaries, read books and articles, play video games that soldiers and veterans online described as realistic, etc… Find media surrounding the genre and learn as much as you can so that it makes sense to you as the writer. 

4. You Need Constant Pressure

Like most thrillers out there, military thrillers thrive on momentum. Quiet moments in your story need to feel charged with anticipation or dread. You need to be effective with your pacing when you’re writing this genre, and it’s important to be aware of striking a balance so as to not overwhelm the readers and not bore them either. 

There are many techniques you can use to effectively pace your military thriller, but some really good ones include the following: 

• Short chapters that have clear objectives (long chapters are great for an epic fantasy where you need plenty of description, but not an action-packed thriller). 
• Ending scenes on moments including complications or discoveries
• Minimizing filler and advancing tension
• Plenty of action and intense action at that

Each chapter needs to have a purpose in your story. You don’t want things to feel like they are slowing down because of filler scenes. 

Research Tips for Writing Military Thrillers

One of the things about military thrillers that’s important is that you’ll probably need to do more research with this than just any other thriller. Military thrillers require some level of realism and understanding of military hierarchy and structure. I personally don’t have experience in the military, so this was something that I had to figure out and here are some takeaways from my research time: 

• Read memoirs and firsthand accounts. Forums online, YouTube videos, etc… serve as great places to read about what soldiers went through in war
• Study military ranks, units, and structure. Focus on the country your main story takes place in and go from there
• Learn about how weapons and vehicles in the military work (be careful and try to ensure you’re picking ones that your chosen unit/SOF would use)
• Watch interviews and documentaries
• Play video games. I’m not joking. Some video games are so realistic that they help you get into the mindset of the “soldier” of your story. Focus on games that advertise themselves as realistic tactical shooters more than not. 

You can also try and watch some movies and read books in the military thriller genre. Those serve as great places to see what other writers have done for the same genre. You’ll want to be careful though with stereotypes. You don’t want to just arbitrarily pick a country to have your conflict set in and then stereotype the country and its people. It’s important as the writer to research every aspect of your story to the best of your ability. 

If you want more advice on research, check out this post where I break down how to research for writing books. 

Common Tropes

Like many genres out there, military thrillers also contain tropes. Tropes are not your enemy as a writer, but they can hinder your story if they’re not written effectively in your story. Some popular tropes in military thrillers include things like the commander that faces a moral conflict, a team forged through shared danger, the last-resort mission, an extraction gone wrong, compromised intelligence source, corruption within the agency, etc… 

When you pair tropes like these with meaningful character development and a well-formulated plot, you can really build a solid story that feels familiar and exciting to readers all the same. 

Choosing an Ending for a Military Thriller

A military thriller does not require a happy ending and in fact, you’ll find a lot of military thrillers end with some pretty intense things happening. For instance, many video games might have most of the cast of characters die before the end. Whatever sort of ending you choose, it needs to feel earned. Victory for any of the characters needs to come at some sort of a cost. 

The readers need to feel that there may have been a price that was paid or that there were emotional and political consequences for victory. The ending must feel realistic when compared with the rest of the story. 

Conclusion

Writing a military thriller means ensuring your story balances realism with exciting action, suspense, and tension. You need to ensure your characters make sense, your settings make sense, and your plot has high-stakes that mean something to the overall narrative. 

If you want more help with writing, check out these resources: 

• The Ultimate Character Creation Workbook
• The Ultimate World Building Workbook 
• The Storycraft System to Writing Villains Workbook

Be sure to also sign up for my newsletter to get free access to my character backstory cheat sheet. By signing up, you’ll also receive tips, tricks, exclusive discount codes, and other advice for writing and world building!

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