Patriot Games and Writing Political Thrillers

Tips for writing high action stories with political drama.

Tom Clancy redefined what could be done with action thrillers by adding political intrigue, and his first example of this is Patriot Games, the novel and eventually movie that introduced the world to CIA action hero Jack Ryan. The blend of high octane action mixed with the high stakes political drama set the stage for a new breed of thriller, and a new kind of action star. If this is a genre that intrigues you, here are a few tips to help you pull it off.

Know Your Subject
The main thing that has stopped me from developing the ideas I have for political thrillers (BTW I will be making those ideas available as "Unused Idea" posts eventually) is a lack of in-depth understanding of politics. If you want to write an engaging political drama, having only a surface-level understanding of how the world of politics works isn't going to cut it. You're going to want to start by doing some thorough research into real-world political systems, espionage and nonviolent warfare. Learn how policies are made and changed at various levels, and how deals are made within these systems. For instance, One of the major factors of the start of the Great Depression was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, an overreaching tariff made to cater to special interests and lobbyists, which combined with the big stock market crash to cripple the world economy. You can get plenty of examples of Political drama from actual history: Watergate, The Iran-Contra affair, The Cuban Missile Crisis, the January 6 Insurrection, and current day world events. If you can get an audience with someone from your local government and pick their brains about their approach to policymaking, do it. Understanding the inner workings of Politics is crucial to making your political thriller believable.

Set the Stakes High
Conspiracies, government cover-ups, international crises, history-changing policy changes: These events and events like them should be at the crux of your political tale. I'm sure you can craft an engaging tale out of a routine political debate in city council over the city's library millage, but political thrillers need more juice than that. Think big; ask yourself if the scandal or plot dilemma you are setting up for your protagonists is really worth them risking their lives over. Because chances are, at some point in your story their lives WILL be in danger. And if your evil scheme isn't worth risking your hero's life to stop, then expand the plan's scope.
And don't be afraid of making the execution of said evil plan complex and convoluted. Political dramas rely on secrets, betrayals, and shifting alliances, so factions with hidden agendas, like corporations, governments, spies, or revolutionaries are worth exploring. the more complex the scheme is, the more legwork your hero will have to do to unravel, uncover and thwart that scheme before it comes to fruition.

Don't Forget the Thriller Part
Political drama is engaging enough if handled well, but adding the excitement of immediate danger takes the story to the next level. Your story needs to have moment to moment challenges while your characters are addressing the bigger picture problems of the story. Your protagonist is most likely working against powerful forces with lots of resources to prevent them from completing their goal. Those resources should be utilized early and often. Use whatever logically works, whether it be car chases, stealth scenes where your protagonist risks getting discovered, fist fights or firefights with opposing operatives, races against time, being kidnapped by foes or anything else you can think of to put your characters in jeopardy. Be sure to tie the action into the overall problem your character is trying to solve and isn't action just for its own sake.

The people make the politics
As with any good story, having strong, engaging characters is the glue that keeps your story together. there is often an internal conflict between personal motivations and duty in these types of stories, and they also present complex political and diplomatic problems that need to be navigated. With those things in mind, you want your characters to be intelligent, resourceful and morally complex. Getting things done in the political realm often involves crossing lines and making tough decisions, not to mention any life-or-death situations your characters might find themselves in as a result of said political machinations. Give your characters depth and nuance so that they don't come across as one-note cliche's or stereotypes. and those stereotypes also include institutions. You don't have to paint every corporation or government agency as broadly corrupt and money/power hungry. keeping those entities nuanced and complex helps, too.

Keep it brisk
Most good political thrillers move at a fast pace, so you want to set that tone early in your story. keep your wording tense and your chapters short, and don't skimp on the cliffhangers. Your narrative should be moving seamlessly between the three main components of your story (action, investigation, political drama), with your audience constantly wondering what is going to happen next.
Conversations should be tense, loaded with subtext, and reveal character motivations and power dynamics. Make sure the pacing of your story is moving as quickly as the action is.

Conclusion
Political thrillers are inherently more cerebral and intelligent than the average action fare. If you are up to the challenge of writing one, you can craft a deep, smart story that still keeps your audience on the edges of their seats. Give it a try.

Does this article help you? If so, then subscribe! I post these weekly.

And I want to know what your favorite political thrillers are. Tell me in the comments.