TECH: Suspense Keeps the Pages Turning

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Original Posting 27 March 2012

And another moldy clipping from Writer's Digest!

Writer's Digest, April 1994, pages 31-33 had an article by Billie Sue Mosiman with the title, "Keep Your Readers in Suspense." It starts out with a little paragraph where Billie Sue said, "I'm going to tell you one of the secrets of selling your fiction..."

And right there, you have an example of one technique of suspense. Get the reader to form a mental question. Secrets, and the promise of revealing them, are a great way to get the reader involved and build suspense. Of course, when you make that promise, you need to live up to it.

A lot of people think of suspense as creaking doors or other hints of horror, but wow it's a common and simple way to build suspense, it's only one way.

"If a character in your book has information or a secret that your protagonist desperately needs to know, that creates suspense. Suspense is an expectation. The writer delays giving out the information the reader needs."

What happens when you show something about to happen to one character, and then switch to another viewpoint and character? Of course, the reader wants to find out what happened to the first character. That's suspense.

Anticipation, mystery, unexplained actions. Billie Sue suggests one way to think of suspense is like a wave. It starts with foreshadowing an event, like the wave building up out at sea. Then the stakes are raised and tension rises, just like a wave rolling closer to shore, growing larger. Next, in the moment before the climax, the wave hits a peak and almost seems to stand still. Then the climax hits, as the wave crashes on the shore. Then in the lull between the scenes of suspense, the wave slips back out to sea to build up again. Depending on what kind of a novel or story you're writing, you might change the pace of the waves, and the lulls in between crashes. But you're probably going to still have have some waves, even at low tide, with the sea low and quiet.

Be careful about misdirecting or distracting the reader without a good reason. You don't want your reader to feel manipulated.

How will the hero escape? Will the evil monster, boss, whatever destroy everything that the protagonist loves? Is romance enough? Most of the time the question you want your readers asking is how will this be resolved. What's going to happen next? That's suspense.

Make sure that you keep your promises, and give readers the information they want. Also, make the protagonist struggle -- the reader needs to worry about them.

"If the reader has nothing to find out, nothing to anticipate, be anxious over or expect, he won't read at all."

So make the reader asked questions, anticipate what's going to happen, and then answer the questions, provide information, show that hero dealing with dangers and threats. Just don't leave them...

Billie Sue ended her column with "There is just one more very important secret I think you should know..."

Cliffhangers. And in our next thrilling episode...

Write, and don't forget the suspense! Keep the reader waiting, just a little bit more?