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mbarkerOriginal Posting Aug. 19, 2017
Writer's Digest, March 1999, on pages 30-33 and page 52, have an article by William J. Reynolds with the title Keeping Them in Suspense. All about how to build a page turner.
Reynolds starts out by posing the challenge that you want your readers to say, "I've gotta know." That's the essence of suspense. And to keep them turning pages, you want suspense. Compelling characters, plausible plot, intriguing subplots, richly evoked settings, appealing writing… Yes, you want those too. But suspense is what gives fiction that kick.
Now, he suggests you start by setting up three different sizes of suspense, just like soft drinks: small, medium, and large. Watch out for supersize? Anyway, most stories include all three sizes in different places. Maybe start with some small suspense, I wonder what is really going on. Then add some mortal danger, and get to medium-sized suspense. And build to large-sized suspense, who is this masked man? And, you might have a supersize twist.
Next, Reynolds suggests you plan a roller coaster ride. Waves of suspense! Start slow, build to a peak, drop, build again, drop, and so forth. Give your readers a bit of a breather, some release, interim resolutions.
But where does suspense come from? Well, what is the obvious source? Plot. But sometimes suspense grows out of the characters, too. Their actions and reactions, their motivations. "So suspenseful elements in the plot generate suspenseful episodes that grow out of the characters' personalities." And how the characters respond or react drives forward the plot, generating new suspenseful episodes to which our characters must react." Even the place – setting – may contribute suspense. Earthquakes, bandits, weather, all of these things can add suspense.
And, you need to keep track of your pace. Your style of writing, the viewpoint, the words and the way you use them, all can build suspense. Long, slow passages turn into short, telegraphic bursts.
And the last page – well, the resolution of your story – is a key part of the suspense. Watch out for inadvertently leaving your reader hanging on the edge of a cliff, you do want to resolve events satisfactorily. Not necessarily everything. And you do want the end to come quickly after the climactic shock. A few loose ends is not a problem. Give us a satisfactory conclusion, logical, perfectly in keeping with everything that's gone before. Then don't blunt it.
"Most important, we finally found out what we've gotta know."
Stop.
Practice? Take that work in progress, and go over it, looking at the suspense. Do you have some questions that the reader has just gotta know about right from the start? Do they build, and get resolved, and build again? If you've got some sections where there's no suspense, add a dash. And make sure that when we get that resolution, we don't spend too long hanging around trying to tie up every little loose end. Mostly...
WRITE!
tink
Writer's Digest, March 1999, on pages 30-33 and page 52, have an article by William J. Reynolds with the title Keeping Them in Suspense. All about how to build a page turner.
Reynolds starts out by posing the challenge that you want your readers to say, "I've gotta know." That's the essence of suspense. And to keep them turning pages, you want suspense. Compelling characters, plausible plot, intriguing subplots, richly evoked settings, appealing writing… Yes, you want those too. But suspense is what gives fiction that kick.
Now, he suggests you start by setting up three different sizes of suspense, just like soft drinks: small, medium, and large. Watch out for supersize? Anyway, most stories include all three sizes in different places. Maybe start with some small suspense, I wonder what is really going on. Then add some mortal danger, and get to medium-sized suspense. And build to large-sized suspense, who is this masked man? And, you might have a supersize twist.
Next, Reynolds suggests you plan a roller coaster ride. Waves of suspense! Start slow, build to a peak, drop, build again, drop, and so forth. Give your readers a bit of a breather, some release, interim resolutions.
But where does suspense come from? Well, what is the obvious source? Plot. But sometimes suspense grows out of the characters, too. Their actions and reactions, their motivations. "So suspenseful elements in the plot generate suspenseful episodes that grow out of the characters' personalities." And how the characters respond or react drives forward the plot, generating new suspenseful episodes to which our characters must react." Even the place – setting – may contribute suspense. Earthquakes, bandits, weather, all of these things can add suspense.
And, you need to keep track of your pace. Your style of writing, the viewpoint, the words and the way you use them, all can build suspense. Long, slow passages turn into short, telegraphic bursts.
And the last page – well, the resolution of your story – is a key part of the suspense. Watch out for inadvertently leaving your reader hanging on the edge of a cliff, you do want to resolve events satisfactorily. Not necessarily everything. And you do want the end to come quickly after the climactic shock. A few loose ends is not a problem. Give us a satisfactory conclusion, logical, perfectly in keeping with everything that's gone before. Then don't blunt it.
"Most important, we finally found out what we've gotta know."
Stop.
Practice? Take that work in progress, and go over it, looking at the suspense. Do you have some questions that the reader has just gotta know about right from the start? Do they build, and get resolved, and build again? If you've got some sections where there's no suspense, add a dash. And make sure that when we get that resolution, we don't spend too long hanging around trying to tie up every little loose end. Mostly...
WRITE!
tink
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