O.C. Writers

By Andrea Lewis // 

Ask any avid reader what keeps them reading and finishing a book, and the answer is invariably suspense. Whether mystery, horror, romance, comedy, or memoir (yes, even memoir!), suspense is omnipresent. It is up to the writer to use various forms of it to keep his or her readers engaged from the first page to the very last.

Almost synonymous with entertainment, the suspense keeps us watching a movie or a show, turning the pages of a book, or scrolling through social media looking for excitement. When we don’t find excitement, we put the book down, switch the channel, or leave Facebook for Instagram…

Within the writing life, things are not much different. Since readers want suspense, everyone requires it from writers—agents, publishers, other writers. We are all in that circle, without knowing who requested it first.

Without exhausting the topic in its entirety, here is an overview of suspense, how it is used, and how writers can use it to feed readers’ hunger for excitement.

 Understanding Suspense

Researching this topic, I found that writers and theorists differentiate suspense from mystery, starting from their definitions.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, suspense is “the feeling of excitement or nervousness that you have when waiting for something to happen and are uncertain about what it is going to be.” While mystery is an event, “something strange or not known that has not yet been explained.”

Simon Wood, in his WritersDigest.com article “9 Tricks to Writing Suspense Fiction,” talks about the two being “family,” yet different due to a key element: perspective. Although “both […] deal with a crisis event to hook the reader and keep the story going, the storytelling approach is different. Suspense creates drama before the crisis event, while in a mystery, first comes the drama, then the chase to find the killer or reason.”

LiteraryDevices.net defines suspense as a “literary device that authors use to keep their readers’ interest alive throughout the work. It is a feeling of anticipation that something risky or dangerous is about to happen.”

Therefore, suspense is both a feeling and a literary device. Writers use this device to induce a feeling in their readers, with the ultimate goal of keeping their interest alive till the end of the book.

Types of Suspense

Writers of Reedsy.com, in “Writing 101: How to Create Suspense in 5 Exciting Steps,” hold human curiosity as the key element on which authors count when they enhance the tension and increase the uncertainty on what will happen next in a story, feeding that curiosity “either during a single scene, chapter or throughout its overall arc.” Which brings us to a discussion on story structure.

1. By Story Structure (according to writers at Reedsy.com):

Depending on when or where suspense occurs in a story, it can be narrative or short-term. “Narrative suspense […] is the tension that builds throughout the story.” It starts as a question, problem, or mystery placed at the beginning of the book, adds bits as the plot progresses, and wraps it up near the climax. “Well-written narrative makes it impossible for the readers to put it down,” however, the payoff should have the book culminate in a plot twist or a big reveal. For example, in To Kill a Mockingbird, writers of Reedsy.com identify two arcs of narrative: one is the question of what will happen to Tom Robinson, the other is the suspense around the mysterious Boo Radley. Both arcs start near the beginning of the book, run in parallel though intersecting at times during the story, and collide at the end, when Boo saves the kids from Bob Ewell after the Robinson trial.

Short-term suspense keeps the readers engaged and intrigued minute to minute. It consists of “a moment or a brief scene that provokes a powerful reaction from the reader.” It may combine into the long-term narrative of the book, or it can act as a distraction. For example, the mad dog scene in To Kill a Mockingbird appears as a distraction, yet it ties into the main theme on many levels.

2. By Genres That Rely on Suspense (according to an analysis by the writers at Reedsy.com.)

Depending on the genres, suspense can be any of the following:

Mysterious – used in thrillers and mystery novels, both in short-term, but more across the entire narrative. For example, in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Jane observes a pattern of strange occurrences at Thornfield Hall that at first are dismissed by Mr. Rochester as erratic behaviors of servants, only to unveil themselves at a key point, determining the flow of events from there on: the man that steps forward at the wedding ceremony reveals that Mr. Rochester is already married and his wife is locked in the attic.

Horrific – the reader knows that something awful is going to happen, but the precise nature is unclear. This type is most common in horror and thriller novels, and typically used as short-term suspense. It counts more on shock, rather than satisfaction. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie weaves mysterious and horrific suspense throughout the story, having the reader question “whodunnit?” (mystery) and “will they do it again?” (horror).

Romantic / comedic suspense – may occur when the reader doesn’t know what will happen. It is a lighter form of tension and suspense. The questions that will reign in the reader’s mind: “will they get together?” (romantic). Comedic suspense is at the heart of farce. A form of it is dramatic irony, where the reader knows something that not all the characters know and is waiting to see what will happen. An example is Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, in which Viola, disguised as a young man, carries love letters to Olivia, on behalf of the Duke. Olivia falls for the young man (the disguised Viola), while Viola falls for the Duke.

After understanding suspense and its uses in writing, here are some techniques that may help writers keep their readers hungry for answers throughout a book.

Techniques That Create Suspense

Make promises as early in the book as possible and hold them as long as you can, advises Christopher Mart, on WritingCooperative.com in “Writing 101: How to Create Suspense”. The goal is to grab the reader’s attention at the beginning and keep them wondering till the end of the story.

In his list of “41 Ways to Create Suspense,” Ian Irvine also talks about making promises to the readers, urging writers to ask themselves: “what can I promise will go wrong?” Here are his suggestions:

• Make promises frequently and pay them off before the end.
• The bigger the promise, the greater the payoff you have to provide; the biggest promise to be paid off in the climax.
• Failure to keep the promises will result in disappointment from the readers.

Start with urgency, discomfort: This technique runs hand in hand with the old advice to start a story strongly, in the middle of action, forcing the reader to ask what led to that point, and continue reading. However, the same should apply to chapters and scenes, suggests Christopher Mart in his Writingcooperative.com articles.

Use parallel plotlines: The two narrative arcs in To Kill a Mockingbird seem to be independent of each other, only to collide toward the end.

Use cliffhangers: A good application of short-term suspense, as suggested by the writers at Reedsy.com, is the use of cliffhangers: “the climax of tension. It can be an answer to a question, a twist, a revelation of a character,” as Christopher Mart of WritingCooperative.com describes them. In 1001 Nights, Scheherezade interrupts her stories at a point that leaves the Sultan wondering what will happen next. The technique keeps the Sultan’s and reader’s curiosity at its height, and Scheherezade—alive.

Withholding information: This is another technique that Mart mentions. It can be used anywhere in a chapter. For instance, a reaction that a character displays when he or she finds something. The writer will show the reaction but not the item itself. The reader will want to find out what item caused the respective reaction of the character.

Foreshadowing important elements: This is closely related to the technique above. The writers at Reedsy.com suggest “indicating something important, even if the reader doesn’t know why.” “Presenting a significant object or character that returns later in the plot, or unusually vague or cryptic turns of phrase” are a few ways to accomplish foreshadowing.

Flashbacks: These also add moments of suspense. “Whether isolated, showing something shocking, or a series of them that reveal one bit at a time building up to the final one, flashbacks need to mean something to the story,” according to the writers of Reedsy.com. They should be just as vivid as the present-day narrative without distracting the reader. Flashbacks work in tandem with secrets in the characters’ lives. Secrets can be revealed at once or in small doses through flashbacks. These revelations will explain something about the present of the characters.

Plant clues: In a January 29, 2014, interview with Katie Aberbach in The Washington Post, Isabel Allende talks about one of the challenges she faced while writing Ripper—keeping suspense: “You have to plant clues, but you also have to plant red herrings.”

I reached out to Casey Dorman, author of I, Carlos and Ezekiel’s Brain, and asked about his techniques for creating suspense: “The key to building suspense is to get the reader involved. That usually means tantalizing him or her with tidbits of information, false leads, ignored clues, etc. The more work the reader does to solve the crime, the more he or she will become involved with the story. That usually means you, the author, need to stop yourself from revealing too much too soon.”

Jeopardy: This is the “ultimate recipe for sudden suspense […] and only works if you’ve gotten readers to really care about your characters,” advise the writers at Reedsy.com. Chris Mart at WritingCooperative.com connects the use of danger to the use of short pulses—reminders of the impending danger. Simon Wood at WritersDigest.com suggests complicating things as much as possible for the protagonist, piling up with more than he or she can handle, which ties in with his advice to apply pressure on the protagonist who “should be functioning under insurmountable odds, using all his or her skills and strengths to the breaking point in order to save the day.”

Great villain versus a great hero: Wood emphasizes the importance of having opponents of equal strength. If in a mystery the bad guy is not revealed until very close to the end of the book, in a suspense novel, he or she is visible and known. This gives the reader the opportunity to explore the villain’s character, motivation, understand his or her reasons, and believe in and fear this person. Moreover, the villain has to be worthy of the good hero. As with the villain, the “reader has to believe in, but also care about [the hero]. When the hero is in danger, the writer needs for the reader to hope that the person will pull through,” Wood writes.

Create dilemmas: Putting the hero into a lose-lose situation, having to choose between saving one person but leaving another to die, gives the protagonist a believable persona. “While the villain will cross lines without remorse, the protagonist cannot, thus the dilemma,” according to Wood.

Be unpredictable: Forces of nature, friends, neighbors, the barista at the corner coffee shop–anyone and anything is a good candidate to add to the list of problems the protagonist is already facing, according to Wood.

Use time constraints: “The protagonist should be working against the clock, which should be working for the bad guys,” advises Wood. Time constraints are a trademark of action, but they can easily work in any genres, even in memoirs. Deadlines and important dates are only a couple examples.

Keep the stakes high: Wood encourages writers to make their stories about a “crisis that is devastating to the protagonist’s world, and the hero must be willing to do anything to prevent it from occurring.” Ian Irvine emphasizes that the “disasters are ones that the reader can identify with.” They have to be “emotionally wrenching,” writes Irvine so, as Wood advises, the “readers will empathize with the protagonist.”

Researching this subject occasioned a revelation for me. As a memoir writer, I tell stories from my life, without thinking much about excitement or techniques of creating suspense. However, reading about suspense as a writer’s tool helped me understand that even the bland events in my life may seem suspenseful to others. Also, how I present my events can build suspense. Moreover, the tools and techniques that I have listed above, gathered from various sources, seem to work quite well for my writing as well. It is comforting to find that there is hope for my work!

QUESTION: How do you create suspense in your stories?

 

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ANDREA LEWIS lives and writes in Huntington Beach. She was born in Romania and moved to the United States at the age of 34, after meeting and marrying her husband. She writes memoir and personal essays, with a recent attempt at freeform poetry. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times.