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Vivian Gilbert Zabel
Suspense in Writing
Mystery,
action/adventure, crime, and detective stories require components which
build, add, and/or continue the suspense needed to keep the reader's
attention.
The first place to build suspense needed in any writing is the first
few sentences. According to Bill Reynolds, The Writer, August 2005,
page 7, "A proper opening picks the reader up by his collar and throws
him into the story."
The art of suspense means giving the reader something to worry about.
In Latin suspendere means to hang, thus suspense, which avoids boredom
and losing readers. The reader is compelled to turn pages, the cure for
boredom.
Suspense (uncertainly, doubt, anxiety) is a must for all fiction. It
should start from the very beginning of a story or novel, should be
built into the premise and structure of any fiction writings.
According to The Writer, composition text books, and my own notes and
lesson plans, the essential elements for suspense are as follows:
1. State the story's plot as a question (not in the story itself), one
that can be answered yes or no in the pre-writing stage. Make a list of
all the possible reasons why the answer could be "no." Those "no"
answers become the focus of problems and obstacles - suspense.
2. Create a likable and competent - but flawed - protagonist.
(Protagonist = hero, good guy/gal) If the reader doesn't care about the
protagonist, then suspense is meaningless. The flaw or flaws will help
create needed suspense because the outcome of the struggle/conflict
will be in doubt.
3. Give the protagonist a powerful motivation. He/she must have strong
desires, needs, wants. The basic and powerful human needs and drives
are essential: Love, ambition, greed, survival are examples. Something
vitally important must be at stake, or readers can't believe the
protagonist would never abandon the quest.
4. Give your protagonist highly motivated antagonists (opponents,
villains). "All stories need strong villains. Suspense rests on the
possibility - even the likelihood - that the villain will defeat the
hero," William G. Tapply writes in The Writer, August 2005.
5. Keep raising the stakes and creating disasters. The formula for
building suspense is a bad start that gets worse. Suspense is about
problems and obstacles, disasters and failures, small triumphs and big
reversals. As Tapply says, "Never make things easy for your
protagonist."
6. Choose your story's point of view to maximize suspense. The
objective POV allows the attention of the reader to shift from
character to character. We, as readers, are allowed to interpret and
imagine, to wonder and worry. We are drawn into the story by the
changing of point of views from one character to another. The single
POV limits only to one character's experiences and thoughts. Anything
else is speculation, imagination, and worry.
7. Finally, wind up the ticking clock. Tapply's words express this
point best. Suspense depends on urgency. Build a zero hour into your
story's arc: Antagonists of all kinds - kidnappers, terrorists and
assassins, of course but also teachers and parents and editors, not to
mention tides and storms and seasons - create time pressures and
constraints. Your story's momentum might build gradually at first, but
soon it becomes a race against the clock, and it accelerates as it
rushes towards its fateful climax.
The result of the use of suspense in any story becomes a riveting story that the reader cannot put down until finished.
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About The Author
Vivian Gilbert Zabel taught English, composition, and creative writing for twenty-five years, honing her skills as she studied and taught. She is an author on Writers (http://www.Writing.Com/), and her portfolio is http://www.Writing.Com/authors/vzabel. Her books, Hidden Lies and Other Stories and Walking the Earth, can be found through Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com.
