9 Ways to Build Suspense
CLEAVED,  The life of a writer,  Writing tips,  Writing Tips

9 Ways To Build Suspense ~ Fiction Writing

9 Ways to Build SuspenseLast month, Staci Troilo wrote a fantastic post for Story Empire about four elements of a horror story. Which inspired this post. (UPDATE: This post inspired another Story Empire post. This time by Craig Boyack. Be sure to check it out!)

I don’t write horror. Many readers think I do. But I don’t consider my novels horror stories, even though I’ve been told on more than one occasion that I’ve given my readers nightmares. For some reason, I love hearing that, too.  Anyway…back to my point. Like the horror genre, mysteries and psychological thrillers, which I do write, need to have gripping suspense in order to keep our reader flipping pages. So let’s take a look at a few ways we can build suspense.

What Is Suspense?

Suspense arises from our readers’ anticipation of what’s about to occur. They worry, even fear, what will happen to the characters they love.

To build suspense, we need to raise our readers’ concern over how our POV characters’ plans can go array. Ever hear this comment when talking books with a friend? “Nothing really happened so I stopped reading.” I’ve put down numerous books for the same reason, and some by authors who are household names, authors who should know better. But that’s the thing about suspense. It’s not easy to hold our readers hostage for 300 pages. By employing the following techniques we have a better shot of grabbing them by the throat, then don’t let go.

“Show that something terrible is about to happen—then postpone the resolution to sustain the suspense.” ~ Writer’s Digest

Promises, Promises

Every book makes a promise to the reader. The difference between concept and premise is, something happens to the main POV characters that disrupts their lives. If you’re not familiar with the difference between concept and premise, there’s no one better to learn from than Larry Brooks. He has several posts on the subject, including this 3-minute workshop video.

Rather than asking yourself, “What should happen next?” Try: “What can I promise that’ll go wrong? Problems that will bring our characters to their knees.”

The central dramatic story question promises an intriguing quest.

By making promise after promise, we keep our readers engaged. Don’t tell the reader, of course. Instead, hint at the trouble to come; tease the reader into finding out. Do it right away, too. We need to establish our CDSQ on page one. If we can accomplish it in the first paragraph, all the better.

Every promise, no matter how minor, should either setup or pay off a future scene. Once a promise is paid, make another. The largest promises — like the central dramatic story question — should be paid off in the climax.

For an example of a CDSQ, let’s look at Wings of Mayhem.

After unknowingly stealing his trophy box, can Shawnee Daniels — forensic police hacker by day; cat burglar by night — stop the serial killer who’s destroying her life before he murders everyone she loves?

9 Ways to Build SuspenseIf your story drags, it’s often due to the lack of tension and/or suspense. In other words, you haven’t made your reader worry enough. How can we fix a dragging plot? By making bigger, more important, promises. Promises that will devastate our hero and secondary characters. Promises they might never recover from.

Don’t Give Away Too Much Too Soon

This is a story killer. Don’t explain what’s happening, or why. Trust the reader to figure it out on their own. I realize it’s not always easy. After all, we know what will happen next (at least we should), and we can hardly wait for the reader to find out.

Trust me on this. Keep it to yourself for as long as possible.

No info. dumps! Just because we know our characters’ backgrounds does not mean our readers need to know it. Share what’s relevant to the story, or enough about the POV characters so the reader can empathize with them. Sprinkle the information throughout the story rather than dumping it all at once.

Characters’ Goals

“To create powerful suspense, make your hero face her greatest fear – and risk losing the thing that matters most to her.” ~ Dan Brown

No matter how we try to build suspense, if our readers don’t care about our characters, we’re sunk. Contrary to belief, the reader doesn’t have to like our characters, but they do need to empathize with them. That’s the key word: empathy.

For three-dimensional characters, we need to know their backgrounds, flaws, world views, religious beliefs, causes they support/protest, fears, concerns, mannerisms, dialect, profession, childhood, history with other characters, how they look, how they act in difficult situations, how they dress, nervous tics, scars, tattoos, favorite music, food…I could go on and on. We don’t need to show all these things, but we do need to know our characters as well as ourselves in order to slip into their skin.

To build suspense the character must have goals that really matter to them. What does she want it, and why? What happens if she doesn’t get it? What’s standing in her way? A strong hero needs a strong opponent. If our character is more timid, then we better make sure she desperately needs to achieve her goal. If she doesn’t do X, then Y will happen. Y is bad. The reader doesn’t want Y to happen. Hence, they stiffen up and pay attention. Voila! You’ve just added suspense.

Violence, Where and When?

“A murder is not suspense. An abduction with the threat of a murder is.” ~ Brian Klems

I love this quote from Brian Klems, because it’s so true. The act of violence isn’t suspenseful. The snapping of twigs as our character stumbles through the darkened forest, knowing the killer could attack at any moment is suspenseful. Or the squeaky floorboard on the second floor when the character is home alone. The phone ringing in the middle of the night. A knock at the one door the character never uses. Footfalls gaining on the character when they’ve wandered off the hiking trail. Tires screeching around the corner, the headlights appearing in the rear view mirror seconds later. The click of a shotgun in the deadly quiet milieu. A single flame that shoots from the tip of a lighter in the dark. The possibilities are endless.

Sentence Rhythm

Our sentence rhythm should match the readers’ emotion. Many of us do this automatically. Ever notice when you’re writing a suspenseful scene how you’ll pound the keyboard? When you’re slowing the pace, your fingers glide over the keys. Same holds true for sentence rhythm. Fragmented, staccato sentences quicken the pace. Long, run-on sentences tend to slow it down. Like most things writing, though, there’s a caveat. You can use run-ons to increase suspense if you vary the sentences with shorter ones.

Example from MARRED:

Adrenaline masked my pain, and I sprinted from room to room, closed and secured all the windows and double-checked the locks on the front and back doors, bolted upstairs, and pressed my foot on the sliders’ security bar. Colt and Ruger watched me zip around the house, not knowing what was wrong. Ruger gave up and laid his head on crossed paws while Colt bounded over and stayed on my heels.

When I returned to the kitchen table, the phone rang again. My gaze locked on the handset, and I froze. Colt’s face ping-ponged between me and the phone. He put the pieces together in his mind, trotted over, and knocked the receiver off the cradle, gently clasped the handset in his lips and carried it to me. By using his training to aid me, he was trying to help, but at that moment, it was the last thing I wanted him to do.

I didn’t speak.

9 Ways to Build SuspenseMix staccato and fragmented sentences with longer sentences to create an overall effect of balance and maintain rhythm in your writing. Is every sentence in the scene the same length? The reader will fall asleep. Adjust the lengths: short/long/short, and so on.

Scene and Sequel Structure and Motivation-Reaction Units

I’ve discussed these subjects several times, so I won’t repeat the tips here. You can find a couple of the posts here: Importance of MRUs, Scene and Sequel in Action

Start Late, End Early 

Start each scene with a story question, intrigue, or conflict. Our goal is to arouse the curiosity of our reader. Keep them guessing. (Start late) If we make it easy on them, and answer all their questions at once, there’s no reason for them to keep reading.

We can’t wrap up our scene in a nice little bow, either. That’ll undo everything we’ve worked so hard to accomplish, to hook them in the first place. Rather, end on a note of uncertainty, or with a new challenge. (End early)

Scene Cuts or Jump Cuts

This is a cinematic technique that can work in any genre. Create a series of short, unresolved incidents that occur in rapid succession. Stop at a critical point and jump to a different scene, maybe at a different time and place, maybe with different characters.  For example, we could pick up a scene where we left off earlier. Or switch from protagonist to antagonist. Or from one tense scene to another. Rapid alternations keep the reader in a state of suspense.

Micro-Tension

Micro-tension is the moment-by-moment tension that keeps readers in suspense over what’ll happen in the next second. The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maas is a fantastic resource that discusses micro-tension. When the emotional friction between characters reaches a boiling point we build suspense. The characters don’t have to be enemies. Husband and wife. Tension between partners. Parent and child. There are several ways to use micro-tension to build suspense. An easy way is with dialogue.

In Unrelated News

I’m thrilled to report that CLEAVED, the sequel to MARRED, is done and at my publishers. Now I’m diving back into Blessed Mayhem, which only needs 20K words to complete the first draft. Then I have a 10K-word story to write for the second collection of dark tales, due Jan. 1st. The first in the trilogy is RUN (avail. in paperback and ebook), second is SCREAM, third is DIE. Don’t you love it? LOL Because of this hectic workload, I’ve had to pull away from SM. But I want you to know, I miss you! I really do. I miss reading your blogs, playing on Twitter and Facebook, laughing with you guys. Plus, I feel like I’ve let you down by not being around the blog as much. Once the new year rolls around, things will get back to normal. Till then, please know I cherish each and every one of you in this community. I’m still here; I’m just tucked inside my writer’s cave. Okay?

Also, I have a giveaway running on Goodreads. Ten lucky winners will receive a signed paperback of MARRED. Good luck!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Marred by Sue Coletta

Marred

by Sue Coletta

Giveaway ends December 18, 2016.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Sue Coletta is an award-winning crime writer and an active member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Feedspot and Expertido.org named her Murder Blog as “Best 100 Crime Blogs on the Net.” She also blogs on the Kill Zone (Writer's Digest "101 Best Websites for Writers"), Writers Helping Writers, and StoryEmpire. Sue lives with her husband in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. Her backlist includes psychological thrillers, the Mayhem Series (books 1-3) and Grafton County Series, and true crime/narrative nonfiction. Now, she exclusively writes eco-thrillers, Mayhem Series (books 4-8 and continuing). Sue's appeared on the Emmy award-winning true crime series, Storm of Suspicion, and three episodes of A Time to Kill on Investigation Discovery. When she's not writing, she loves spending time with her murder of crows, who live free but come when called by name. And nature feeds her soul.

16 Comments

  • Dean K Miller

    Hi Sue. As I prepare to rejoin my novel in January, this is a great resource to keep the tension high and the readers interested. Thanks!

  • Harmony Kent

    Thanks for such an informative post, Sue. I found your blog via Craig’s promised post on Story Empire. Both offer great tips on suspense writing. Oh, and I love your book covers 🙂

  • E. Michael Helms

    Another interesting and helpful post, Sue. Reading it stirs the old brain cells into remembering that these “little” things are so important leading up to the “big” thing–the story’s climax. Yep, we have to keep the tension and suspense going, like the dangling carrot, to keep our readers engaged. Bog down, our readers lose interest, and we’re finished. Thanks again!
    –Michael
    E. Michael Helms recently posted…Libraries would Love Sisters in Crime, if they only knew…My Profile

    • Sue Coletta

      I could’ve kept going with the little things, Michael. We have an endless supply of “tricks” (for lack of a better word), don’t we?

      I was thinking about your PI posts the other day. Would you be interested in guest posting about the research, or something crime-y regarding PIs? It seems to be one area this blog is lacking. If you’re interested, email me: sue@suecoletta.com and we can bat around ideas.

  • Mae Clair

    Wonderful post, Sue, and thanks for the nod to Staci and Story Empire. The suspense/thriller genre is my favorite to read and you really hit on what makes a book engaging. I’m reading one right now with a slooow beginning and I am so tempted to stop and move onto something else. I’m going to give it another chapter for the benefit of the doubt.

    I’m buried in the writing cave right now too, trying to wrap my own WIP before my end-of-the-month deadline, so these were great reminders about constructing the scenes and moving the plot forward. Today was filled with a lot of short cut scenes. Tomorrow will be picking up those threads.

    Sending you wishes for lots of prolific and inspired writing. I’m looking forward to all of your new releases. BTW, RUN is a fabulous collection of stories. I left a review last week on Amazon and Goodreads. What a talented group of authors. I’ll be looking forward to the next in that series, too!
    Mae Clair recently posted…You’re inviting WHO for dinner?My Profile

    • Sue Coletta

      Thank you, Mae, on all counts. I’m looking forward to reading your new release, too! Oh, thank you! I haven’t even checked the reviews for RUN yet (I know, awful, right?) We do have a great group of authors. It’s an honor to work alongside them for this trilogy. We all work so well with each other that I have a feeling we’ll do more in the future. Just a hunch. 😀

      Ugh! I hate a slow beginning. When I went to the Writers Police Academy I bought/won a total of six books and had them signed by the authors. One of the authors was so friendly and genuine (can’t say her name because of the following statement), which pushed her book to the top of my TBR list.

      On the flight home I started it, but it dragged on and on. At home, I tried a few more times, until around page eighty or so, and couldn’t get into it, even though it was beautifully written and the promise of what’s to come intrigued me. But I’d already promised to review. Now what, right? So, I gave my husband the book and told him to read it while filling me in along the way (he discusses every book he reads anyway). He has way more patience for slow beginnings than I do. Anyway, he ended up loving the book. So I guess that goes to show what one person feels is too slow, another might think is fine.

      I’m behind on my reviews, too. Love Macabre Sanctuary so far!

  • Staci Troilo

    Thanks for the shout out, Sue.

    This is a great post. I’m sharing it with my readers on social media. Valuable stuff.

    So glad to hear your progress on your work. I’ve been eagerly awaiting sequels!

  • C. S. Boyack

    Thanks for giving Story Empire a nod. I was thinking about writing some suspense tips into a post over there. I may still do it, because they are a little different. I only post there once per month, so I may hold it back one time. These are great tips and I’m glad you shared them. Looking forward to more Shawnee.

    • Sue Coletta

      There are so many ways to build suspense, I’m sure your post will compliment this one, Craig. When you do write it, I’ll link it here.

      Shawnee’s back screaming in my head. I’ll finish Blessed Mayhem by the holidays. 😀

  • Garry Rodgers

    Great suspenseful pointers, Sue. I certainly got my fill of suspense this week watching some horror show about an election. It had every element of suspense from worry and fear about what’s going to happen to knowing something awful is about to go down. Like, what possibly can go wrong next? 🙂

    Great to see that Cleaved is moving along. Looking forward to the cover – is Elle doing it?

    • Sue Coletta

      It certainly did, Garry. The entire nation is in suspense.

      Absolutely. I’d never want any other cover artist. Elle is the best, IMO. Got a great image in mind, too. Nice and creepy to match the story. 😉 Can’t wait!!!

  • Margot M Kinberg

    Delighted to know that Cleaved is that much closer to being available to us, Sue! Looking forward to it! Thanks for these ideas for building and keeping suspense. That can be really tricky at times, and it’s important to pace that suspense, so that you also have moments of ‘rest,’ so to speak. This is really helpful.

    • Sue Coletta

      Excellent addition, Margot. Thank you. Yes, if we keep up at break-neck speed, we could risk sending our reader into cardiac arrest. LOL Everything in moderation. Oh, and thank you! I’m so excited about CLEAVED. I can hardly wait to design the cover with the cover artist. Best part!!!

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