3 Ways to Create More Suspense in Your Writing

Suspense is defined as an excitement that one feels while waiting to find out what has happened and what will happen next. The element of suspense arouses the curiosity of readers and keeps them engrossed in the story. Human beings by nature are eager to discover the hidden secrets of the unknown phenomenon existing around them. Suspense, thrill, mystery and adventure tempt the readers and maintain their interest in the novel or drama they read till end.

Suspense actually includes those factors that are the components of a melodrama. Thus it has its links with horror, mystery, terror and fear as well. All these elements go side by side in any piece of writing that can be termed as a melodrama.

Different writers use different tools to create suspense in their writings. It mostly depends on their imagination and how they express their thoughts as means of communication to their readers. In other words each writer has his own style of creating suspense depending upon the plot in his novel.

The first element of suspense in a story is created by introducing a mysterious plot that makes events complicated for the main characters. The story starts with excited events like murder, kidnapping, robbery, accident etc. They are trapped in a series of unexpected events that arouse a lot of question in the minds of the readers and to find answers to these questions they prefer reading the story in one sitting. The author gives a lot of twists and turns to the events developing the plot. Each time the readers are startled by the sudden and unexpected change of events and this prompts them to follow the author's trail of creating suspense. They are eager to know that how the problems would resolve and the different characters will reach their destination. In the story "Heat Lightning," by Robert.F. Carro, suspense is created in the same manner as the girl running away from the killer identified him only in the end. The readers anxiously read the story to find out who is the killer.

The second element is that of specifying the time factor. Most of the suspense stories are set in a specific time span expending to a night, fortnight, a period of vacation etc. It sets a limited time for the characters to attain their goals before it's too late. This is a vital tool used by the writers to create suspense. It is the same technique used to take the readers to the heights of thrill and adventure. It creates climax of the story.

The third element is the setting of the story. Create a dangerous environment that brings tension and worries for the main characters. They must be entangled by danger and fear of the enemy mostly a villain. Let them be isolated from others. There must be some dreadful encounter with the enemy. This arouses questions like, "what should the hero do to come out of a terrible situation?"

This is how we can develop even a simple plot into a unique one that indulges the readers in the story and maintains their interest.

Here is another article from me. Hope it 'll entertain and engross my readers.
Naheed Haq.

How to Create a Novel That Your Readers Won't Want to Put Down

There are five essential things you as an author must do if you want to create a novel that your reader won't want to put down: 1) create empathy with the main character and their quest; 2) captivate the reader with your tone of voice 3) engage the reader's emotions 4) keep questions open and 5) build up suspense.

First, though, you must remember that only a proportion of all fiction readers actually want a novel they can't put down. Some readers like a novel that has a gentle pace that can indeed be put down, to fit in with their lifestyle, and can then be taken up some time later and the story picked up again without the reader having to go back and remind themselves who certain characters are and how they relate to each other. This in itself is a skill to be admired. But here we are talking about the kind of novel which has its audience hooked from page one, in such a way that engagement with the story is absolute.

1) Empathy with the main character and his or her quest - a reader's attention will be lost unless strong feelings are aroused about the chief protagonist and the central question of the novel. Of course this varies through different genres; and the reader of hard-boiled crime fiction probably won't talk in terms of "feelings" at all, but nevertheless there will be a powerful urge to continue reading, to care about what happens and to want to know the answers to the questions the author poses.

2) Captivate the reader with your tone of voice - a captivating tone of voice comes from the narration and from the main viewpoint character - there are many errors to be made here; if a reader feels patronised, fed too much information, or antagonised by the voice of the novel, nothing can more swiftly guarantee that they will give up on the story.

3) Engage the reader's emotions - the reason why a reader cannot put a novel down is also a great deal to do with the emotional stakes - do we fear for the main character; do we hope for them; how strongly do we care about the outcome?

4) Keep questions open - posing questions and structuring the supply of answers - within classic story structure there must be one central over-arching question which is kept open throughout the course of the novel; and when that question is answered, the story is over. But beneath that question many others must be set, belonging to the sub-plots; and when answers are provided to these subsidiary questions, they must lead to others,and so on.

5) Build up Suspense - this involves the careful selection of information, and critical decisions about what can be revealed to the reader, when; and what has to be withheld until later. A writer must exercise skill, fine judgement and instinct in this. Another essential aspect of suspense has to do with viewpoint - what does each character know? It is vital that an author keeps strong control of this - and it is an area where mistakes can easily be made.

A truly unputdownable novel can make life rather difficult for a reader - you must have that open novel in your hand on the bus or train, whilst you are cooking, late at night in bed, even walking along the street... but making this happen can be great fun for a writer, and experiencing it is one of the greatest joys of being a keen reader of fiction. All readers can find ways of coping with it within their lifestyle - I certainly can!

S.C.Skillman

S.C.Skillman is the author of "Mystical Circles"- a psychological thriller. "Intense psychological drama in a beautiful setting." You can buy the book on Amazon and through the Kindle Bookstore, or visit the author's website to find out more, and click the secure payment gateway to buy a signed copy at http://www.scskillman.co.uk/.