Building suspense in YA Literary fiction

I think in literary fiction you're a little less likely to be pulled along by the need to know what happens next. Often you're more engaged with the voice of the protagonist than with the plot. (I think it's rarer for teenagers to fall in love with beautiful words - but it does happen!) So I think the suspense can be turned down a little bit. But not all the way down. Especially for YA, there is a lot of great YA literary fiction that is not at all "quiet."

I think foreshadowing can be effective at building suspense. Whether it's by direct statement or a more subtle sense of foreboding, I think little clues about what's coming up can add into the suspense.

If I could overgeneralize about the difference between more commercial/plotty fiction and more literary fiction, I think literary fiction is more likely to get deeply into a character's heart and mind, and, for example, the small actions that wound and heal a friendship - you care because you know the character, and you see yourself or people you care about in the character's actions. In more commercial fiction, the issues are ones we can relate to right away even when they're more broadly sketched out.

But I think in writing literary fiction that's readable and suspenseful, it's important to remember that thoughts and emotions come out in actions, not just in internal monologues. And it's a delicate balance to create scenes that aren't melodramatic but also aren't just interiorized.

When you read Ellen Klages's "The Green Glass Sea," she depicts so clearly how the friendship between Dewey and Suze goes on in fits and starts, breaking and reforming, and it's not melodramatic - you want to keep reading because it feels so real. Reading "Looking For Alaska," that's EXACTLY how it feels to care deeply about someone teetering on the brink of self-destruction. And what a really great litfic YA novel does is relate to the reader's feelings, validate those feelings, and ultimately bring some catharsis to those feelings. The character may not be able to triump over his problem, but he can find meaning in it, he can grow as a person, he can emerge with the strength to face his future - and again, this can't be completely interior; it has to be expressed in plot, even if the plot is quiet and subtle.

I'm not a literary person, but last year I read a blog that praised "The Thirteenth Tale" and the idea hooked me. The first few chapters were hard to get through, but once the story started I couldn't put it down. It's not YA, and nothing actually happens in the silly thing, but I was hooked anyway.

What got me was wanting to know the story the protag was telling. I cared about the people she was involved with. I needed to know the truth behind the mystery she was presenting. The narrator was drawn in, and her curiosity and need to know translated to me.

I think no mater what the genre of the book, if you can make the reader want to know what happens next you're golden. Create interesting questions for the reader, then slowly answer them. Let those answers provide more questions, and slip in surprises. Something slower paced doesn't have the advanatge of "distracting" the reader with action, so they'll have an easier time figuring out where things are going. But if you can keep them guessing, and not do what they expect, then they'll be hooked.

Danthia has a gem tucked inside this response. The reader has to care about the character. You build suspense when the reader gets inside the character's life and lives it.

I was going to say the same thing. For me, my character has become important (in some ways because is way too tied up in who I have been...sigh)

That said, I think you build suspense as you build your novel. If you have a "character driven" novel, as I've said I had in the past, I think you can look at and tinker with your plot, etc.

I think suspense can also be dependant upon your narrator. If you're doing 1st person, then you have to figure out if your narrator is reliable or not. In my case, he is not.

So, the fun for me has been in creating ways which this, at times clueless, teenage boy can give hints to the readers what's going to happen.

Just my .02

B

Dude, don't say "It doesn't need plot. It's literary." Don't think about it in those terms. Make it as deep and as suspenseful as humanly possible.

All stories, even the most literary, have plots - even if conflicts are internal and the storyline entirely character-led, if something is different at the end from the beginning then there is a plot.

Although it's aimed primarily at screenwriters, Robert McKee's book Story is one I found invaluable. Particularly relevant to this thread is the section describing three basic different types of plot - Archplot, Miniplot and Antiplot. None of these are inherently superior to the others, but it's fair to say that the further you deviate from a standard Archplot, the less commercial you are likely to be.

Archplot - what people generally think of as "a plot". Protagonist's goals are obstructed by forces external to him/herself (society, individual people, etc). Plot develops linearly (if there are flashbacks they are usually in order) to a (usually) closed ending.

Miniplot - character-led, with internal conflicts. Endings are often left open.

Antiplot - deliberate violations of causality or "reality", non-linearity etc

There's also Multiplot, which is several plots interlinked (which can be Arch or Mini, less often Anti), which are usually linked by theme, location etc - ensemble pieces in short, rather than stories with just one or two protagonists.

One suspense element true to the life of YA is peer pressure; especially if the pressure is to break the law, hurt another persons feelings, pester an older or handicapped person. These events can arise rapidly and the teens response frequently is to go along with the activity. Regret, confusion, self doubt, etc all well after the fact.

Smiles
Bob