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Ideas on how to create a little Suspense?
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Sarpedon
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I'll tell you tomorrow.
Just kidding!
make the readers know something is going to happen, but leave the characters ignorant. Its even better if the readers doesn't know what is going to happen, but are sure that SOMETHING is going to happen
Just kidding!
make the readers know something is going to happen, but leave the characters ignorant. Its even better if the readers doesn't know what is going to happen, but are sure that SOMETHING is going to happen
Give a midget a sledgehammer, then get another little guy to kick him in the shins and tell him he's a sh#thead. 
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What they said. :lol:
Insert a problem (a difficulty, puzzle or danger). The period between problem insertion and problem resolution is suspense; the auditory version of this is the first two notes of the Jaws theme, played sloooowly. Works best if you snowball it by introducing more problems for every one you solve. Don't forget to tie everything off, and don't forget that too much suspense will annoy the crap out of your readers; the auditory version of listening to the Jaws theme for an hour and finally screeching, "Oh, SHUT UP already!"
Insert a problem (a difficulty, puzzle or danger). The period between problem insertion and problem resolution is suspense; the auditory version of this is the first two notes of the Jaws theme, played sloooowly. Works best if you snowball it by introducing more problems for every one you solve. Don't forget to tie everything off, and don't forget that too much suspense will annoy the crap out of your readers; the auditory version of listening to the Jaws theme for an hour and finally screeching, "Oh, SHUT UP already!"
dpaterso
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A bowling ball, perched on a shelf above someone who's bent forward into a closet, angrily rummaging around for something they can't find.
A pigeon perched on a branch above a spotless black limousine.
A ticking bomb hidden under a café table, set to go off at noon, the clock on the café wall showing 3 minutes to 12, and the two diners, unaware, arguing politics. (That's a riff off Hitchcock.)
-Derek
Keep 'em guessing.
An analogy: You, the author, are playing a game of cards with the reader. In a real game, you'd never show your whole hand at once to your opponent. Each card which gets displayed or cast away is a clue to the puzzle of what you find important. A careful reader can use those clues to piece together what might be in your hand. Only at the end of the game do you reveal the truth.
Card = scene/plot point/event/etc.
An analogy: You, the author, are playing a game of cards with the reader. In a real game, you'd never show your whole hand at once to your opponent. Each card which gets displayed or cast away is a clue to the puzzle of what you find important. A careful reader can use those clues to piece together what might be in your hand. Only at the end of the game do you reveal the truth.
Card = scene/plot point/event/etc.
Don't just give them one obstacle to overcome. Everytime your character gets close, you need to move the goal posts.
cheers guys, I'll take all advice into consideration. It'll be a challenge experimenting - but that's all part of the fun in writing.
Also, make sure that the challenges faced by the MC are . . . well, challenging. Sometimes I find that my stories fall flat until I up the stakes a little bit. For example, there isn't just a knife in the hand of some stranger, there's a bloody machete in the hand of a raving lunatic.
Another way to handle this, of course, is to rip through the character's safety nets. Can you imagine what Jaws would've been like had the shark not been able to destroy the boat? Boring.
So, in summary, madmen with machetes and man-eating sharks. Surefire ways to build suspense.
Another way to handle this, of course, is to rip through the character's safety nets. Can you imagine what Jaws would've been like had the shark not been able to destroy the boat? Boring.
So, in summary, madmen with machetes and man-eating sharks. Surefire ways to build suspense.
What is suspense? Suspense is simply the holding back of information. That is, when a reader does not receive the information they want, they feel suspense.
Hope that helps.
Hope that helps.
However, the suspense will only be meaningful to the reader, if the information that is held back is meaningful, and does not make the read uncomfortable or awkward.
I have seen novels where the character's names are kept unknown for 20 pages, then the author suddenly reveals that it is "Annie". The author used a lot of phrases like "that woman", or "the woman we were talking about", or "she", until suddenly she suddenly uses "Annie says" and reveals her name. This suspense is lame, because 1) the information that is held back is unimportant and 2) people are not accustomed to referring to a person as "that woman", making the read awkward. The only exception I can think of is if a kind Jewish man rescues a drowning boy who turns out to be called Adolf Hitler. And even that is somewhat lame, IMO.
I have seen novels where the character's names are kept unknown for 20 pages, then the author suddenly reveals that it is "Annie". The author used a lot of phrases like "that woman", or "the woman we were talking about", or "she", until suddenly she suddenly uses "Annie says" and reveals her name. This suspense is lame, because 1) the information that is held back is unimportant and 2) people are not accustomed to referring to a person as "that woman", making the read awkward. The only exception I can think of is if a kind Jewish man rescues a drowning boy who turns out to be called Adolf Hitler. And even that is somewhat lame, IMO.
dpaterso
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I've seen that "unnamed character" item listed in The Standard Deviations of Writing by Roger MacBride Allen on the SFWA website (Resources > Craft of Writing). Although they're aimed primarily at Sci-Fi/Fantasy writers, the Standard Deviations article and the Turkey City Lexicon article (not to mention numerous others) may be illuminating to all aspiring writers.
Um... the above may find its way into a sticky thread someday. Carry on.
-Derek
Um... the above may find its way into a sticky thread someday. Carry on.
-Derek
Also make sure you end scenes and/or chapters with small cliffhangers... even if it's just leaving your protagonist with a decision to make.
Make the reader turn the pages
Willie
Make the reader turn the pages
Willie
You could do a lot worse than reading Ira Levin's "A Kiss Before Dying" ... it's got just about the best "reveal" ever put on paper....
Willie
Willie
Creating Suspense
I like to insert little teasers that make the reader think he knows exactly what will happen, then hit 'em with a plot twist that shows them they're wrong, or are they?
I like to insert little teasers that make the reader think he knows exactly what will happen, then hit 'em with a plot twist that shows them they're wrong, or are they?
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Technique-wise, regarding a cliffhanger, one way to show suspense is to end a chapter or scene with that cliffhanger, then switch to another scene involving other characters and/or a parallel situation. So when the reader reaches that cliffhanger, he turns the page to find himself now having to wait for that resolution while he reads about something else going on.
I suppose that technique can backfire, though. Sometimes when I'm readin a novel that does that, I "cheat" by skipping ahead to read the resolution to that cliffhanger. THEN, I'll go back and read the section I skipped.
It's still a good way to keep the reader wanting to turn pages.
allen
I suppose that technique can backfire, though. Sometimes when I'm readin a novel that does that, I "cheat" by skipping ahead to read the resolution to that cliffhanger. THEN, I'll go back and read the section I skipped.
It's still a good way to keep the reader wanting to turn pages.
allen
Surprise v. Suspense
What Derek has referred to in his first reply above, is a famous conversation between Alfred Hitchcock and French director François Truffaut. It began as an interview, and evolved into a discussion of the two genius' opinions on the art of cinematography in general. One of the items that the two disagreed upon was the value of surprise versus suspense. Truffaut believed solely in surprise, and Hitchcock, being the "master of suspense" of course disagreed. So Hitchcock posed a theoretical scene to prove his point.
If two men sit down at a table, and begin to have a conversation, this is a scene. If then, a bomb blows the two of them to pieces, this is a surprise. If, however, before the two sit down, we can see someone planting the bomb, and through the conversation, every word could be their last, this is pure suspense.
And much more exciting to boot. The key to suspense is to not hide information from the audience, but to keep it from the characters. Dramatic irony, if you will. The audience knows that the bomb will go off. They're just waiting for the "boom."
What Derek has referred to in his first reply above, is a famous conversation between Alfred Hitchcock and French director François Truffaut. It began as an interview, and evolved into a discussion of the two genius' opinions on the art of cinematography in general. One of the items that the two disagreed upon was the value of surprise versus suspense. Truffaut believed solely in surprise, and Hitchcock, being the "master of suspense" of course disagreed. So Hitchcock posed a theoretical scene to prove his point.
If two men sit down at a table, and begin to have a conversation, this is a scene. If then, a bomb blows the two of them to pieces, this is a surprise. If, however, before the two sit down, we can see someone planting the bomb, and through the conversation, every word could be their last, this is pure suspense.
And much more exciting to boot. The key to suspense is to not hide information from the audience, but to keep it from the characters. Dramatic irony, if you will. The audience knows that the bomb will go off. They're just waiting for the "boom."
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