The Advantages of Using Suspense


We’ve looked at suspense and how to create it in past articles; however, in this article we’ll look at why writers should take advantage of this useful tool and seek to use it at every available opportunity.

Writers understand what suspense and atmosphere is, but very few understand the significance of this literary device, which is why many self-published novels have zero atmosphere or suspense. Writers sometimes don’t pay enough attention to these elements and the result can be an awful, lacklustre read.

Why use suspense?

Readers rely on and interpret descriptive stimulus to help them understand the nature of what they’re reading. They need to feel empathy with your characters, to feel close to the anticipation or expectation within the story, to feel fear, concern or other emotions. They want to feel impending danger, become embroiled in action. They want to feel the escalating tension until right to the end. In simple terms, readers love drama.

We often associate suspense with atmosphere, but they’re not the same. They work well together, but atmosphere is the state which is created by the mood and tone of the work.

Creating suspense is about building anticipation, and depending on the scene, how much the writer reveals to the reader, to keep them guessing what will happen next. It’s otherwise known as dramatic tension - the sense of impending or implied danger. Suspense relies on the elements of uncertainty and tension, and on occasion, misdirection, whereby the writer deliberately wrong foot’s the reader in order to create suspense.

Why is suspense so important?

No matter what the genre, every story requires suspense, and that’s because readers love the expectation of guessing what will happen next. Uncertainty creates trepidation, unease, tension and a certain amount of anticipation about what will happen next in the story, or what might happen to the protagonist. It’s this premise that is vital to telling a good story, and there are plenty of writers who have no idea what suspense is or how vital it is to telling a story.

We use suspense to turn the ordinary into something completely different – whether that’s something foreboding, menacing or just edge of the seat action; suspense is like an electrical charge that runs through the story; it creates a buzz at certain intervals for the reader, to keep them interested.

Without any dramatic tension, a story will be flat and uninspiring and will fail to engage the reader on a deep enough level for them to care much about the story. Take this example, where there is very little suspense:

Her bedroom opened ajar to the shadows in the hallway, but Kate remained in slumber, despite the room growing cold. 

The door wavered. The shadow in the corridor lurched. A silence descended and the darkness filled the stairs and hallway as though shrouding something from view. The bedroom swung wide open. 

The scene lacks any sense of anticipation, emotion, menace or foreboding, and so the reader won’t care much what the character does, but more importantly, they won’t care what happens to the character. They won’t care if the hero is in imminent danger if you don’t give them any suspense.

Now compare the same scene, but with suspense added:-

Her bedroom door opened ajar to the shadows in the hallway; they sucked out the warmth and left a slicing chill, but Kate remained in slumber, despite the room growing cold. A teasing stream of vapour coiled into the air as she breathed.

The door wavered as though a soft breeze had swept past. The shadow in the corridor lurched, grew black. 

A stilted, oppressive silence descended like a clammy mist and clung to the cold air. The darkness brooded; it grew thick with each minute and filled the stairs and hallway as though shrouding something from view. The bedroom door silently swung wide open. Like an invitation…

This example shows suspense; it creates dramatic tension, a sense of menace, leaving the reader to guess what might happen next – is it something bad, something evil? What lurks in the dark? What might happen to Kate? The choice of certain descriptive words, together with the structured sentences and the perception of the slowing of time all help create suspense.

The good thing about suspense is that it isn’t there just to try to lead the reader into something terrible. It also works even if nothing bad actually happens in the scene, but instead there is the feeling of something bad might happen. This is what gives many scenes suspense - the sensation that something bad or unfortunate could happen.

If you use suspense at the right moment, i.e. the important or key scenes, it will heighten the anticipation within the narrative. You will also find that it creates plenty of atmosphere.

In fiction, you have to engage the writer at every available opportunity. And by creating suspense, you will engage with the reader, which means they will care about your characters and what they do next.

The advantages of using suspense:

  • It creates anticipation and/or expectation.
  • It keeps readers guessing.
  • It creates uncertainty.
  • It can wrong-foot them.
  • It creates dramatic tension.
  • It engages the reader, makes them care.
  • It heightens the feel of important scenes.
Suspense is so easy to overlook when eagerly writing your novel or short story, but it’s such an essential ingredient to a satisfying, good read. Make time for suspense, keep your readers on the edge of their seat, keep them guessing, engage them, give them chills. It’s what they love, and they’ll come back for more. More importantly, it will make your work stand out; it will make it that much better.

Next week: How to create backstory.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chapter & Novel Lengths

Just how long should a chapter be? What’s the best length? And does a novel have to fit into a set amount of words? These are just two of the most common questions asked by writers.   They assume they have to work to a strict template of X amount of words and X amount of chapters, usually because most novels have around 30 or 40 chapters and around 80,000 words.   Novel Lengths Firstly, let’s dispel a few myths - novel lengths are dictated by the story itself, not the writer or the editor or a specific written formula.   Secondly, writers don’t have to fit their word count into generic set amounts.   Again, the story will dictate how long the novel will be. It’s also worth knowing the different types of novels that work well with different word counts.   Uncomplicated stories containing minimal characters tend to be short – usually around 20,000 to 60,000 words.   These are called novellas. Longer, more complex stories, which contain a handful o...
Read more

What Makes a Story Dark?

If you’re a horror writer or you love to write dark, psychological stories and thrillers, or moralistic tales, this is the one question that needs an answer. Wanting a dark story and writing one are two different things, so how do you actually make a story dark? To answer that you first have to understand what is meant by ‘dark’. We usually define ‘dark’ as quantifiable elements that we know and are familiar with, but it’s more than that. Dark doesn’t necessarily mean scary or gory with a crazy psychopath going around chopping people into bits. Instead we have to think of ‘dark ‘as anything outside our accepted rose-tinted reality. Dark is the underbelly of our society; it’s the handling of ideas, themes, social issues and behaviours that would be seen as morally unacceptable. It’s less about fictional monsters but more about the real monsters that lurk in the shadows, something that is underscored by our fears and anxieties. It’s the unknown, because the things we don’t know ...
Read more

Modifiers, Intensifiers and Qualifiers - Part 2

Unlike modifiers, which modify words or phrases, an Intensifier is a term for a modifier that amplifies the meaning of the word it modifies. An intensifier is used exclusively to modify adverbs and adjectives and is placed  before the word it is meant to modify.  In simple terms, the intensifier emphasises adverbs and adjectives - it makes them more intense . The word is derived from Latin, meaning to “intend or stretch”. In grammatical terms, the intensifier lends no weight to the meaning of a sentence other than to give it an additional emotional nuance to the word it is modifying, however, since they modify adverbs and adjectives, they should be treated in the same way adverbs adjectives – used little and sparingly wherever possible within your writing. This is where learning to spot them will benefit your quality of writing. Intensifiers are attributive and serve only to fill space, so unless there is a valid reason to intensify the meaning and emotion ...
Read more