Young Writers Society

Does anyone have any tips for creating suspense in a story..?

First, make sure that the danger seems to be everywhere. This can be hard to accomplish, but if it's at sea, add sharks. In space, add warring aliens. In Washington DC, add lobbyists. Of course, if you're talking about how the character has only to open a door, then the danger element should be skipped.

Second, put in a timer. This is the most important element for creating suspense; that is, make sure the character has only a finite amount of time to accomplish a task. Usually set the timer to something like five minutes. "Kelly knew she had only five minutes before the time bomb, implanted by the rabid doctor from Bukina Faso, went off in her gall bladder."

Third, draw it out. Describe everything, from the beads of sweat to the armpit stains. Make sure your character is sweating and that your reader is vividly aware of it.

Fourth, use action verbs. Instead of saying something like "The bike looked like it was about to fall," say "The book was wobbly."

Fifth, avoid the passive tense. This can be very hard to do, but the suspunse element will be greater if you say "is" instead of "was" and "are" instead of "were."

Hope that helps

Yeah, the most I can think of is to make the reader think that there is danger everywhere and there is nowhere to go. Try to keep the glued to their seat by adding really slow movement and describing what is happening as much as you can.

*nods in agreement*

Also, make sure it's a CREDIBLE reason for suspense. If it's a really corny reason, the reader might lose interest in the book, or worse, the author. Make sure to draw the situation out, as everyone has said, but don't draw it out so far that the reader ends up skipping pages just to reach the conclusion.

Yeah, like a lot of books movies do. They just put stupid reasons that something is happening and it gets boring.

In movies like that I just sit there saying stuff like "Oh, so she's going to kill him now. Like we didn't all see that coming" or "Come on! It's not scary!"

Ahem

I can really only say what the others have said, other than this. Make the reader aware of the danger/s and give them a really big shock with them too. You could have a scene, where something strange, but not completely out of the ordinary happens to the main charcter, then follow it up with a scene for the badies pov, saying s/he was causeing the thing to happen. The next time that thing happens, the character still thinks it's something slightly weird, but the reader knows the badie is nearby, possibly ready to attack or something, so you draw it out to keep them wanting to see if the badie kills them... hey presto! Suspence!

Nate,

I don't think "The bike was wobbly" is an active verb; isn't it stative? The sentence is telling, not showing. Perhaps "The bike wobbled as if in distress" would be more appropriate?

I hate to pick up the Eternal Master but yeah, could someone clear this up?

Gahks

I find making some sentences more terse can help; not too much, just in the exceptionally climactic moments. Purposeful repetition is also good, like "carefully... oh so carefully...". These just are some of the things I've noticed in Poe's work, and he's the master of suspense.

Gahks wrote:Nate,

I don't think "The bike was wobbly" is an active verb; isn't it stative? The sentence is telling, not showing. Perhaps "The bike wobbled as if in distress" would be more appropriate?

I hate to pick up the Eternal Master but yeah, could someone clear this up?

Gahks

Give him a break. It was four years ago.

*laughs*

Never mind.

Stein on Writing by Sol Stein has the best advice for creating suspense I've ever read. Check it out, and here are some tips to get you started.

1) Write in third-person multiple point of view. That way you can switch points of view and annoy the readers by not telling them everything.

2) End each chapter with some sort of cliffhanger. And I don't mean something that's like, "Aaaaugh! A random gorilla's going to fall on my head!!" (End chapter one. Chapter Two.) "Oh wait, he's going away. Never mind." Make them credible cliffhangers.

3) Never take the readers where they want to go. Your goal is to fake them out and frustrate them as much as possible.

Yeah. You should read Stein on Writing. Everyone should. Good luck!

Cheers,
Shafter

An author that is really good at ending each chapter in a cliffhanger is Christopher Wooding, notably in his The Braided Path Trilogy. Of course, he has to make every chapter really really long to get this effect and sometimes all the description he uses can get a little boring, but by the end of the chapter you are always glad you kept with it.

I have to add this: don't use too many cliffhangers. Us readers need a break once in a while!

Anyways, I'll echo the repetition thing. That really works. The whole: 'I don't know what I'm doing, what I need, what I want.' Haha, lame sentence, but when you can come up with a good one, it's wonderful.

And describe a lot (but not so much we forget what's happening.) Don't describe the rug unless it's stained with blood. You need to build an atmosphere, not bore us. Once the action begins, you have the atmosphere, setting, and characters set, and you can focus on the action, using short, choppy sentences.

~JFW1415