Up the Ante to Build Suspense

By Debby Giusti

No matter the genre, suspense is what keeps the reader turning the page. According to Webster’s Dictionary, suspense is mental uncertainty, anxiety or a pleasant excitement as to a decision or outcome. Whether you’re writing sweet romance, historicals, paranormals, thrillers or mysteries, that excitement about the story and uncertainty about the characters achieving their goals is important. Readers need to be anxious about the outcome and doubtful the happily ever after can be reached. Keep them guessing and you’ll keep them reading.

Let’s look at some ways to up the ante. Since I write suspense, my main focus will revolve around that genre, but the tips and techniques are applicable to other genres as well.

Start with a hook. Take the protagonist from his everyday world and shove him—perhaps unwillingly—into an adventure from which he can’t turn back. Throw in multiple escalating problems and watch him suffer.

Need another way to look at it? Think ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Then complicate the situation and make it worse. Nothing should be easy. When one hurdle is cleared the next looms twice as high. As the race continues toward the ending, obstacles increase in difficulty, the pace becomes more intense and, especially at the black moment, a happy resolution seems impossible to achieve.

Keep the opening fast paced. Add a ticking clock or time limits.

Sprinkle in red herrings that distract the reader and keep her guessing.

Camouflage a clue by placing it in a list of insignificant information or insert the clue when the reader is distracted.

Create false alarms. The heroine comes home and suspects something’s amiss in her apartment. She opens closet doors, one after another, expecting the unexpected but finds nothing. Shaking off her jittery nerves and laughing at her foolish fears, she steps into her kitchen and finds a dead body. The reader remains tense as the heroine searches. When the character relaxes, the reader does as well. Both reader and character are caught off guard when the body is found.

Play on universal fears. Remember Indiana Jones’ fear of snakes? Tap into our common dislike of insects and vermin like roaches and rats. Inanimate phobias work as well, such as fear of fire or heights. Weather can be a factor. Everyone understands the seriousness of a lightening strike, the danger of an approaching storm, a tornado, a tidal wave or tsunami. Frigid cold or scorching heat can up the tension as well.

In Harlan Coben’s blockbuster, TELL NO ONE, the hero wanted to share a secret with his wife, but she was killed first. Coben keeps the reader waiting until the end of the book to reveal the secret around which the entire story revolves. (Remember the longer the reader waits for a secret to be revealed, the more important that secret needs to be. )

Each scene should end with a hook. End chapters with a cliffhanger or plot turning point. Start the next chapter in another character’s point of view, and the reader will race through the pages to get back to the character out on the cliff.

Give the reader enough information to anticipate the danger. Think about a rather boring scene with two women talking at an outdoor café table. Ho-hum. Now place a villain in the shadows with a gun pointed at one of the women and the dynamic changes, the suspense escalates and you have the reader’s undivided attention.

Remember to create a compelling villain or antagonist. Give him reasons to act the way he does. Don't forget to add a humane dimension to round out his personality.

Isolate your characters--physically, socially or politically--as danger mounts. The heroine ends up alone in the isolated mountain cabin. The hero loses friends when he blows the whistle on the company where he’s worked for a decade. The CIA agent is falsely identified as a spy and must prove his innocence as he runs for his life.

Distract the reader during an information dump. I used this technique in KILLER HEADLINE, to be released Feb 2010. My hero adds logs and stokes a fire while important information is added piecemeal in his introspection. Hopefully, as the fire sputters and cracks and sparks light the night, the reader focuses on the fire instead of the information.

Handicap the hero. Give him a physical problem such as a limp or a broken leg, or take away his cell phone, have his gun jam or his car breakdown on a deserted road far from town.

Ensure the heroine has a justifiable reason for getting herself into trouble, such as chasing her runaway dog into the dark woods or the condemned building. When trouble follows, take away every opportunity for her to call for help. (Cell phones can be a problem. Did the heroine forget hers at home? Did she fail to charge the battery or is she out of range?)

Shorten your sentences and chapters as the suspense heightens. In the fight-for-your-life scenes, keep the writing tight and focused. Cut description.

Draw out the climax. James Patterson often has a pre-climax just before the big bang ending. The reader is lulled into thinking the problem is resolved and the bad guy has been captured, then the real villain appears.

Build tension, increase the suspense and up the ante to keep readers—whether contest judges, editors or critique partners--turning the pages and eager to read more.

Happy writing!
Wishing you abundant blessings,
Debby Giusti
http://www.debbygiusti.com/
http://www.ladiesofsuspense.blogspot.com/
I’m giving away a copy of PROTECTING HER CHILD, the second book in my Magnolia Medical series on sale May 12th. Leave a comment and your email address to be included in the drawing.

PROTECTING HER CHILD

by

Debby Giusti

“WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BABY?”
Wealthy heiress Eve Townsend is close to death. But before she dies, she has to know: what happened to the daughter she gave up for adoption twenty-four years before? Did she inherit her mother’s life-threatening disease? Medical researcher Pete Worth is ready to find answers by tracking her down. And when he finally locates Meredith Lassiter, he finds her widowed, pregnant and on the run. The loan sharks who killed her husband want her dead…and Pete is the only one standing in their way.