Here are some tips to help you create suspense in your own writing.
- Suspense in the book. Add your characters.
We care more about the suspense in a story when it affects characters we love. Suspense is created by the characters’ reactions. Are they afraid of something? What is personally at stake for your main characters? What bad things could happen to them because of this situation? Develop the characters’ discomfort and fear to increase the tension, because the characters are the avatars of the audience.
- Create good villains.
Good villains in literature and film are characters who stand out for their distinctive traits, motivations, and actions. Although they may be evil or immoral, they often turn out to be complex and fascinating as well.
- The stakes should increase throughout the story.
Raising the stakes throughout the story is an important element of creating a compelling plot. To maintain the reader’s or viewer’s interest, it is necessary for the tension and anticipation to increase as the plot develops. Characters may find themselves in increasingly dangerous situations where their lives, safety, or even their sanity is at stake.
As the plot progresses, new mysteries and secrets can be revealed, creating interest and stimulating the desire to find out what happens next.
The main characters may face increasingly complex and serious conflicts that require them to make difficult decisions and overcome new obstacles. Relationships between characters may become increasingly tense and conflictual, creating additional difficulties for their development and the resolution of plot tasks.
Plot twists and developments should lead to a steady increase in stakes so that the reader or viewer constantly feels tension and a desire to find out how the story will end.
Raising the stakes throughout the story helps maintain the reader’s or viewer’s interest and makes reading or viewing more exciting and engaging.
- Tension in the book. Give small moments of respite and reflection.
There are two compelling reasons to relieve tension with quiet moments. First, if your story is pure tension without breaks, your readers may become numb to it. To maintain tension, give breaks. The second reason is that it gives your characters a chance to reflect on what is happening and what might happen if they don’t solve the problem. This will allow the tension to linger within your audience as they wonder what might happen next in these small windows of silence.
- Ask the reader questions.
Don’t serve tension to readers on a silver platter. Leave some mystery! Let them wonder what’s going on, how it will end, and how the characters will react. Anticipation often creates tension. Unknown evil creates tension. Most often, real stress is hidden in mystery.
- Tension in the book. Strong external conflict.
Strong external conflict in a story can greatly increase tension and reader interest. External conflict is usually a confrontation between the main character and external forces or obstacles that threaten their goals.
- But don’t forget about internal conflict.
Internal conflict is also important! What is your character struggling with internally? How does this internal conflict affect the external conflict? The character will have to deal with their internal issues in order to face the external conflict and emerge victorious.
- Suspense in the book. Use foreshadowing.
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which the author hints at future events or plot developments. It can create suspense and anticipation in the reader, as well as heighten the intrigue. Here is an example of how a foreshadowing can be used to intensify external conflict:
A dark cloud approached the horizon, driven by a strong wind. The first raindrops fell to the ground, making a quiet whispering sound. In the distance, the rumble of thunder heralded a storm that came not only to change the landscape, but also to test everyone who dared to stand in the way of the main character. The gray skyscraper was like a mirror of the hero’s inner anxiety, who felt that his life was about to be turned upside down.
In this example, the atmosphere of stormy weather and the foreshadowing of a thunderstorm symbolize the impending external conflict that the main character will soon face. This technique creates tension and intrigue, making the reader wonder what will happen next and how the hero will overcome the obstacles.
- Pay attention to pacing.
Pace is the rhythm of your story, and you can use it to create tension by speeding up or slowing down the action. You can also work with tension to change the pace on a smaller scale, for example, by using short sentences and paragraphs to create a sense of urgency, or longer ones to slow down the action and create anticipation.
- Suspense in a book. Use compelling plots.
A cliffhanger is a literary or cinematic device in which the plot remains unresolved or at a critical moment, leaving the viewer or reader waiting for the continuation. This creates tension and intrigue, making the audience want to know how the situation will be resolved or what will happen next. Cliffhangers are often used at the end of chapters, episodes, or books to keep the reader’s attention and stimulate their desire to find out what happens next.
- Create a strong atmosphere.
By placing your characters in a tense environment or situation, you can create an atmosphere of tension, such as a haunted house, a dark alley, or a tense negotiation meeting.
