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Mystery Of Suspense

Decent Essays

Want to write a thriller? Want to write a mystery? It takes effort to build suspense in a story. Building apprehension in the minds of your readers is one of the most effective keys to engaging them early in your novel and keeping them flipping pages. Simply put, if you don’t hook your readers, they won’t get into the story. If you don’t drive the story forward by making readers worry about your main character, they won’t have a reason to keep reading. There are four factors that are necessary for suspense—reader empathy, reader concern, impending danger and escalating tension.

We create reader empathy by giving main character a desire, wound or internal struggle that readers can identify with. The more they empathize, the closer their connection …show more content…

Only when readers know what the character wants will they know what’s at stake. And only when they know what’s at stake will they be engaged in the story. To get readers more invested in your novel, make clear: 1) What your character desires (love, freedom, adventure, forgiveness, etc.); 2) what is keeping him from getting it; and 3) what terrible consequences will result if he doesn’t get it.
Suspense builds as danger approaches. Readers experience apprehension when a character they care about is in peril. This doesn’t have to be a life-and-death situation. Depending on your genre, the threat may involve the character’s physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual or relational well-being. Whatever your genre, show that something terrible is about to happen—then postpone the resolution to sustain the suspense.
We need to escalate the tension in our stories until it reaches a satisfying climax. Raise the stakes by making the danger more imminent, intimate, personal and devastating. So, if the moon explodes in Act 1, the entire galaxy better be at risk by Act 3. If tension doesn’t escalate, the suspense you’ve been developing will …show more content…

Phobias are irrational fears, so to be afraid of a cobra is not a phobia, but to be afraid of all snakes is. Most people are afraid of helplessness in the face of danger. Many are afraid of needles, the dark, drowning, and heights and so on. Think of the things that frighten you most and you can be sure many of your readers will fear them as well.

Make sure you describe the setting of your story’s climax before you reach that part of the story. In other words, let someone visit it earlier and foreshadow everything you’ll need for readers to picture the scene when the climax arrives. Otherwise you’ll end up stalling out the story to describe the setting, when you should be pushing through to the climax.

Countdowns and deadlines can be helpful, but can work against you if they don’t feed the story’s escalation. For example, having every chapter of your book start one hour closer to the climax is a gimmick that gets old after a while because it’s repetitious and predictable—two things that kill escalation. Instead, start your countdown in the middle of the book. To escalate a countdown, shorten the time available to solve the

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