While reading this article on using suspense in video game design, I had an epiphany. I don't remember exactly which part it happened in, but it may have been this:
quote:
Tarantino draws out the threat of this act as long as possible...and actual completion of the act isn’t needed, since it’s been happening for over two minutes in everyone’s minds.
(It's a collection of smashing articles, by the way.)
The big realization is: why is this desirable in just horror and suspense? Then I started thinking of other places I've seen it: in romances it goes by the name of "sexual tension," in mystery it goes by the name of, um, "mystery". I suppose a more general term is "anticipation," but even that is only a component.
The idea is to suggest enough to the reader that he invents more story in his head than is actually on the page. This is nothing new, of course. This part is, though (to me): his mind makes multiple predictions about where the story could go, and the sum of these predicted stories is greater than the story on the page.
It's obvious that it happens in horror and suspense. Suggest credible threats, and the reader will be on the edge of his seat, anticipating all of them while the main character picks her way through the creepy forest. In romance (and especially romantic comedy) you start a million threads of interaction and the reader has a grand time wondering which will intersect in what ways. In mystery you have these obvious things called "clues" that let the reader speculate the whole time they read.
So how does this work outside those genres? That's what I've been pondering lately, along with how to work it into my own stories. Here's a practical example: I have a group of people who are going to get into trouble with a mayor. They have no idea. Right now, the reader just walks along with them, oblivious. I hint a bit, of course. How much better could it be if I could show the reader what kinds of trouble they might get into? Maybe the reader could anticipate the personality conflicts between the mayor and a certain sidekick. And if they knew the mayor was really more like a small-time dictator...
Then I hit them over the head with something much better than any of those events they came up with on-the-fly. (I believe this is generally called the "payoff".) I can do that, because I have more time.
However, up until that point, my reader, while reading the story I wrote, is telling himself multiple stories at the same time, increasing my story's perceived story-per-word. They make up the great stories, and in the end, I get credit for being so imaginative! It's pure genius!
I apologize if I'm stating the obvious, but the idea that suspense, sexual tension, mystery, and anticipation are all aspects of the very same effect that I can use any time I want in any kind of story whatsoever is a new and wonderful idea to me.
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