posted
So, I'd like to try my hand at some more suspense filled novels. The problem? I cannot, with any decency, create tension and suspense. At least, not the kind that would be required for say, a mystery, or psychological thriller.
In short, how does one create suspense? I foreshadow, somewhat, with my verb usage, but I don't think its enough.
Thanks for any help you can give. I've been asking quite a few questions here lately, you've all been a wonderful help.
posted
I think that real tension comes from emotional conflict, not just physical peril. Like Sophie's Choice, where a nazi officer forces a mother to choose between her children--one lives, one dies. Real turmoil and conflict, not just hidden dangers popping out of the woodwork.
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posted
Wikipedia has insightful articles on suspense and foreshadowing, as well as conventions of mystery and psychological thriller story modes. In one area I disagree with Wikipedia, tension redirects to suspense as synonymous to it. I've found that suspense contributes to tension but is not precisely synonymous with tension.
Sympathy and suspense are the pushing forces that raise tension in a story. Sympathy in most story modes is a product of pity-fear resonance with a protagonist's predicament. In the case of a mystery, sympathy comes from involvment with the detective who's predicament is finding out who done it. It's no great stretch to figure out why in the 20th Century A Who Done It was a perjorative term for a mystery story.
Psychological thrillers' mainstay is finding out who done it and catching the malefactor by figuring out why it was done. Answering the why question is a primary driver of suspense in psychological thrillers.
Not mentioned in Wikipedia's suspense topic is a working, accessible definition of suspense; artfully delaying an answer to a question posed in a story, like who done it or why it was done. The gist is there though. The first question posed by either a mystery or a psychological thriller is what happened.
Mickey Spillane is an acknowledged master of mystery. Patricia Cornwell, at least one of many but one of the more successful psychological thriller authors.
[This message has been edited by extrinsic (edited January 19, 2009).]
posted
Suspense is not a genre I've ever tried writing. However, you're going to have to build some suspense in any story you write at some point or another. Of course, some stories depend on it more than others.
I think in its simplest form, suspense has two elements. The reader cares what happens to a character and the reader either doesn't know what's going to happen or is afraid something bad is going to happen.
In the chapter of yours that I read, you had built suspense. I cared what was going to happen to Emmy and I was afraid it was going to be something bad. From elements you had given me, I wasn't even sure if this king wasn't going to turn out to be some kind of bluebeard, murdering his wives when he was finished with them.
Foreshadowing can lend a sense of impending doom, I guess. But I prefer to think of foreshadowing as a little trail of bread crumbs. The trail is left so that when I reveal something surprising, the reader hopefully says "Oh!" instead of "Huh?".
posted
Dramatic irony, a situation in which the reader knows what's going to happen and the character doesn't, can create a lot of suspense, too. This is often employed in movies (i.e. the audience sees a ghost enter the upper floor; meanwhile, the family is watching t.v. downstairs.) However, I've seen it put to good use in books.
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posted
Tension is created by creating obstacles a character must overcome to achieve his wants/needs.
Suspense implies tension drawn out over time before it is resolved. There's also an implication that the stakes are increasingly higher as the story unfolds in the context of the suspense/thriller genre. Often this is achieved by increasing the complexity and strength of the obstacles to match the character's increased attempts to defeat them. At least that's what I glean from reading such books.
Jeopardy is where the reader knows stuff the characters don't (at least this is how I like to remember it). Tension is built in the reader as, forex. a woman and a child arrive home, not realizing that zombies have broken into the cellar. The reader will assume that the family will be killed (before it happens) and that creates tension until, of course, you show a way out at the last moment. Or kill them--depening which way you go.
Of course to achieve this you need either to have a few POV's or use clues that the reader will pick up.
posted
Related to your post on creating tension, DebbieKW, I'd like to elaborate on the concept that the hero(ine) may win but risks losing a friend, lover, etc. I think one way to phrase this more broadly is that the hero(ine) may win, but at what cost? I'm going to include both the tangible (a friend's life) and untangible (a friendship).
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Good point. I'll probably add that to my list of ways to create tension (or you can leave a comment on my blog describing your point so you can get the credit for bringing it up ).
posted
Thanks everyone. I'll be taking a look at all of the links provided when I get some time. I appreciate the help.
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