The Writer's Chatroom Topic Chat: Creating Suspense
Published: Wed, 05/15/13
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(Sally Franklin Christie is in charge tonight)
5 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR NOVEL MORE SUSPENSEFULA character who unknowingly carries a bomb around as if it were an ordinary package is bound to work up great suspense in the audience. --Alfred Hitchcock Suspense happens when a scene becomes charged with anticipation. It's the possibility of what might happen that keeps the reader on the edge of her chair. Think of the classic suspense scene in the Alfred Hitchcock movie Suspicion. The Joan Fontaine character believes that her charming, wastrel husband, played by Cary Grant, is an embezzler and a murderer who is now out to poison her. There's a long shot as Grant mounts the stairs, and then the camera focuses on the nightly glass of milk he carries up to her. Everyone in the audience is wondering: Is it poisoned? To heighten the threat and foreboding, Hitchcock had a light bulb placed inside the glass to give it an eerie glow. To create suspense, your job is to do the literary equivalent of what Hitchcock did by putting that light bulb in the milk: Build dramatic tension by making the ordinary seem menacing. The writer's tools for achieving this are sensory detail and the slowing down of time.
It doesn't matter what you write, you want the reader to keep turning the page. Suspense will do that for you. Is the tartan clad warrior going to kiss the woman he just rescued? Is she going to escape before the crazy cab driver comes home from work? Never mind the question about how a warrior, a damsel and a cab driver got into the body of an email... Join me in the chatroom and we'll see how far down the list we get. We'll take any other questions you may have in the second hour.------------------Have you met Vern the Dragon? He's our guest blogger tonight! Read him on our blog http://writerschatroom.blogspot.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We look forward to chatting with you!
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The Writer's Chatroom