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write suspense, write mystery  

Thrills and Chills: Tips for Writing Suspense 

  by Shadowflare

You want to keep your readers enthralled from beginning to end? Want to keep 'em guessing at every turn? How should you go about doing that? Let's talk suspense and mystery.

Adding elements of mystery to the story really adds a built-in anticipation in the reader to solve the case. You don't need to be writing a detective novel to include mysteries. In the process of unwinding the mystery it can be helpful to add 'red herrings' into the mix, that is elements that direct the reader's attention on something else you want them to think is the answer but actually is not. This has been done to death in stories throughout time so including several smaller red herrings can allow the reader to choose which one to cling onto as their guess, that way when you spring the trap with the surprise answer they'll be completely taken by surprise.

Along similar lines, nothing puts the polish on a really good story like a plot twist. Stories can have one big one, or a series of smaller ones, but no matter what kind of twist, the goal is the same: keep the readers on their toes. They can either be used to change the pace and tone of a story, or to add an extra spike of excitement amongst other thrills. Let's discuss some tips towards writing good plot twists. You can have a really great twist in mind, but unless you time its actualization, it may fall flat. Timing is everything, and you have to choose just the right moment to spring the trap on your readers. When this is depends entirely upon the story. Doing it too late may dull the surprise, as many people right last second twists. Hitting too early will waste your ammunition at an unnecessary time. Sometime within the middle of the story is usually best, but that's up to each writer to decide. When building up to a twist, the reader can't be allowed to see it coming. Keep the events leading up to your twist either very low key, or simply distract from the possibility by engrossing the reader in something else. Other methods of doing this include 'red herrings' or pointing a possible twist in the direction of something else. This is also called a 'double spoof', and it's very effective. It's like a feign in a boxing match, like a fake twist that may or may not shock the reader at first, but sets them up nicely for the real twist. When using multiple twists in a storyline, it's often best to scatter them around different areas of the plot. Making them too close together or concerning the plot aspect can get ridiculous, so varying the type of twist and what it's aimed at is to your benefit. These are just a few basic tips for inserting the unexpected into your story. Good luck.

Something that really can kill the suspense and interest of a story is the 'Aura of Protection' around certain characters. If you basically establish early on that the plot depends upon your main character always surviving, no one will feel any sense of excitement when that character is in danger, and since character with an AOP are usually always the primary one, that removes suspense from most of your book. The best method of combating this however is to give a sense of ambiguity as to who the 'hero' really is. You can have a set of main characters, but don't let the reader necessarily know who the story is really focusing on. You can do this by focusing an equal amount of time on other characters. The very best tactic to remove the AOP from your character is to kill one of those main characters off sometime 1/3rd of the way through the story. The character doesn't have to be a 'primary character' in your eyes, you just have to make the reader think they are. You can completely create the character for the purpose of dying and making it so that the reader can't guess who is invincible and who can die. Another way to throw the fate of your main characters in doubt to question their loyalty. If there's the slightest chance that one of your main characters could be a traitor to the cause, this will nicely remove the AOP in the eyes of the reader. Again, the Aura of Protection can really kill excitement, and it's unfortunate that most stories have cast it on their primary characters. You don't have to actually kill your main characters, but you have let the reader 'know' that you're willing to at any time, and that will increase the excitement exponentially.

In stories featuring action and suspense, there has to be a clearly defined, viable threat to make it exciting. Ambiguous, unknown threats can hold some mystery, but they don't usually carry much excitement for very long. Overall, faceless threats, such as 'destroying the world' or 'conquering the planet' have been done to death, and suspend belief. When creating a threat for your characters to face, make it realistic and defined. Let it stay confined to the world for which you are writing, among the characters involved. Once you have characters the reader cares about, putting them in danger exponentially increases suspense. Assassin's plots, conspiracies, hostage situations, and other more personal threats to your characters make for a far better plot than 'Professor Doom wants to destroy everything'. Try to avoid clichéd threats, make them down-to-earth, and keep them specific to your characters, and I guarantee your story will be that much harder to put down.

When killing off a character in your story, there are several things to consider, listed as so:

Q: Who should die? A: This is the first question that comes to mind of course. Killing off a character, especially a more important one, can really add some excitement and removes predictability from the story and what I call 'the aura of protection' from your other characters, making it more suspenseful. Of course you just shouldn't wipe out anyone and you probably have it in your mind already whose number is up. Just make sure that their number really is up as far as your writing for them, because there's no sense doing away with a character who still has possibilities. The key is make sure the reader doesn't know this character is spent before you kill him off though. Try to manufacture an illusion of new importance to the character for whacking he/she to make it a surprise to the reader.

Q: When should they die? A: Are there points of a story where killing off a character works best? Not technically but it certainly helps to make it later in the story in more cases since it increases the emotional impact. However doing it first thing or near the beginning can work very well if the character already has some development. This can come as an immediate shock to the reader and to the other characters of the book to add gripping suspense from the first page to the last. It also removes the 'AOP' from your characters right off the bat. Usually though I like to do it either midway through the story or 2/3rds or at the very end.

Q: How should they die? A: Especially when killing an establishes character it's important that their death is fitting. Something that bothers many readers is when popular characters are given an 'unfitting death'. Make sure they go out in the blaze of glory or at least doing something that defines their character to make sure they go out in the way they deserve.

Q: How does their death affect the story? A: Make sure there are ramifications upon the overall story when killing off a major character. You can kill them off when they've reached the end of their literary usefulness, but make sure you don't confine their death to that reason. Make it effect the storyline, make it relevant.

Q: How does their death affect other characters? A: More importantly how does their death affect the characters around them? Don't merely let a character fall from the minds of their other characters. Let it affect them in some way and keep it in their thoughts and let it affect their actions. Just because one character's usefulness ended doesn't mean you should stop developing your other characters.

Q: Is it a benefit to kill off this character? A: Make sure when you're choosing your victim that there's nowhere else to go with them. Characters who still have possibilities can be removed from the story without actually killing them, such as having their leave or faking their deaths (which can be just as effective and create interest and speculation, which there will be anyway with any major character death). When honestly whacking someone, make sure it's a benefit to the storyline and to character development because this is supposed to be a writing tool to rid your character pool of stragglers, not just a gimmick to shock readers.

Following these tips should give your story an extra adrenaline rush and glue its binding to your readers' hands and its text to their eyes. Good luck.