Certain genres are famous for having more suspense than others: horror, crime fiction, and romantic suspense, but each and every book, no matter if it’s a historical romance or a paranormal fantasy, MUST have a level of suspense interwoven between the two! pages!
All stories must have this element, otherwise the reader won’t want to turn the page, it’s as simple as that. So if you’re interested in what makes a page turn suspenseful, read on…
Creating conflict in your novel is a fact, otherwise there would be no story. If all went well, it would be as boring as dishwater, wouldn’t it? Everyone lived happily throughout history and forever, I yawn…
I’ve listed seven ways you can inject suspense into your novel:
1. Present your characters with their worst nightmare!
Learn about your characters beforehand. If possible write down their likes and dislikes etc and most important of all find out what they fear the most. What is it that makes their hearts pound, beads of sweat form on their upper lips, and the hairs on the back of their necks stand up? Find out what that thing or things is and then give it to them, both barrels. For example, if your heroine is terrified of flying because her parents died in a plane crash, create a story where she HAS to take a plane ride. If your hero is afraid of water because he nearly drowned when he was a little boy, put him in a position where he HAS to go back into the water to rescue someone.
Present them with their worst nightmare and see how they react!
2. Lull them into a false sense of security.
When your character is really scared about something, add a red herring. For example, if your heroine thinks she hears a noise outside, she allows the plot to let her fears grow and grow. Let it be something fairly innocuous, like the garbage can blown over by the wind. Then, when she has calmed down, breathing a sigh of relief, she petrifies her to death by placing a prowler at the back door.
3. Put the spotlight on at least two people
This may sound a bit obvious, but for God’s sake, don’t make the villain of the play stand out a mile. Instead, cast suspicion on at least two, possibly three characters. This will have the effect that your reader won’t really be sure until the end, when the other shoe drops! But of course, leave a few clues and a few red herrings along the way!
4. Rhythm
Rhythm is important to create suspense. In general, short and concise sentences will allow the reader to move on and feel his heart beating in time with the frightened protagonist. Longer sentences tend to slow things down. You might want to speed things up for a car chase or slow things down for a lovemaking scene. Imagine your novel as if you were watching it on the big screen. How would it be filmed? What would that particular scene look like for the audience?
5. The calm before the storm
Take advantage of the weather with good results. Storm clouds looming overhead, often giving the reader the feeling that something is about to happen. [prophetic fallacy]. Lightning striking the night sky, downed power lines, a stranger at the door, etc. Think about the last time you saw a horror movie; Didn’t the weather get in somewhere?
6. When all goes well, drop a dead body!
When you get halfway through a sunken novel and find there’s nowhere to go, try dumping a dead body. This doesn’t necessarily mean a character needs to be killed off, although you might want to do just that, it might mean something unexpected happens, like a baby being born, etc. Something that injects a little more oomph into the plot!
7. Configuration
Setting is very important as a tool to create suspense. What about that dark stone staircase covered in cobwebs? Or the elevator that suddenly stops between floors? Choosing the right kind of setting can make or break a novel. And sometimes placing the object or person the protagonist fears in an innocuous setting can make the story even scarier.
Be cruel to your characters and watch them run for their lives!