Building Suspense in Fiction: Step-By-Step Guide
Suspense can be the reason for the success of your whole storyline. It will help you keep your readers captivated with your book. That is why you need to make sure that you are taking the proper incorporation of suspense in your fiction. If you are looking for ways on how you can do it, this blog will help you.
No matter where you go, the suspense-thriller genre is always thriving for a lot of reasons. One is because it gives out different kinds of feeling to readers. From the feeling of tension to the feeling of relief, this genre has all of it. Plus, it perfectly fits all types of other genres. It is not only ideal to be used as the main genre but also as a subgenre. In fact, if not all, almost all books pretty much utilize thriller to add more spice to the story. You can find many books that can give you this. But nothing compares to books with amazing suspense narratives. Greg Van Arsdale’s pure action thriller books are great examples. If you want a good thriller read, never miss out on his literary works.
One of the secrets and effective keys to building apprehension in your readers’ experience is building suspense that will keep them flipping through the pages. The feeling of heartbeats rising while reading a book can never be traded for anything. This is the one thing that will help your readers wanting more from you. As long as you follow all the proper ways to get this done, you should be good to go. This blog has gathered some of the tips and tricks successful authors follow in coming up with a great book to help you out. Below are the step-by-step steps to build suspense in your book:
Do a Research of the Genre
First, you must make an effort to understand the genre you are writing for. You might think that thriller, suspense, and mystery are all the same. Well, at some point, they are. Think of them as a family, more like cousins. They all deal with catastrophes. However, you must know that the story approach will be much different. Do your research, and make sure to soak in the information before you start writing. Make sure to do brainstorming so you won’t miss an important point.
Learn the Elements of the Genre
There are five elements of a good suspense-thriller novel. The conflict, pacing, red herrings, atmosphere, and the high stakes. It might be a lot to consider. However, if you are creating one, you will find it easier to follow. Conflict builds the suspense of your plot, pacing adds more to it, red herrings are the clues to the plot that will mislead readers, the atmosphere is the mood or tone of the story, high stakes will make your readers want more.
Know How You’ll End the Story
To make sure that you will end the story well and leave readers astonished. You might think of a great ending as you conceptualize your storyline. A great ending is always the one that will help your readers remember you as a great author. You might make changes along the way of the writing process, but it is important to think of it first since it will guide you at the same time.
Foreshadow Your Story
Now that you have to conceptualize everything, you might want to study foreshadowing your story. If you’ve experienced reading real great stories, you can look back and see clues to the dramatic question’s outcome all through the story. You will see that everything leads up to that final climax, where the dramatic question is answered.
Don’t Give Everything In One Go
As you go through the whole writing process, you must know the secret to keep your readers excited all the time. It is not to give all the answers right away. The key to suspense is not to answer the dramatic question too soon. Allow them to think they’ve got you and then slipping through their grasp. This is what drama is all about, whether you’re writing thrillers, mystery, or romance. The surprise is what the fans of this genre are looking for.