Writing Suspenseful Stories

 

The word suspense comes from the Latin word meaning “to hang”. Suspense means to be suspended, in doubt, to anticipate. Here are a few ways to create suspense in your stories:

—Put the character in danger. It could be immediate danger or the threat of danger promised later in the story.

—Let the reader know what the character fears and then involve what he/she fears in the story.

—Give two characters in the story different goals. The reader anticipates the resolution.

—Allow the reader to know something the character doesn't know.

Remember the old saying: A character + worry = Suspense

There is only a slight difference between Suspense and Tension. The Latin word for tension means, “to stretch”.

The difference between using these terms in a story is simple. Suspense can last a long time, from the beginning to the end of a story. But tension only lasts for seconds to minutes. You might even feel like the tension in the story is longer because you want it to end and you want it to end quickly. If you're reading and your heart starts pounding really fast, that's tension. Tension changes how you feel inside your body, not just how you think about what your reading. For instance, while you're reading, if you experience any of these responses, you are feeling tension:

—Your heart speeds up

—Your breathing changes

—You catch yourself frowning

—Your teeth clamp tightly together

—You're holding your body or jaw stiff

Remember: Character + worry for a short period of time + body changes = Tension

 

ACTIVITY

WRITE

See if you can identify which sentence displays tension and which displays suspense:

1. It is the last three seconds of the basketball game and our team was winning!

2. It was the first game of the season and we were losing. We wanted to win the pennant.

Now see if you can add tension and suspense to both scenarios.
Examples:

Sentence #1 Tension — The addition of a foul by the winning team will add tension to the first sentence. So the sentence would read, “It is the last three seconds of the basketball game and our team committed a foul. Now the other team could make two points with free throws to win.

Sentence #2 Suspense — We lost every game last season. The new sentences would read, “It was the first game of the season and we were losing. We wanted to win the pennant but we'd lost every game of the last season. Our chances were not very good.

REVISE

Revise your story for word choice, spelling, and punctuation.

PUBLISH

Allow others to read your article while you read theirs. Provide and receive constructive feedback.