Suspense = Uncertainty

Battered fingers dig into the edge of a balcony on the twentieth floor of a New York apartment building. The murderer smiles and steps closer. Dangling over a deep gorge and swift-flowing river, sweaty palms grip a fraying rope, muscles stretched to the max. Two miles from shore, a speed boat rams the trawler. The victim jumps free, but ocean waves swell and they spot a shark’s dorsal fin.

“Suspense is the lack of certainty . . . leaving the reader to wonder what will happen. It draws the reader into the story and creates a sense of momentum to the plot.”

Lori Jordan

Suspense is critical for our mystery, suspense, thriller genre. We want our readers to feel, taste, touch, smell, and hear uncertainty in our plot, from our characters, and within our dialogue. Make our readers care about our characters. Make them worry and fear the worst by ratcheting up the tension. The worse it is for our character, the more our readers worry.

Dictionary.com defines suspense as a state or condition of mental uncertainty, excitement, insecurity, or anxiety, the state or condition of being suspended.

To flesh out the meaning, consider these synonyms: confusion, doubt, insecurity, tension, dilemma, worry, and expectation.

Confusion – Two suspects seem innocent. A third looks guilty, but their alibi checks out. Could another suspect be lurking about or are one of the first two the culprit? Or perhaps the third one?

Doubt – The evidence appears solid, the suspects obvious, but a niggling in the back of the brain screams things are not as they seem.

Insecurity – In his last case, your character sent an innocent man to his death. The next step seems clear, but your character fears pushing forward with an accusation.

Tension – The stalker emerges from the shadows. Thunder explodes in the night sky and lightning reveals a face in the window. Communication from your Confidential Informant ceases. Are they deep undercover or have they been eliminated?

Dilemma – Your brother-in-law dines with another woman at a table for two in a dark corner of a high-end restaurant. Do you tell your sister? Wait for the police to arrest him for embezzlement? Allow the authorities to sort it out and let the truth slowly emerge?

Worry – The airplane should have landed by now. Your reliable friend is two hours late for the appointment. As the storm approaches, the phone lines are down and cell services cease. The tide rises and laps at the front steps.

Expectation – After giving a clear description, the police should make an arrest, but they don’t. Your friend must turn himself in, but they cross the border instead. Your co-worker swears he’s telling the truth, but you learn it’s a lie.

“Think about an expected outcome and flip it around. Maybe something bad happening ends up being a blessing in disguise. If you mix positive and negative foreshadowing, you will keep your readers on their toes, wondering what will come next and surprised by whatever it is.”

Bill Powers

But what if we incorporate these ideas and our story still seems to drag?

“The solution isn’t more action or violence. Action doesn’t create suspense, it resolves it, and excessive violence quickly becomes numbing. The solution is to rack up the tension and suspense by making more and bigger promises about problems to come – disasters that will devastate the hero and his allies, shatter his plans and bring him so low that he might never recover.”

Ian Irvine

Good mystery, suspense, and thrillers share a common trait––uncertainty. Weave it into our story and keep your readers turning pages. Let me know how it goes!

“Uncertainty is the lifeblood of suspense. . . .The longer we keep our reader guessing, the more attention they will pay to what they are reading.”

Writer’s Digest

Write well, my friends.

PJ Gover encourages her readers to live the thrill…one story at a time, whether through her devotionals or thrillers. She has received eleven writing awards including first place in the Write-to-Publish and North Carolina Christian Writers contests and a two-time winner in American Christian Fiction Writer’s First Impressions contest. Her one-year devotional book, Celebrate Thee Date, can be found at 4homestore.com/devotional-books.

A ranch in Texas serves as home base where she is currently working on a suspense novel. Offer her Mexican food or anything gluten-free and you’ll have a friend for life.

Jim Hart of Hartline Literary Agency represents PJ.

Connect with PJ at PJGover.com or facebook.com/pj.gover