Suspense is arguably the primary element when it comes to how interesting we consider a story. However, new writers stumble deciding exactly how to install moments of suspense. They may place it in the wrong situation or have sub-par tension of the plot and of character.
If you follow these 7 ways to develop, maintain, and heighten suspense, you will see a major transformation from average storytelling to extreme and vivid suspense. Together, let’s make your story so interesting and exciting that your audience will find it impossible to look away. These 7 techniques will help your writing forever.
Building Suspense
There are various methods to build suspense. We have all read mystery novels or watched horror/thriller movies where a scene is important to a character or plot that we need to stay up late to finish. This is because the writer has perfected the art of suspense in his or her story so well that it forces us to know what happens next.
However, some methods are more helpful than others. Suspense may also differ when pertaining to certain genres. For example, you most likely won’t see murder suspense in a literary fiction novel, but you would in a mystery genre book. Although calmer genres wouldn’t call for such scenes, the suspense could still arise from expectations of character or plot.
Dramatic Irony
I think dramatic irony doesn’t get used and is not as respected as it should. For those who are new to suspense writing, let me clarify what dramatic irony is:
Dramatic irony is a form of metafiction. It is when the audience (reader or filmgoer) knows something that the character(s) do not know. It is the author (not the characters) setting up this element. The writer’s intentions are to bring in the audience in such a manner that specifically incorporates them into the tension. This has the potential to build a major amount of suspense simply due to only the audience being privy to important information that will affect the character or plot.
Dramatic irony renders the audience helpless. It forces you to watch or read what unfolds as the characters suffer and squirm. Depending on the level of empathy you have for the characters or how invested you are in the general plot applies to the level of suspense you feel as dramatic irony takes its toll.
Suspense only works when it is built up correctly. And when the character is walking into a scene that will drastically alter their future, the audience feels compelled to help—but they cannot.
How to Amplify Suspense using Dramatic Irony
If you a writing a novel using a multi-POV of different chapters, then dramatic irony will play perfectly into your story. Isolated chapters allow for lone narratives of information.
Try to think of dramatic irony as a form of gossip. Only a select few people know certain information. And they intend to allow bad things to happen to an individual they don’t particularly care for in their circle. Rather than telling this person this information will help save them from danger, they keep their mouths shut to see an individual succumb to whatever doom was near.
Dramatic irony is easier in films than in literature because films allow for visual clues that a character might not see—but the viewer will. In literature, depending on the point of view, this is tougher. Using the third person POV is the easiest to present dramatic irony because of the separation from character and reader. To amplify the suspense using dramatic irony, make sure you start early with the information. This info needs to come as soon as possible. It must build up in a way that only the audience knows. If done very well, the audience may even feel responsible for being unable to help the characters recognize the drama around them.
Countdowns
If ever there were a surefire way to boost a moment of suspense suddenly in your story, it is through a countdown. As a character attempts to reach his or her goal, placing obstacles in their way will always make it suspenseful. However, if an added threat, such as a bomb explosion with an actual number countdown is vocally ticking down, it will engulf the audience tenfold.
The countdown forces the suspense to become immediate. Suspense, in general, works better if eased into the story as soon as possible. But, a countdown works even if there were no mention of it prior. Writers should note that countdowns are so powerful and work as an obvious element of suspense that they should use them scarcely and carefully.
How to Amplify Suspense through a Countdown
There must be a good reason for the countdown. Countdowns usually explore bombs and tests, in general. For example, a character is taking an entrance exam for college, but he didn’t study at all. This could work well as he sees the ticking of the clock inching down to the final moment when the buzzer rings and he must hand in his test. Great suspense could work here. How much was riding on his future to enter university? Will his parents be upset that he didn’t study? These worries could filter through his inner monologue as he watched the clock countdown to zero. Meshing the thoughts of the character as time decreases is critical for the countdown to work in literature because it involves the psychology of the character.
Another fine example is the bomb detonations. This is done through external forces that threaten the physical safety of characters. Any inner monologue here would range depending on the situation. But, primarily it would involve getting to a safe distance away from the explosion.
The BEST example of a bomb countdown comes from the science fiction/horror classic, Alien. The main character, Ripley, has watched her co-workers fall victim to the alien creature. Therefore, she decides to blow up the spaceship before she evacuates. She sets the bomb to explode and the countdown begins. Nothing really special, right? Well, the countdown becomes more suspenseful when Ripley realizes the alien is in her way to leave. The countdown doesn’t suddenly stop for her so she can rethink her next course of action. She must find a way to leave alive before the ship explodes. Alien is expert suspense writing.
Vulnerable
Making your characters vulnerable during critical times can kickstart the suspense. However, creating the character who is vulnerable is much easier than building up to why that character is so helpless because of his or her vulnerability.
This can come at any point in the story, but should not come at the beginning because the audience hasn’t begun to care for the character(s) yet—nor have they understood why a character is vulnerable. The suspense comes from placing your character in a particular situation where he or she is expected to, for example, do battle with a villain. Your character suddenly realizes that his gun has run out of bullets.
Again, taking away whatever instrument or special power they need to accomplish their goal is simple. Maybe the character could lose his extra clips down a sewer pipe and now he must fight the towering henchman with his bare hands. The suspense comes from building the audience’s special connection to the character and the character(s) psychology with their ability to overcome obstacles.
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How to Amplify Suspense by Making Your Character Vulnerable
The best way to make your character vulnerable is to expand on the importance of something the character is seeking. Next, make the character achieve the item, which will make them feel invincible. Finally, when the stakes are at their most important in your story, strip away expectations. Make your character deal with the problem by himself. Because the power of that character no longer exists, the question of how the character will win (or will be defeated) comes into effect and builds suspense.
Not only does this amplify the suspense, but it builds character. And most importantly, it relates to the audience that they have the ability to overcome obstacles on their own.
Mel Brooks, probably the most talented director of spoof films in cinema history, nailed this suspense and anxiety of the main character in his 1987 sci-fi parody of Star Wars, Spaceballs.
Background
Applying background situations to build suspense is another great technique. Sometimes, a second or third character might witness this background scenario, but the main character won’t—nor shouldn’t. This borders on the dramatic irony that pulls in the audience, but leaves out the intended character solely affected.
Background elements are not used as much as they could. And again, this is easier to perform in a film rather than literature. In literature, because of the lack of visual cues, the writer must use other details. Sensory elements like the sound of crunching leaves from an approaching killer or the vibrations of a monster stomping its way towards a deaf character all make suspense.
How to Amplify Suspense through Background Situations
First, a writer should make the scene seem finished. Whether it is a scene in the middle of the story or the big finale, the character and the audience should view the scene as complete. This allows for a sense of satisfaction and an end to the prior suspense. Guards are now down. Expectations have been met. The monster is no more and only the credits are thought to roll soon.
Because of this assumption, characters feel safe. They embrace others. Weapons are dropped. A writer should make the audience and the characters feel as if all threats are gone. Now, through background noise or slight visuals, the thought-to-be-dead villain/monster rises to take another round at the protagonist. There are many films that do this wonderfully, but John Carpenter’s 1978 Halloween uses background suspense like no other. After Laurie Strode has killed her attacker with a huge knife to his heart, she drops her weapon. She assumes the best.
Subtext
Suspense through subtext is an unusual form routinely not used by writers. Normally, subtext takes the form as social and political themes of the story. The writer (un)knowingly applies particular references to hot topics through metaphors in scenes. Character actions and general plot situations revolve around conveying subtext to its audience. If the suspense does build through subtextual instances, it likely will not result in anticipation of any degree.
How to Amplify Suspense through Subtext
Subtext can get kind of tricky to explain. Just think of subtext as a metaphor or message and you will be fine.
Since subtext doesn’t normally make immediacy when used, I suggest to use it with a dialogue of importance. To have characters speak in cryptic metaphors for no reason—or for a boring topic—will not serve the audience justice. And it may even make the writer appear sophomoric and pretentious. Do not let this happen.
If you choose to use subtext for suspense, choose only the best and most crucial of times to apply subtext through dialogue. And furthermore, the characters must be important to the conversation and overall situation for that suspense to work properly. If two irrelevant characters are speaking to one another using subtext about a bank robbery committed by other people who have no connection to them, then it is a waste of time to the audience.
A great example is from HBO’s critically acclaimed, The Sopranos. The subtext through the two characters is thick and suspenseful. They are cleverly discussing the eventual murder of another character. From facial expressions, the tone of voice, and body language, the subtext here conveys who should take responsibility for the murder and any possible ramifications from choosing otherwise. (Every writer should study The Sopranos).
Foreshadow
Foreshadowing is another great way to create suspense. There are multiple ways to foreshadow a character change or a plot reveal later in the story. For the best result, any results of foreshadowing should come in the third act. Be cautious not to use foreshadowing too much, as it may hinder the forward progression of character and plot.
When a writer foreshadows, he or she will drop subtle clues or hints that the audience will later realize its importance at the moment of truth. Through dialogue, narration, and the presence of an item, foreshadowing implants suspense into the reader.
How to Amplify Suspense through Foreshadowing
In some cases, simply mentioning an event or change or item is good enough to see decent results later on when the suspense comes full circle. However, if you want to sincerely grasp the audience’s attention, then I suggest you intensify the foreshadowing by mentioning it a total of 3 times during your narrative. Once at the beginning, the middle, and the end. Too many times a foreshadowing moment vaguely introduces itself at the beginning only to be forgotten by the end. Only when you go back and read or watch the story again does that foreshadow makes sense. That doesn’t work.
Your readers shouldn’t have to reread your novel to find clues. Especially, when it comes to literature, a novel’s density is grand. Many details bury themselves so deeply that it is easy for a reader to pass over. You can fix this by bringing them up in a brief conversation that seems irrelevant to the particular scene. Remind the audience of something important, if only in a minor way, somewhere in the middle, too.
In Christopher Nolan’s 2008 masterpiece, The Dark Knight, a quick conversation between Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne foreshadows Dent’s fall from grace. As a purely good man dedicated to rid Gotham of criminals, Dent’s character arc eventually morphs him into a villain. This short scene is all it took to foreshadow Dent’s downfall. The suspense that follows throughout the movie is a slow burn. We are made to witness exactly why Dent changes from good to bad. Watch the clip: