Since so many of you are interested in the mystery/suspense genre, I thought I'd write a bit about suspense, the tension that keeps readers avidly turning pages. How do you get it in your writing? First, you need a good handle on what suspense is. Suspense isn't curiosity. Curiosity is when you wonder what will happen next. Suspense is when you know exactly what might happen next, but you don't know if it will happen. You need these factors in place for good suspense:
1) Anticipation. That's the "if" factor. The reader must expect something to happen by experience, habit or hope. If you do not establish that your character eats eggs for breakfast every day, your reader may not notice or care if toast crusts on left on the plate one Tuesday, which leads me to the next point...
2) Make a habit, break a habit. Something was anticipated and it didn't happen. That's suspense. The reader is on alert.
3) Make sure the reader knows what's at stake. What is the main character trying to achieve? What are the obstacles? What is that black cloud looming on the horizon? Let the reader get good and worried. (Remember, if the reader doesn't have an inclination of what will happen next, that's just curiosity.)
4) Don't let your plot unravel! If you've got unresolved questions and side stories, tie them up neatly. Don't leave the reader with loose ends.
Even if you aren't planning on writing a mystery, tuck these tips away. Suspense is useful in all genres.
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