Danger

A novel's Point of View characters must be in danger of losing something or someone important to them. The threat of physical death is always good, but other losses can be equally effective: Will Scarlett O’Hara save her home? Will Elizabeth Bennett find true love? Will Stacie Cox (from my novel, Missing) rescue the kidnapped child? 

Par out Clues

When I first started writing suspense, I thought I needed many secrets to my story so I'd have enough material to surprise readers with. The task seemed daunting. But as I continued to study novels by other authors similar to my own, I realized the trick is not necessarily to have tons of secrets, but to par out the information I do have a little at a time. Look at any mystery novel as an example. Each clue to the final mystery is interesting and keeps the reader reading, but by itself, it's not necessarily exciting until they come together in the finale. Then bang!

Consider the first Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr. (Spoiler Alert) In it, the real secret to the bad guy's success is that he uses science to achieve his evil designs. Along the journey of the novel's story, the author gives us little clues. Here are a few. The watch, the experiments, the drugs, the boiled frogs, Alone, these bits of information aren't too exciting, but when they are combined with the frightening murders, the bad guy's "resurrection," and the interesting characters, we have an intriguing and suspenseful tale.

So this week's secret is spread out tiny clues to the ultimate secret.

Suspense in Character Development

Here's a very intriguing secret  from E. McDannak at Irunian Chronicles: use character development to create suspense. I think this idea is wonderful because I can't think of a better place to hide a few "bread crumbs" than inside our characters themselves. The full article is well worth reading , but before you head over there, check out this very telling snippet:


"Now then, onto perspective. Perspective (POV) is really important when building suspense in your novels. I know he's not the only one to do it, but Sanderson is one of my favorite examples of this. He builds up something to be BIG (i.e. the army in the first book led by Kelsier), and then knocks it down HARD. He does what people DON'T want to have happen. Brilliant. It builds suspense because it makes you roll your eyes and mutter, "Why did they *do* that? It's so bad!" Notice how I said "bad," not "stupid." When a character who is supposed to be smart does something insanely stupid, it can be unbelievable. But if you build inherent flaws into your character, then slip-ups help to build suspense."

I actually incorporated this technique in my third novel. It's a historical romantic suspense that hasn't been published yet--still a work-in-progress--but when it finally is published, you'll have to tell me if my attempt was effective or not.