Certain genres are famous for being more suspenseful than others: horror, crime fiction, and romantic suspense, but each and every book, regardless of whether it is a historical romance or a paranormal fantasy, MUST have a level of suspense interwoven. between the pages.
All stories must have this element, otherwise the reader will not want to turn the page, it is as simple as that. So if you’re interested in what makes a suspenseful page turner, read on …
Creating conflict in your novel is a fact, otherwise there would be no story. If everything went well, it would be as boring as the water in the dishes, right? Everyone lived happily throughout history and forever, they yawn …
I’ve listed seven ways you can inject suspense into your novel:
1. Introduce your characters to their worst nightmare!
Find out about your characters beforehand. If possible, write down their likes and dislikes, etc., and most important of all, find out what they fear the most. What is it that makes their hearts pound, beads of sweat form on their upper lips, and the hair on the back of their necks rise? Find out what that thing or things is, and then give it to him, both barrels. For example, if your heroine is petrified of flying because her parents were killed in a plane crash, create a story in which you HAVE to go on a plane trip. If your hero is afraid of water because he almost drowned as a kid, put him in a position where he HAS to go back to the water to rescue someone.
Present your worst nightmare to them and see how they react!
2. Lulling them into a false sense of security
When your character is really freaked out about something, add a red herring. For example, if your heroine thinks she hears a noise outside, allow the plot to let her fears grow and grow. Make it something quite innocuous, like the garbage can that moves in the wind. Then, when she’s calmed herself, breathing a sigh of relief, petrified to death by placing a prowler outside her back door!
3. Highlight at least two people
This may seem a bit obvious, but for the love of God, don’t make the villain in the piece stand out a mile. Instead, bring suspicion to at least two, possibly three characters. This will make your reader not really sure until the end, when the other shoe falls off! But of course, it leaves a few clues and red herrings along the way!
4. Stimulation
Pacing is important for creating suspense. In general, short, snappy sentences will allow the reader to fast-forward so that they feel their heart beating at the same time as the scared protagonist. Longer sentences tend to slow things down. You may want to speed things up for a car chase or slow down for a lovemaking scene. Imagine your novel as if you were watching it on the big screen. How would it be filmed? What would that particular scene look like for the audience?
5. The calm before the storm
Take advantage of the weather with good results. Storm clouds hovering overhead often give the reader the feeling that something is about to happen. [prophetic fallacy]. Lightning striking the night sky, downed power lines, a stranger at the door, etc. Think about the last time you saw a horror movie; Didn’t the weather get in somewhere?
6. When all is well, dump a corpse!
When you get to the middle of a sunken novel and find that there is nowhere to go, try dumping a corpse. This does not necessarily mean that a character should be removed, although you may want to do just that, it can mean that something unexpected happens, such as the birth of a baby, etc. Something that injects a little more oomph to the plot!
7. Environment
The setting is very important as a tool to create suspense. What about that cobweb-covered dark stone staircase? Or the elevator that suddenly stops between floors? Choosing the right kind of setting can make or break a novel. And sometimes placing the object or person the protagonist fears in a harmless environment can make the story even scarier.
Be cruel to your characters and watch them run for their lives!
