Bookworms and Writers Unite discussion

Anyone have any good writing tips? I don't know any

Hi guys, I thought it might be fun to talk about creating suspense in a story.

I'm all for a heart pounding, page turning, edge of the seat - what the hell is gonna happen next - reading experience.

So how is it done?

First some references from some movies that excel at suspense to illustrate the points that I will make.

[1] The Dallas Dies scene from Alien (1979)

[2] The Ripley - Elevator scene from Aliens (1986)

[3] (not SF, but it illustrates the point perfectly) The Clarice Starling - Pitch Black scene from The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

My analysis of suspense is that it draws on the following "Levers of Suspense"

[1] Expansion of Care Factor

[2] Expansion of Risk/Threat

[3] Contraction of Space

[4] Contraction of Time

[5] Contraction of Sensory/Situational Awareness

First we will establish a baseline, which will indicate - No Suspense - and then show how the above levers come into play to create suspense.

Imagine a character who you have no reason to care about, in a safe environment, with lots of space, no time pressure, and an abundance of situational awareness - yes, you're right - that's about as boring as it can be.

So with the baseline set - let's explore what we can do to really create a suspenseful narrative.

Lever 1: Care Factor: From our references, Dallas as ship's captain, man's up to his duty to confront the alien and save his crew and his ship. He takes responsibility, is brave, and put's his life on the line for others. It's a great package and creates a high level of Care Factor.

Ripley, (one of my favourite heroes) puts her life on the line to save a lost child. It is about as noble as you can get and creates enormous Care Factor.

The Care Factor Lever: Have the characters act for a noble and/or great purpose that is bigger than they are. This ensures that the audience can relate to them and empathize with them.

Lever 2: Risk/Threat: From Alien, we start with the face hugger, apparently only one crew member is at risk, then we discover it has acid for blood and the ship and the crew are at risk, then later the real beast pops out of Kane's chest - and everyone is at immediate risk, then it grows big and the risk is worse, then the AP goes "rogue" and the risk gets worse again.

In Aliens, Riply blows away a couple of guardian aliens and decimates the hatchery and then escapes, then she has to confront the Queen without weapons.

The Risk/Threat Lever: Risk/Threat is step by step expanded during the narrative until the final resolution. This can be repeated as an ebb and flow design where you peak with each chapter, and each chapter is a ramp up of risk and threat, until the final climax.

A side distinction - Risk & Threat. Risk is expanded by increasing what can be lost by the heroes. Threat is expanded by increasing the capabilities of the villians, or reducing the capabilities of the heroes (lost weapon, out of ammo, etc).

For Ripley, losing her own life is a risk, losing the life of a child that she has come to love is a greater risk.

Being attacked by aliens is a threat, being attacked by the Queen of the aliens without any ammunition left is a greater threat.

When building Risk/Threat into the narrative, Reserve the highest Risk/Threat situation for the Climax, and work back from there, reducing the level of Risk/Threat as you go back to the narrative setup.

Keep an eye on each character - what do they want most in the world - is it at risk and when is it at risk?

Lever 3: Space: I'm talking about physical space around the character. Close it down, hem them into tight corners and narrow spaces. The Dallas Death scene is a perfect illustration of this principle. Progressively reduce the opportunity to maneuver and watch the suspense grow.

The Space Lever: Begin with lots of opportunity for the character to maneuver in space and then steadily and progressively take it away.

Lever 4: Time: Ripley in both Alien and Aliens is confronted by a strict time limitation. Both films have countdowns to catastrophy. Time limitation is so often used that there is always the danger of writing a cliche. But the reason that it is commonly used, is that it is very effective at ramping up suspense.

The Time Lever: Create a countdown to catastrophy. Tick ... bloody ... Tock!

Lever 5: Sensory/Situational Awareness: The Clarice Starling Pitch Black scene from Silence of the Lambs is a classic for this principle; where she confronts the serial killer Buffalo Bill, the "Lights go out", and she is blinded while confronting her opponent who is equipped with night vision goggles. Her senses are shutdown, her awareness is curtailed.

The Sensory/Situational Awareness Lever: Reduce awareness. Well lit rooms can become filled with shadows, which can then become pitch black. Add fog, mist, or steam. Is the opponent camoflaged, hiding in the walls. At room temperature and not showing up on the scopes. There are a zillion ways to do this.

So there you have it, five levers for creating suspense or the bogus musings of a random commenter?

Have fun.

That is really good!!

oooo u know what, go to Pinterest and follow a few writing boards. You won't believe how many blogs I've found that way!

To name a few great blogs, we have Ink and Quills, Positive Writer, Writerology, The Psyche Writer and this blog by this Kristen k-something. Then there's Hannah Health (or something). Best is to subscribe to Writerly and browse a bit, you'll find a lot of awesome links there.

But Pinterest is the best for this stuff. Just create a Writing board and pin stuff after bit of browsing, and you'll get great recs. Plus you can just follow links from there and read articles.

This is my Writing board on Pinterest--I usually save anything of relevance here.

https://in.pinterest.com/DCrazyVamp/w...