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April 3, 2017 By penny Leave a Comment

How To Write Fiction: 3 Tips To Create Page-Turning Suspense

How To Write Fiction: 3 Tips To Create Page-Turning Suspense

When you write fiction, you make choices. One of the best choices you can make is to deliberately create as much suspense as you can — you’ll write better novels.

Recently I asked a friend who hits Amazon’s Top 100 with his novels how he does it. His response? “I look for ways to add suspense — I aim to add suspense on every page.” He says that although he knows he’s not a strong writer (he is), he outsells others because he makes readers care, and worry.

Suspense is defined as: a feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen, but can you deliberately add it?

My bestselling friend believes that you can.

Plan for suspense when you write fiction

What if you’re not writing a mystery or a thriller? You can nevertheless add suspense, and creating excitement and anxiety in your readers is easier than you think.

Try these tips.

1. Open loops: add more obstacles and problems for your characters (and take your time resolving them)

Open loops build suspense.

Marketers use open loops, often called the Zeigarnik effect, because they know that psychologically, humans have a compelling need for closure. In an article on open loops, The Blockbuster Secret to Seducing Your Audience, Jeff Sexton says:

If James Bond was issued a cool gadget and never used it, we’d feel cheated. As Anton Chekhov famously said, “If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it must absolutely go off.”

Open loops have setups, and payoffs, just as jokes do. Some “big” open loops, the story question of a novel, don’t pay off until the novel’s climax. Will the police catch the serial killer in a thriller, for example. Or in a romance, will the hero and heroine get together despite all their problems?

Other open loops concern backstory, and why a character behaves as he does. Open loops can be minor, even trivial, but they’re all an irritation to the reader, because the reader needs closure.

2. Delay, delay, delay! Delay in every scene

Anticipation builds suspense. You need to delay, and delay some more, to build the reader’s anticipation, and suspense. Delay revealing information which closes an open loop.

The more you can delay, without annoying the reader, the better. For example, let’s say you’re writing a thriller in which your main character’s daughter is kidnapped. The daughter’s boyfriend has disappeared. Is he involved in the kidnapping? You may decide that he isn’t, but you don’t reveal that for four chapters.

3. Opportunities: look for opportunities to add suspense

You’ll find, as I have, that when you look for ways to add suspense, it’s simple to add it in every scene.

An easy open loop, and a great way to add suspense, is to use the “ticking clock” device. You can make this a major device in your novel. In the kidnapping story for example, the kidnappers could demand a ransom — your hero has 48 hours to find the ransom money.

Study others’ writing when you write fiction: how do other authors use suspense?

Think about a novel which you stayed up late to finish. How did the author create so much suspense that he kept you reading? Novels are page-turning bestsellers because they create open loops. Our psychology ensures that we need to keep reading until we find closure.

Updated: February 21, 2018

The Eardleys Of Gostwicke Hall
The Lady And The Rake: A Scandalous Arrangement

The Lady And The Rake: A Scandalous Arrangement

eBook: $4.99
Author: Penelope Redmont
Series: The Eardleys Of Gostwicke Hall, Book 1
Genre: Regency Romance
Tag: regency

Melisande Eardley has a temper, and that temper gets the better of her.

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The Lady And The Duke: A Dangerous Season

The Lady And The Duke: A Dangerous Season

eBook: $4.99
Author: Penelope Redmont
Series: The Eardleys Of Gostwicke Hall, Book 2
Genre: Regency Romance
Tags: Recommended Books, regency

Her sister Catherine believes that Elaine's hair tells you everything that you need to know about her. It's flame-red. When Sir Oliver Destry trifles with Elaine, she decides on revenge. Elaine soon discovers the truth of the old saying that if you want to make the gods laugh, just tell them your plans.

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The Lady And The Man Of Fortune: A Wicked Secret

The Lady And The Man Of Fortune: A Wicked Secret

eBook: $4.99
Author: Penelope Redmont
Series: The Eardleys Of Gostwicke Hall, Book 3
Genre: Regency Romance
Tag: romance

Although he's a prize on the Marriage Mart, wealthy and twice-widowed Lord Delmere thinks that nothing could ever tempt him to marry again. Until he meets the lovely Lady Kingston.

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The Lady And The Military Man: Conquer My Heart

The Lady And The Military Man: Conquer My Heart

eBook: $4.99
Author: Penelope Redmont
Series: The Eardleys Of Gostwicke Hall, Book 4
Genre: Regency Romance
Tags: regency, romance

What happens when two people who won't consider marriage can't live without each other?

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The Lady And The Adventurer: Win My Heart

The Lady And The Adventurer: Win My Heart

eBook: $4.99
Author: Penelope Redmont
Series: The Eardleys Of Gostwicke Hall, Book 5
Genre: Regency Romance
Tag: regency

Henry (Henrietta) Eardley makes a huge mistake. Then she makes it worse. She's never known a man like Lord Devernwood, and he's never met a woman like her.

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The Lady And The Devil: If You Knew Me

The Lady And The Devil: If You Knew Me

eBook: $4.99
Author: Penelope Redmont
Series: The Eardleys Of Gostwicke Hall, Book 6
Genre: Regency Romance
Tag: regency romance

When Cerise and her sister are in danger, she relies on herself. There's no one else. Then she meets Lord Grayhurst.

 

 

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Lady Julia’s Destiny: A Love To Treasure

Lady Julia’s Destiny: A Love To Treasure

eBook: $4.99
Author: Penelope Redmont
Series: The Eardleys Of Gostwicke Hall, Book 7
Genre: Regency Romance
Tag: regency romance

Julia doesn't know whether to be amused or angry when Lord Lyneham decides to find her a husband. He and Julia's cousin take charge of Julia's fortunes. Suddenly, Julia's an heiress and her life changes.

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Melisande Eardley has a temper, and that temper gets the better of her.

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The Lady And The Duke: A Dangerous Season

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Her sister Catherine believes that Elaine's hair tells you everything that you need to know about her. It's flame-red. When Sir Oliver Destry trifles with Elaine, she decides on revenge. Elaine soon discovers the truth of the old saying that if you want to make the gods laugh, just tell them your plans.

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The Lady And The Duke: A Dangerous Season

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Her sister Catherine believes that Elaine's hair tells you everything that you need to know about her. It's flame-red. When Sir Oliver Destry trifles with Elaine, she decides on revenge. Elaine soon discovers the truth of the old saying that if you want to make the gods laugh, just tell them your plans.

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