These are the common problems of young and experienced writers. Of course, experienced writers have already some expertise in overcoming such problems, while for young writers this may become the end of their career. We have decided to analyze how to write suspense fiction in the most effective way and what tips to use to overcome common problems.
Create the Necessity of Finding an Answer Introducing Characters
Primarily, you should always remember what kind of fiction you are writing. The matter is that your approach to writing will differ from the approach used for writing comedies and romances. You need to keep the intrigue, and you need your readers keep looking for the answers till the very end. Your hero or heroes need to be in a constant danger, and no one should be able to predict for sure what happens next.
To create this necessity of looking for the answers, you need to make you readers love the characters. You need to make them feel as though they are their friends. The protagonist should provoke some emotions, as well as other characters that perform secondary roles. You would probably agree, that Happy Potter is a famous protagonist, but many people love Hermione Granger more than him.
To make your novel even tenser, add some villain characters and use them to create a necessary atmosphere. A small trick for the professional writers: the villain characters should not always be villain till the end. Moreover, in some cases, villain characters may appear to be good ones, and you can use that for your novel.
Find Proper Time for Events
In a suspense fiction, time really is important. If the events happen too early, the readers may not be prepared for that (for example, they still do not know the characters, and they already need to take care of them). If you wait too long, the readers may be bored with the development of events.
These are no common formula for time to pose the most important questions and events, but many writers recommend to do that in between 1/6 and1/3 of the novel. Thus, your readers already know the characters and are ready to read what happens to them.
Add Wins and Losses
Your whole story should never be based on only one win or loss. To create enough tension and make the story more dramatic, add small wins and losses. You can also add some battles, problems and complicated situations that help the plot to develop but do not create a separate story. The wins and losses may be connected with the story of the protagonist, or reveal other characters better.
Add Some Clues
Your reader should be able to find the answers by himself, and you are to introduce some clues throughout a story. Of course, it is better not to give the tips that will reveal the truth easily. However, when the story is over, you reader should have a chance to return to the story and check all the events that indicate this development of the situation.
Each detail that you write should contribute to the development of the story. Even if it is slightly misguiding, it should give a chance for another development of the situation.
Let Protagonist Find the Answer. And Fail with It
Your protagonist should not be a genius, who makes no mistakes. He or she should be a real person, who thinks, makes some assumptions, then makes some attempts, fails, and tries again. No one is interested in novels where a protagonist is capable of everything and is never mistaken. Let him or her be a real person.
Keep the Intrigue
One of the major mistakes for writing suspense fiction is to create an intrigue at the beginning of the story and to stop develop it later. You need to keep the intrigue at the first, second and every following chapter of your story. The intrigue is the key aspect for an interesting suspense fiction and you should not miss it.
Writing suspense fiction, you should always keep in mind an image of your reader. It is likely that he has already read dozens of suspense books and he is looking for something new and thrilling. You should be able to create such atmosphere and make a reader stay with you till the last pages of the book.
Kevin Nelson started his career as a research analyst and has changed his sphere of activity to writing services and content marketing. Apart from writing, he spends a lot of time reading psychology and management literature searching for the keystones of motivation ideas. Feel free to connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin.
