Stephen M Irwin on The First Step

Today’s guest blog is from Stephen M Irwin, novelist and filmmaker whose short films have won awards around the world.  He has written and directed TV documentaries and his first novel, The Dead Path, which has been published in many countries, was named Top Horror Title in the 2011 RUSA Reading List.  His second novel, The Broken Ones, was released in Australia to excellent reviews in August this year.  Stephen works as a story consultant for Australian producers, and has a long creative association with beyondblue: the nation depression initiative.

My daughter is about to take her first steps.  She turned one in August, and over the last week or so has gained the confidence and ability to stand for up to a minute unaided.  She still needs an adult’s fingers to lean on as she walks, but we know it is only a matter of days before she starts walking by herself.  And we know, too, that she will only be able to take a few steps at a time before she will fall, again and again, as she learns a skill that will carry her across rooms and paddocks, city squares and sandy beaches, frozen lakes and airport terminals – rocket terminals, maybe.

            As I walk behind her, bent over, her fingers gripping mine, I’m reminded acutely of the description that “walking is controlled falling”.  Perhaps it was on one of the wonderful Lord Robert Winston’s documentaries that I first heard this (it doesn’t matter).  Watching Poppy lean and shuffle and delight in self-mobilisation, I am struck by the similarities between walking and storytelling.  Or running and storytelling (again, it doesn’t matter).  When one first begins writing stories, the first paragraphs – those first steps –  feel perilously unsteady and untrustworthy, and often with good reason.  But with practice and not a few falls the steps grow more confident, and self-mobilisation becomes a possibility.  Journeys become a possibility: storytelling become something achievable, if you can just place one paragraph steadily after the next. 

            But bless the falls, and bless the perils. 

            As a person relatively new to novel writing, I must remind myself not to forget them, because good stories are not safe journeys.  Be they short story sprints, or novel-length marathons, or trilogy treks, they should never be secure and uneventful; quite the opposite: every step must be fraught with the danger of a fall.  And indeed those falls must come, and if the author’s job is done well, the reader will go down the avalanche with the characters, willingly and delightedly. 

            Here is the rub for the storyteller.  She or he must write in such a way that the readers feel in such safe hands they are prepared to go anywhere; the paragraphs and component sentences must be easy to read and solid.  Yet, those very paragraphs and sentences must be ready to betray their subject and the reader, to slide away unexpectedly.  For why else do we read, but to be surprised?  Is there any better reason not to read than to be presented with fresh text and yet know exactly what will happen next?  The storyteller must both know the route and keep it hidden.  The storyteller must be the hands the readers hold, allowing the readers to feel they’re in control while actually guiding them on a surprising path into new places, bright and dark.  Every step must be controlled, yet every step must hold the promise a fall.

            Pacing, of course, is a skill that improves with practise.  The author learns not to place the dramatic moments (the missteps, stumbles and tumbles) too closely together, or to space them too widely, lest the reader become exhausted or (worse) bored. 

            Ultimately, a destination will be reached – the ending.  It may be utterly unexpected by the reader, and that will delight.  It may be anticipated, but if so will hopefully be greeted with a glowing thought: ‘I suspected that might happen’.  But if the journey itself has been carefully sown with enough uncertainty, even an ending the reader predicted won’t feel so, and so will satisfy.   The ending is important, but the journey is everything.

            It starts with a treacherous, rock-solid step.

  

Thanks, Steve. Steve’s website is www.stephenmirwin.com

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The One-Page Guide to Storytelling

Here, gleaned from several decades of writing, experience doing my 27 novels, and the hundreds of books I've read on writing and storytelling, is the most concise guide to storytelling I can come up with. I've included some classic references at the end.

For each scene, and your overall story, answer these seven questions. If you can’t answer all of them, your story has a critical problem. If you can, you have the basis of a strong story.

1. What’s the Hero’s Goal? The hero must want something desperately (eg, to survive, to escape, win the girl or the contest, achieve his destiny or save the world). What is his goal, and why is he so driven to get it? The real story doesn’t start until your hero forms this urgent and powerful goal.

2. Who (or What) is the Opponent? The opponent must want to stop the hero just as strongly. Who is the opponent, and why is he, she or it so determined to defeat the hero?

• The opponent can be a person (an enemy, or even an ally who thinks the hero is wrong), or an animal, monster, a force of nature (eg flood, fire), an organisation, or society itself.
• Constantly ask yourself, How can things get worse? and When is the worst time for them to get worse? Then make it happen.
• If the hero is having a good time, your readers aren’t.
• Character is revealed by how the hero deals with adversity. The worse things get, the better it is.

3. How Does the Hero Fight Back? The hero must do everything possible to defend himself against the opponent, defeat it and achieve his goal. The opponent must fight back, just as strongly and cunningly, to defeat the hero.

• Show their struggle vividly and dramatically, with progressively rising suspense until the climax.
• Any scene that does not directly contribute to this struggle will come as an anti-climax.

4. What’s the Outcome? Every scene must have an outcome (a win or a loss), and so must the story.

• Most scene endings (even if they seem like a win at the time) should result in the hero being in worse trouble.
• The story ending should resolve the hero’s story goal, though not necessarily by achieving it. The ending can be a hollow or even disastrous victory, a compromise, or an outright loss. Or the hero may realise that he no longer wants the goal he so strove for.
• How is the hero changed at the end, if he is? Note that some characters (especially in series) never change: eg James Bond, Stephanie Plum, Mr Bean.

5. What’s the Hero Feeling? Your readers can’t identify with the hero and worry about him unless you show his hopes, dreams, fears, dreads and conflicts at every stage of the story.

• Don’t name emotions and feelings (eg, ‘He felt guilty.’). Show them the way that character would think, and in what he says and how he acts and reacts.
• Your readers need to know the hero’s emotions (and how they’re changing) in every part of every scene.

6. Have you Shown, or are you Boring your Readers by Telling? Telling is the author talking at the reader. Showing is the protagonist revealing what’s happening at each moment, in his own words and actions, filtered through his own feelings, thus revealing his character. Also:

• Have you shown the unique milieu, story world and setting (how Harry Potter differs to The Lord of the Rings, Casablanca, Gone With the Wind)? No reader wants a clichéd version of another author’s story world. Show the specific details of your world that make it unique.
• Have you created a number of memorable, knee-to-the-groin images that bring the story alive?
• Are you constantly looking for new twists to overturn clichéd characters, settings, dialogue, action scenes and plots?
• Are your chapter beginnings and endings dull and repetitive, or striking, original and compelling?
• Suspense is the lifeblood of story. Never tell the reader anything upfront when, by withholding it, you can create or heighten suspense.
• Every interaction, between every character (even friends and allies) should contain conflict. But not meaningless conflict, or bickering – the conflict needs to be related to the hero’s goal: either furthering it or blocking it.
• Do you use the minimum number of viewpoint characters needed to tell the story, and keep to a single viewpoint in each scene? If you clog your story with lots of ill-chosen viewpoint characters, and constantly shift viewpoints within scenes, you’ll confuse and annoy your readers.

7. Are your Characters Extraordinary, or Ordinary?

The characters in most manuscripts are weak, dull and forgettable. They fail from too little exaggeration, not too much.

• Show your hero’s strengths, humanity and flaws vividly; the opponent should be equally strong (or preferably, stronger) and just as complex.
• Bring out your hero’s strongly held attitudes, passions and beliefs. Have him rage, harangue, sneer, scream, mock, be sarcastic etc … Give each character a unique voice.
• Don’t restrain your characters. Make them larger and louder than life. Heighten their reactions, emotions, language and imagery until they’re out of control. Have them say and do things that ordinary people never do. That’s why we like to read about them.

Some Great Storytelling References.

Noah Lukeman, The Plot Thickens. Terrific chapters on characterisation, suspense and conflict, a lot of stuff I’ve never thought of before.

Jerry Cleaver, Immediate Fiction. No one has ever explained the craft of storytelling more clearly or simply. A fantastic book.

Don Maass, The Fire in Fiction.  Chapter by chapter, Maass goes through the problems his NY literary agency sees thousands of times a year in almost every submitted manuscript, and in many books that get published, and tells you what to do about them. 

Elizabeth Lyon, Manuscript Makeover. The best book on self-editing, in my view.

John Vorhaus, The Comic Toolbox. Not just the best book on comic writing, but better than all the others put together. 

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41 Ways to Create and Heighten Suspense in Fiction

According to top New York literary agent Noah Lukeman (The Plot Thickens), if a writer can maintain suspense throughout the story, many readers will keep reading even if the characters are undeveloped and the plot is weak. Clearly, suspense is a vital tool, yet most books on writing only mention it in passing and few devote much space to its creation and development.

I’ve written 27 novels, and some of them have been rather successful, but Lukeman’s observation came as a revelation. Accordingly, I’ve scoured my writing notes for the past quarter century, and the books and articles I’ve read on storytelling, in order to compile a comprehensive list of ways to create suspense. Here it is. My sources are listed at the end.

STORY

At its simplest, a story consists of a character (the hero) who wants something badly, and an adversary (the obstacle) who is trying equally hard to prevent the hero from getting what he wants. In each scene, the hero attacks his problem in a new way, the adversary fights back and the hero either fails or his initial success leads to a bigger problem.

Readers read to lose themselves in the story and, hopefully, to become the hero through identification (see Jerry Cleaver’s excellent book, Immediate Fiction). But before readers can identify with a character, he has to reveal his true inner self. Character is revealed most clearly through adversity and conflict, when the hero is desperate and has to give everything he has. When he’s forced to the limit, the reader will identify strongly with the hero. The reader’s hope that the hero will succeed, and fear that he will fail, creates rising suspense until the climax, where the hero’s goal or problem is resolved.

Suspense comes from readers’ anticipation of what’s going to happen next. Therefore, never tell your readers anything in advance when, by withholding it, you can increase suspense.

Following Brown, I’ve grouped the suspense creation tools into these categories:

·     The viewpoint characters;

·     The problems these characters are facing;

·     The plot of the story;

·     The structure of the story.

For simplicity I refer to ‘the character’ or ‘the hero’, though many stories will have a number of viewpoint characters and more than one hero.

A. CHARACTERS

For maximum suspense, you should not use any old character. Readers are only going to worry about, and identify with, characters they care about – ones who are both sympathetic and interesting.

1.   Sympathetic characters are (after Brown):

·       In trouble, or suffering in some way;

·    Underdogs. It’s difficult to empathise with a hero who is strong, powerful and has everything going for him, but everyone cheers when the underdog wins;

·  Vulnerable, ie they can be killed, trapped, enslaved, destroyed politically or professionally, or ruined financially or socially. Vulnerability can come from the character’s own physical, mental or emotional shortcomings and conflicts as well as from the machinations of the adversary; and

·   Deserving because of their positive character traits (optimism, courage, steadfastness, selflessness, compassion etc). A character can be in trouble, an underdog and vulnerable, but if he’s also lazy, selfish or a whining liar readers won’t identify with him or care what happens to him, and his troubles will create little suspense. This doesn’t mean the character can’t be a villain. If he’s acting for the best of reasons and the good outweighs the bad, readers will identify with him.

2.   Characters are likely to be interesting if (see Brown for a detailed analysis) they’re important, unusual or extraordinary. One reason we love to read about such characters is wish-fulfilment – living our lives through the story, feeling the characters’ hopes and fears, and being awed by their achievements. Characters may be more interesting if they’re:

·       Powerful – because of noble birth, wealth, high office, rank or position, intelligence or strength;

·       Naturally gifted or highly skilled at something important or useful;

·      Unusual (in appearance, a rare ability or an amazing life experience), extraordinary, strange, eccentric or downright weird;

·       Physically attractive, funny, dangerous or mysterious; or

·      Surprising (they don’t fit the stereotype of their character type).

Your characters should also be as different as possible, since they will often be working together. Having highly contrasting characters maintains reader interest, multiplies the potential for conflict with the hero and will suggest many new subplot possibilities.

To build suspense through your characters:

3.   They must have goals.

·      Common goals are: to survive, escape, win the contest or battle, become the leader, achieve their destiny, master the art, free the slaves or change the world;

·    The moment your hero forms a goal, readers will hope she achieves it – and worry about what will happen if she doesn’t;

·     Sometimes the goal (eg to survive or escape) will only appear after the character is confronted with the problem (being stalked by a killer, trapped in a bushfire).

4.   A strong hero needs a strong opponent. The opponent isn’t necessarily a villain. It can be a good person who strongly disagrees with the hero, a force of nature (flood, forest fire, epidemic), a beast or alien, or an uncaring society. But when it is a villain:

·       He should be at least as strong as the hero, and preferably stronger. You can’t make a strong story when the hero’s opponent is weak;

·      Evil villains are a cliché, and pure evil is both boring and predictable, so make your villain human. Reveal his admirable side, make his motivations clear, show why the bad things he does make perfect sense to him, and you’ll create a far more chilling antagonist;

·      If the villain is largely in the background, strengthen him by revealing how much and why everyone fears him. Show his power growing via his victories, one after another;

·      Give him advantages the hero lacks, fanatical supporters, and the power to lure away the hero’s allies.

5.   Tailor your characters to maximise suspense (for details, see Lukeman and the other refs):

·     A cautious hero won’t go down the crumbling mine shaft, but an impulsive or reckless hero will plunge in. A coward won’t jump into the sea to rescue drowning passengers, a brave man will do so instinctively. If the hero has a phobia, such as a fear of rodents, send her into a ruin full of rats;

·      Often the hero’s biggest limitation will be himself. Does he have the strength of will to confront the woman who betrayed him, or will he keep putting put it off? Is he plagued by self-doubt, or a cock-eyed optimist who believes things will come right in the end despite all evidence to the contrary?

·      Does the hero have a destiny, eg to become the next lord, president of the company, or to be the catalyst for revolution? Is this destiny foretold in the story, or is it something he’s known since birth? Is it a positive destiny, an unbearable burden or a dark and dangerous threat? Will he achieve it, or fail? And either way, what are the consequences to him and to others?

·  Create loose cannon characters. No one knows what they’ll do next and their unpredictability heightens suspense. Will the reformed drunk crack under pressure and start drinking again? Will the self-effacing heroine snap when pushed too far, and explode?

6.   Take away the hero’s ability to defend herself (or others) and you create intense suspense:

·    She’s being stalked in the dark, but drops her only weapon and can’t find it; she’s injured and can’t escape her enemy; her foot is trapped in a crack and she can’t get it out; or she’s paralysed by terror or self-doubt;

·      She sees her friend heading across the rotten bridge but is too far away to warn her; she rides to the rescue of an ally, knowing she’s going to arrive too late;

·    He fails under pressure – he could save the day with a magic spell but forgets the words, or gets them wrong with disastrous consequences;

·     His efforts are in vain – his son is suicidally depressed and he can’t get through to him;

·   She believes that her fate (or a friend’s, or the country’s) is fixed by destiny and nothing can change it.

7.   Use rapidly changing emotions to build suspense. By showing the hero’s emotions changing rapidly in response to some threat or confrontation you can build suspense to a crescendo that will bring your readers to the edge of their seats, eg:

·     Vague unease becomes fear becomes terror becomes shrieking hysteria;

·     Irritation becomes annoyance becomes anger becomes murderous rage.

8.   Create anticipation and expectation.

·     The more your hero dwells on or worries about some forthcoming event (good or bad) the more suspenseful it will be when the event is about to occur – a shy girl fretting about her wedding night; a young recruit marching to battle, sick with fear;

·      Have the hero make a complicated plan and be rashly confident that it will succeed. This will worry your readers because they know it’s going to go wrong;

·      Build up the hero’s anticipation (of winning the contest, gaining the prize, getting the girl) into expectation. Then, when he fails, the blow will be bitter. He hasn’t been beaten by the failure, but by his defeated expectation.

9.   Employ romantic and sexual tension. For variety or to further the plot, action-related suspense can be alternated with suspense arising from romantic or sexual tension between characters. Heighten suspense by:

·      Creating barriers to the relationship – love between enemies, between a human and an alien, a lover with a dark past or terrible secret;

·      Or by using obstacles to keep the lovers apart.

10. Use micro-tension – the moment-by-moment tension that keeps readers in suspense over what’ll happen in the next minute. (See Don Maass’s terrific book The Fire in Fiction for details). Micro-tension comes from the ‘emotional friction’ between characters as they try to defeat each other. The characters aren’t necessarily enemies, though. There should be tension between any two characters, whether they are opponents, servants, friends, allies or lovers. There should also be tension within the character due to inner conflicts.

·   In dialogue, show: the hero’s doubt or disbelief about what the other character is saying; the disagreement about goals or plans; the disdain, dislike, contempt or concealed hatred; the power struggles, and ego and personality clashes; bring out inner conflicts in what each character says and does;

·     Often action can be lacking in tension because we’ve seen it a thousand times before – there are only so many ways two people can have a sword fight. To make action suspenseful, get inside the head of the hero to show his conflicting feelings and emotions during the struggle. Then, break the action cliché by showing subtle visual details that give the reader a clear and vivid picture of this particular scene rather than any generic action scene;

·     Use similar techniques when writing sex or violence. Show the key moments with a handful of striking visual images. Bring out the hero’s conflicting feelings and emotions at each moment, focusing on subtle emotions rather than the obvious ones such as (in sex scenes) passion, lust or tenderness;

·    When the character is thinking or emoting, create suspense by (a) cutting restated thoughts, feelings & emotions and (b) making thoughts and emotions realistic. For instance, the hero may be outwardly happy, but is concealing or fighting some niggling worry. Or struggling with an inner conflict (justice versus vengeance, duty to an bad leader vs personal honour);

·    In descriptive passages and quiet moments, show little details that make the setting vividly real and establish the mood of the place. Describe the hero’s conflicting feelings and emotions, focusing on subtle emotions rather than obvious ones.

B. PROBLEM

The story begins when your character confronts a problem she has to solve, or forms a goal she’s determined to achieve. Problems can be of three kinds: a danger, a want or lack, or a puzzle or mystery. Dangers and lacks arouse suspense because the reader hopes the character will solve her problem, yet fears the consequences if she fails. Puzzles and mysteries create suspense through curiosity – the reader wants to know the answer.

11. Put your characters (or their friends or allies) in danger (for details see the references, especially Brown, Lyon and Lukeman).

·     Dangers can be: physical (a threat to life, health or vital functions such as eyesight, mobility or intellect); sexual (assault, pregnancy, disease); psychological (abuse, bullying, brainwashing); emotional; or moral (being led into crime, corruption or depravity);

·     Dangers can also threaten: the character’s relationships (love, friendship, family, clan, group or society); her profession, trade, career or art; her property, possessions or prospects; her sanity; her freedom;

·    Alternatively, your character could be a danger to others (he’s violent, a rapist, a psychopath or just reckless), or to himself (depressed, suicidal or reckless);

·    Expose the hero to his darkest fear – if he’s claustrophobic, trap him in a lift or a dungeon. Alternatively, make the imaginary seem vividly real (eg someone who is paranoid or psychotic).

12. Give your character a want or lack that she’s desperate to fulfil.

·    To find love or romance, support or friendship;

·    To escape from a blighted community or life;

·    To master a skill, disciple or art, or realise a dream.

13. Pose a mystery or puzzle. In some kinds of stories, particularly crime and mystery, suspense mainly comes from the puzzle the author has set, and readers’ curiosity about how the hero will solve it and what the answer is (see (26 and (27)).

14. Force the hero to face the problem. Either:

·      She has no choice because she can’t get away. She’s trapped in a locked building, slave camp, spacecraft or bureaucratic maze;

·       She has a choice but walking away would violate her own moral or ethical code. Eg, she’s on the run but sees a child in danger and has to help, no matter the risk to herself;

·   He has a choice but walking away would violate his professional duty to act – a munitions expert who has to defuse a bomb; a priest who must exorcise a demon;

·     He initially refuses but is talked (or talks himself) into it.

15. Raise the stakes.

·  You can either raise the prize for succeeding, or raise the price of failure – or, preferably, both at the same time;

·     These consequences can either apply to the hero, to people he cares for, or those he has a duty to (eg a doctor looking after a critically ill patient);

·      Remember that both the prize and the price are relative – if the emperor wins or loses a skirmish it may be trivial, whereas winning or losing his first battle will change the life of a young lieutenant.

16. Make the problem more difficult to solve.

·  Increase the likelihood that the character will lose, then show what the specific personal consequences will be;

·   Threats to the viewpoint character and his friends and family will arouse far more reader anxiety, and create more suspense, than problems facing people he doesn’t know, or people in another province or country.

17. Shorten the deadline.

·      Constantly remind your hero of the time limit;

·      Then cut it in half;

·    Slow down key scenes to heighten suspense. Show them in greater than normal detail to bring readers right into the moment.

18. Break reader expectations.

·   Readers are constantly guessing what’s going to happen next, based on stories they’ve read before, but if they know what’s going to happen, suspense dies;

·   Analyse the hero’s problem and come up with unusual twists and reversals, new problems and difficult conflicts that will confound reader expectations of what’s going to happen.

C. PLOT

Plot is made up of the hero’s successive actions get what he wants (ie to solve the story problem) and the opponent’s corresponding actions to stop him. To build suspense to an explosive pitch at the climax of the story, each new action by the hero needs to be blocked by his opponent, and either fails or leads to an even bigger problem – until the climactic scene where the story problem is finally resolved one way or another.

19. Make the story problem clear. A surprising number of manuscripts fail to set out either:

·       What the hero’s real problem or goal is;

·     Or the nature of the obstacle or antagonist that’s trying to stop him achieving this goal;

·     Or only do so many pages into the story.

The real story doesn’t begin until the hero formulates a goal and takes action to get it (see Cleaver, Immediate Fiction). Until this happens there can be little suspense or story interest, so make the hero’s goal clear as early as possible.

20. Put the hero at a disadvantage. Examples:

·   At the beginning, the hero may not know how to solve her problem; or may not understand what the real problem is (eg, she’s mistaken about her real enemy);

·     She lacks the skills to solve her problem (eg needs magic but doesn’t have any; has a gift for magic but doesn’t know how to use it);

·   She has critical personality flaws, eg her obsession with gaining justice for her murdered mother blinds her to vital friendships; his violent past leaves him paralysed with guilt; his racism leads him to refuse the aid of the one person who can help him;

·       She’s handicapped physically, mentally, emotionally or socially.

21. Increase the pressure in unpredictable ways (for details, see the references, especially Lyon):

·    Test the hero’s abilities to breaking point. Take away her friends and supporters, undermine her assets and any options she’s relying on, block her escape routes, cut the deadline in half, devalue her strongest beliefs or the things she most cares about. Anything that can go wrong, should go wrong – not just for her, but for everyone;

·   Give her more simultaneous problems than anyone can handle, so she makes damaging mistakes. Distract her with an unexpected sexual attraction. Have disagreements escalate out of control. Give her an impossible dilemma that will trouble her for ages.;

·   Thwart her at every turn. If she’s relying on aid, information or some object or talisman, have it fail to appear, or be stolen, lost or destroyed when it’s almost within her grasp. If she has a vital talent or skill, rob her of the ability to use it when she needs it most;

·     Arouse suspicion about some of her friends or allies, or use dramatic irony (see (23), below) to make readers suspect them even if the hero does not. Have a trusted ally betray her, desert her or go over to the enemy;

·    Foreshadow her fate or peril, to the audience and other characters even if not to herself. Use mysterious documents or eerie settings or symbols to create uneasiness, or show that things are not as they seem;

·    Have the hero lose contact with her mentor; injure the hero; use forces of nature (weather, fire, flood, difficult terrain) to block her;

·      Plant red herrings. Have the hero jump to false conclusions that lead her in the wrong direction or to make disastrous mistakes, or to fall into a trap. Have failures caused by misunderstandings or poor communication;

·   Set the action within some greater conflict (cultural renaissance, political drama, social upheaval, war, religious persecution) or tailor social institutions to make everything more difficult (paranoid government, martial law, police state, secret society);

·     Create an emotional time bomb (something vitally important to the hero) then, at some critical time, have it destroyed or lost;

·        Lull the hero (and readers) into a false sense of security by having things go too well for a scene or two, then create a disaster;

·    Show the hero thinking over past events and seeing something she missed that’s worrying or ominous. Or, when it’s too late, coming to a dreadful realisation.

22. Create conflict with everyone and everything.

·     With the opponent – see (4) above;

·     With family, friends and allies – see (10) above;

·     With people the hero meets on the way – they may be hostile, unreliable, treacherous, incompetent or give false or incorrect information;

·  With the setting (see 25) below, including landscape, weather, culture, politics, bureaucracy, religion;

·     Inner conflict – see (22) below.

23. Create inner conflicts and dilemmas.

·     Give the hero impossible challenges or agonising choices that test his courage, skill & moral fibre;

·    Force a good man to make invidious choices, eg between informing on his corrupt mother or betraying his country;

·     A girl sees two friends in danger and can only save one. How does she decide whom to save and whom to let die?

·   Make the hero choose between strongly held ideals (duty/honour, family/justice). Force a pacifist to fight. Require a reformed drunk to drink.

24. Use dramatic irony (ie, your readers know something vital that the characters aren’t aware of):

·      The heroine is enjoying a glass of wine by the fire, unaware that the killer is looking in through the window. She’s not anxious, but readers are on the edge of their seats;

·     The hero doesn’t realise that he’s got things disastrously wrong, but it’s obvious to the reader (and perhaps to other characters, too);

·    Write some scenes from the villain’s viewpoint so readers can worry about the trap closing on the unsuspecting hero;

·     A character bears vital or troubling news but events conspire to delay (or prevent) its delivery to those who need to know.

25. Use the unknown to create anxiety.

·     Set a scene where some terrible disaster or tragedy once occurred. The place need not necessarily be dangerous, but fear of the unknown or the past will make it seem so;

·    Arouse fear of some danger the character has to face – this could be a real-life danger (fighting a monster, swimming a flooded river) or an uncanny one (spending the night in a ghost-ridden graveyard);

·      Or an everyday ordeal (a daunting interview; meeting the girlfriend’s parents; sitting a difficult exam).

26. Put your hero in a perilous place. Analyse your scene settings and work out how you can change them to heighten tension:

·   Move the scene to a dangerous or unpredictable place. Instead of a park, use a derelict factory, a minefield or a sinking ship;

·    Make an everyday place seem dangerous, eg the hero must race across a rugged landscape in a fog;

·      Change the scene from day to night, good weather to bad, peace to riot or war, or put the hero in the middle of a plague epidemic.

27. Create mysteries. As noted above, mysteries and puzzles create suspense both because the hero has to work them out and because the reader wants to know the answer.

·      How did the disaster occur?

·      How did a good man (or company, or nation) take this fatal step into crime, addiction, insanity or war?

·      Is this document true, or a despicable lie?

·      What do these clues mean?

·      Why is this device or talisman here and how is it used?

28. Design puzzles. These can either be intellectual or physical:

·     Intellectual – riddles, conundrums, paradoxes, illusions etc;

·    Physical – how do I get in or out? Locked room mysteries. Puzzles requiring dexterity.

29. Leave issues and crises unresolved (especially at chapter or scene endings) and tension will rise because readers long for the resolution. Uncertainty and anticipation are interlinked and create suspense:

·  Uncertainty can be heightened with unexpected twists, sudden reversals and shocking disasters;

·      Foster anticipation by having the characters set out their goals, then by using omens, portents and foreshadowing to arouse unease about the goals being met;

·      Within scenes, heighten reader anticipation by using distractions and interruptions to delay longed-for meetings, confrontations, resolution of an important event, delivery of vital news etc.

30. Use reversals. Reversals of the expected are used to break expectations, clichés and repetition.

·     Lead your readers in a particular direction in order to create expectations about the outcome, then throw in a reversal that breaks the expectation. This heightens readers’ anticipation, and thus suspense, because they have no idea what’s going to happen now.

·      Scour your story for clichéd character types, plot elements, emotions, dialogue, action and reactions, then use reversals where appropriate to break the cliché.

·     Do the same where you find repetition of character types, plot elements, emotions, dialogue, action and reactions.

31. Secrets. The existence of a secret creates suspense because readers want to know the answer:

·    Rarely, a big secret can form the suspense backbone for a whole novel, such as: Who was the traitor? What happened to the money? The secret has to be developed throughout the story by drip-feeding clues that heighten the secret rather than revealing it;

·    Smaller secrets can be used to heighten suspense within scenes, eg the Hogwarts letter withheld from Harry Potter in the first book of the series, and the mysterious event (the Triwizard Tournament) which people keep alluding to early in the fourth book.

32. Use subtext (see Lyon for details). Subtext is ‘everything hidden from the awareness or observation of non-viewpoint characters’. Subtext based on rising tension will create suspense. Some sources are:

·     The hero’s physical state, feelings and emotions: eg, tears forming, sexual attraction or lust, concealed hatred, a need to throw up;

·     Hidden agendas, ie the character’s private thoughts, intentions and plans;

·     In the natural environment: a red glow over the forest, the ground shaking, the call of a wild beast;

·      In the built environment: a patch of oil on the stair, a pram on the edge of the railway platform;

·   Other characters’ behaviour or body language: man sharpening a dagger, child playing near a cliff edge.

33. Turn a dramatic event into a question. Beware of having the event completely answer a question or resolve a problem, as this undercuts suspense. Instead, have the event raise more questions, which draws out the suspense:

·     For small events, draw out the answer over a few sentences or paragraphs. Eg, policeman knocks on the door late at night. Instead of revealing upfront that the man’s wife is dead, draw out the mystery about how the crash occurred and what’s happened to her;

·        For major events, the resolution can be drawn out over pages or even chapters;

·     Scour the story for questions that deflate suspense because they’re answered too soon, and draw out the answer.

34. Make it worse.

·      There’s no problem so bad that you can’t make it worse, and you should take every opportunity to do so. But why would you want to?

·        Because character is revealed not in good times but in adversity. The worse you can make it for the hero, the more his true character will be revealed by what he does, the more the reader will worry about him and the greater the suspense.

D.   STRUCTURE

Readers read to identify with the characters and live their stories, suffering the ordeals the characters go through, worrying about them and dreading that they’ll fail to achieve their goals, yet hoping and praying that they’ll succeed. At the end, readers want to see the characters resolve their problems, and long for that tidal wave of relief when all the dramatic tension and suspense built up through the story is finally released. To build suspense, the novel needs careful structuring to:

a)     Clearly present the hero and his goal to the reader in the beginning;

b)    Portray the hero’s increasingly difficult struggle to defeat the adversary and achieve the goal;

c)    End scenes and chapters in ways that create reader uncertainty and anticipation (see (28) above; and

d)    Show how the hero achieves his goal (or not) at the climax, then satisfyingly release all the built-up tension.

35. Structure the beginning to create suspense (see Brown for details):

·      Create a hero who is both sympathetic and interesting (see (1) and (2) above);

·    Set out the story problem (ie the hero’s goal) clearly, and why he must pursue this goal;

·    Reveal the obstacle (the adversary or force that’s trying to prevent the hero from achieving his goal);

·    Twist both the characters and the goal to break stereotypes, freshen the story and surprise the reader.

36. Tailor the hero’s actions to heighten suspense: In each scene, the hero faces some problem related to her goal. The actions she takes to solve the problem should either:

·     Partially succeed, though worryingly (she finds a clue to the murder, but following it will lead her into greater danger);

·   Succeed but lead to a bigger problem (he kills the giant spider but now another hundred are hunting him); or

·    Fail and make the problem worse (she breaks into the enemy’s fortress to steal the documents, but they’re not there and now she’s trapped).

37. Vary the hero’s fortunes to maintain and heighten suspense throughout the story.

·     If every scene runs at fever pitch and ends disastrously, the law of diminishing returns sets in – the reader becomes desensitised to the drama, and suspense dies;

·    Instead, alternate tense action or drama scenes with calmer ones, and end a few scenes with the hero succeeding, and with moments of peace, happiness or hope. Variety in endings maintains suspense because the reader knows the success is only temporary; the opponent will never give up trying to defeat the hero;

·    To heighten suspense, make the hero’s failures progressively worse, and his dark moments bleaker, towards the climax.

38. Sequence the antagonist’s reactions to progressively heighten the hero’s troubles.

·    Look at each scene from the antagonist’s point of view and ask how he can make things worse for the hero. What action will cause the hero the most trouble, and what’s the worst time it can occur?

·    To heighten suspense, make these troubles progressively worse towards the climax, until it seems impossible that the hero can win.

39. Heighten critical scenes. Identify the key events in the story (those moments of intense drama that are also turning points) because they need to be carefully set up and treated differently (see Lyon). Key events can be positive (love scenes, celebrations at war’s end, the award of prizes or honours) or crises (murders, defeat in battle, guilty verdicts, terrible realisations). Build suspense by:

·   Foreshadowing the coming event to raise worrying questions and create reader anticipation. This can be done via characters thinking about or debating the possibility (eg of war), and making plans and preparations for the worst, as well as by omens, foretellings, signs and symbols;

·     Writing a small scene or moment which hints at the coming critical scene (a burning house hints at the violence and ruin of war); a shouting match foreshadows the murder to come;

·     Then a reversal – a moment that’s the opposite of the coming critical scene. Eg, in a trial, the overconfident defence lawyer has a lavish lunch with friends before returning to hear a shattering guilty verdict; immediately before the joyous wedding, the couple have a furious argument; the soldier relaxes with his family before going to bloody war. This contrast makes the critical scene far more powerful;

·    In the critical scene, use all the dramatic techniques at your disposal to raise the scene to a higher peak of suspense than anything that has gone before;

·      Afterwards, make sure the hero emotes about all that has happened, reviews how the event has made his problems worse, and reformulates his plans.

40. Climax, Resolution and Endings.

·   Vary your scene endings to maximise suspense. Some scenes should end at moments of high drama, many with unanswered questions, several with shocking twists, a few with emotional completion, and some with no more than a wry observation or pithy phrase.

·      The climax of the story, where the greatest obstacle is overcome and the hero’s story problem is finally resolved one way or another, is the biggest of all the critical scenes and must coincide with the highest point of tension and suspense.

·       If the greatest tension occurs in a scene before the climax, the ending of the story will be anticlimactic and the reader will feel let down.

·       If the story’s resolution is weak, contrived, over too quickly or in any other way fails to match the build-up of suspense to the climax, readers will be bitterly disappointed;

·    In most novels, all the key questions will be answered by the end, and the resolution provides a sense of completion plus the blissful release from suspense that readers are waiting for. Some stories may end with a dilemma, however – the main story has been resolved but there’s still a question raised in the reader’s mind about what choice the hero will make.

·    Stories which are part of a series should resolve most of the story questions at the end, but the overarching series question (eg will Harry Potter defeat Lord Voldemort) remains and creates ongoing suspense until the series ends.

41. In editing.  

·    Review the story scene by scene, rate each scene out of 10 for its level of suspense, then plot the sequence of suspense ratings. Ideally the graph should be a zigzagging line rising progressively to the climax of the story, then falling away in the resolution.

·    Does the story have flat periods with little suspense? Insufficient breaks from high suspense? The highest suspense occurring before the climax? Suspenseful moments that are too quickly resolved? Critical scenes where the suspense is too low, too brief or too similar to other scenes? A powerful climax ruined by a weak resolution? Work out how to fix these problems.

·    Common scene problems that lower suspense include: lack of a clear goal for the scene; stakes too low; lack of an obstacle or weak obstacle; too little conflict; too much thought or talk and not enough action; too much action and not enough thought, emotion or reflection; no twist or disaster at the end (see Lyon for a detailed analysis).

·    Analyse your characters (see (2) above). Can you modify or change certain character traits to vary the kinds of suspense in the story, and to heighten it in key scenes?

REFERENCES

Bell, James Scott (2004). Plot and Structure. Writer’s Digest. Probably the best book on the topic of plot and structure.

Bell, James Scott (2008). Revision and Self-Editing. Writer’s Digest. Also a great book; a wealth of practical info and examples.

John D Brown (2011). Key Conditions for Reader Suspense (27-part article). http://www.sfwa.org/2010/12/key-conditions-for-suspense/ An excellent series of articles.

Cleaver, Jerry (2002). Immediate Fiction. St Martin’s Griffin. No one has ever explained the craft of storytelling more clearly or simply.

Kress, Nancy (2005). Characters, Emotion and Viewpoint. Writer’s Digest. Excellent book on these topics.

Lukeman, Noah (2002). The Plot Thickens. St Martin’s Griffin, New York. Terrific chapters on characterisation, suspense and conflict, a lot of stuff I’ve never thought of before.

Lyon, Elizabeth (2008). Manuscript Makeover, Revision Techniques no Fiction Writer can Afford to Ignore. Perigee Trade. In my view, the best book on revision and self-editing.

Maass, Donald (2009). The Fire in Fiction. Writer’s Digest. He identifies the problems his agency sees over and over again in manuscripts and tells you how to fix them. A fantastic book.

Truby, John (2007). The Anatomy of Story – 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller. Faber and Faber. A fascinating and insightful book.

Vorhaus, John (1994). The Comic Toolbox. Silman James Press. Not just the best book on comic writing, but better than all the others put together.

About me: I'm an Australian marine scientist. I've written 27 novels, including the internationally bestselling Three Worlds fantasy sequence, an eco-thriller trilogy about catastrophic climate change, Human Rites, and 12 books for children, most recently the Grim and Grimmer humorous adventure fantasy series.

My next epic fantasy novel is Vengeance, Book 1 of The Tainted Realm, to be published by Orbit Books in Australia in November 2011, and in the US and UK in April 2012.

For more on my books, including covers, blurbs, reviews and the first chapters of all of my novels and my 2 novellas, see my site: http://www.ian-irvine.com/

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