Suspense - The Journal Pulp

Posts from the ‘Suspense’ Category

A Thread Of Apprehension
August 1st, 2012 | Storytelling, Suspense | journalpulp | 5 Comments
Holding the reader’s attention is the total goal, and among the most effective ways to do this is by creating what I’ve come to call A Thread of Apprehension. Give your readers something to fret over. Here, from a Booker-Prize winning novel called The Sea, The Sea, by Iris Murdoch, is an excellent example: The [...]
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Misdirection And Surprise
February 23rd, 2012 | Plot, Suspense | journalpulp | No Comments
Seven o’clock in the evening. A hot and moth-populated mountain night. Gasteneau sat alone in a rundown motel on the outskirts of town, a cheap room that he’d rented for this reason, because it was cheap, and because he could have it by the day or by the week, and because it was spacious and [...]
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Five Ways To Generate Suspense
February 22nd, 2012 | Plot, Suspense | journalpulp | 2 Comments
Suspense, which isn’t a genre but a specific manifestation of plot, is when you can’t put the book down because you must learn what happens next. Suspense is when you’re champing at the bit. Here are five ways to keep readers in suspense: 5. Arrange your events in such a way that readers will wonder [...]
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A Game That Writers Play
September 30th, 2011 | Characterization, Plot, Storytelling, Suspense, Writers | journalpulp | 2 Comments
There’s a game that certain writers like to play, and it’s not called Hide-The-Salami (although that game is popular among certain writers as well, myself perhaps foremost among them). In the game I’m talking about, someone — anyone — comes up with a random list of words or components, and the writer is then asked [...]
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The Situation
August 5th, 2011 | Plot, Storytelling, Suspense, The Situation | journalpulp | 4 Comments
The best stories are those that can be summed up in one sentence. Said John O’Hara. A solid story hinges upon The Situation. The Situation is not the whole story but the essence of that story’s conflict, which will in turn shape the events of your plot. Here is an example of a situation: On [...]
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Creating Suspense: Getting Readers To Eat Out The Palm Of Your Hand
July 18th, 2011 | Plot, Storytelling, Suspense | journalpulp | 2 Comments
If you want to rivet readers, you must give readers something to worry about. Make the reader nervous. Make her feel intrigued. Make her curious. This issue, which is very closely associated with plot, is called suspense. Suspense is when your eyes are nailed to the screen. It’s when you’re coming out of your seat. [...]
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