Adding suspense to your story

Suspense—a feeling of intense excitement about how something will end

Three techniques to make your reader wonder, worry, and wait:

• Story Questions-raising questions through a character’s thoughts or dialogue.
• Ex/ What was that?  Did you hear something?
• Unknown Subjects-using nonspecific nouns or pronouns to describe a person or thing before naming it  (Good words to use: it, something, someone, he, she, they, etc.) 
• Sophie allowed her eye to travel further and further down the street.
  Suddenly she froze. There was something coming up the street on the opposite side.
  It was something black . . .
  Something tall and black . . .
  Something very tall and very black and very thin.
  (Dahl, Roald. The BFG. New York: Puffin, 1982.)
• Logical Explanation- dismissing warning signs of a troubling event with a reasonable explanation (False alarms can create suspense in a similar way.)
• Ex/ Casey heard the leaves crunch behind her as if she were being followed.  Determined to face her fear, she turned around, only to see a squirrel scurrying frantically to the nearest tree.

As you write, remember the “Magic of Three” in your story:

• three questions before giving the answer
• three unnamed subjects before giving a name
• three logical explanations before the troubling event

Here is the video we watched in class about slowing down time. Remember you will need to have at least one slow motion scene in your mystery story. 

Ted Ed Video