Your Readers Love an Element of Suspense. Here's How to Give it to Them

Whether you're writing an action thriller, a short story, or anything in between, a carefully placed piece of suspense will keep your readers turning those pages wanting to know the outcome.

But my biography, or my non-fiction book on train spotting doesn't need suspense, surely? Oh, yes it does. But more about that later.

Let's take a look at the two main types of suspense you can use.

First there is the 'signpost' suspense. This is where something happens, or is said, or is described that hints at some outcome, pleasant or unpleasant, in the future. Here is an example:

'I was shown into a dimly lit room. On one wall hung a painting. It was grimed with age, but I could make out the shapes of two people, a man and a woman. The man was holding a short sword in one hand, and as I looked, I felt a strange uneasiness creep over me. Why this was so I couldn't tell just then, but I wanted to leave that room and never come back.'

The reader will get the message that something about this painting forbodes ill for the future in the story. Notice the phrase 'just then', this tells the reader that later he or she did find out. It's a signpost, a hint of dark things to come. Your readers will read avidly to find out what happens.

Next there is the 'up to their eyes' suspense. James Bond, Indiana Jones and other high action stories place the characters in desperate physical situations to keep us on the edge of our seats. Impossible car chases and underground passages filled with rats come to mind. If you want to keep your readers frantically turning pages you need to keep them in fraught situations throughout in order to build up the suspense.

Sometimes the suspense is a little less fraught with physical danger. For instance in a romance story you can keep your readers in a state of agitation which hangs on whether the heroine is going to marry the rich squire or turn him down for the penniless farmers son.

What about the biography or non-fiction book? Believe it or not, the same applies to them. For example:

'When I was 17 I longed to join the Army and fight for my country. So I went down to the recruiting office, lied about my age, and got enlisted. If only I had known what this decision would have made to my life and to that of my parents, I would never have been so rash.'

You can see that readers will want to find out how this decision changed all those lives.

'One of the most serious forms of blight is orange spot. Many gardeners say it can't be cured but I'm going to let you into my own secret cure later in this chapter.'

It's a good idea to plan at what point the suspense occurs and at what point it is resolved. In all probability the object of suspense and it's resolution in a short story may be the reason for the story in the first place. In a book you may want to have a series of suspenseful situations throughout. Do make these episodes of varying degrees, though, as you don't want your readers in a constant state of frenzy through all 80,000 words!