Creating Suspense and Immediacy
September 2nd, 2010
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My Regency historical is also a bit of a romantic suspense. But, as I’ve been going back over my story and synopsis post pregnancy, (read: after the resuscitation of many of my brain cells) I’ve realized there’s not a lot of suspense in my suspense.
There’s the plot. They’re trying to trap the “villain.” To gain enough information about him to put him in jail and avenge an innocent party. But, that’s the plot, not the suspense.
So, I ruminated. I picked and pulled at my brain, trying to find a way to keep readers at the edge of their seat. I want them asking: will they catch the villain at his dastardly deeds or will the slippery fellow get away again? Worse, will he accomplish his goal before they do?
Ultimately, I found myself asking, “Who cares?” Not in a this-is-a-boring-storyline kind of way, but in a who-has-the-most-to-lose kind of way.
When I started, the only one who really cared if the villain got caught was my hero. If the villain is caught, my hero’s brother is avenged and my hero’s reputation is quasi-repaired. But, that was all I had.
Initially, my heroine sort of just got drug into the conflict. She was collateral damage, forced to be part of catching the villain due to extenuating circumstances. But she didn’t care because of her own motivation and I decided it would be more suspenseful if she wanted to catch the bad guy all on her own. So, I added an external conflict that would be resolved if she got involved, namely, the hero offers to pay her a lot for her help and she needs the money to accomplish a very altruistic goal.
Finally, I decided the villain needed to care. At the onset, he just didn’t want to be caught for the sake of it. I mean, who wants to go to jail? But that’s not an interesting reason because, in fact, no one wants to go to jail. I wanted something specific to him, something that was compelling. Something that makes him hell-bent on working at odds to my hero and heroine. I’m still working on that part.
But I realized that there was a trend here. I wanted all my characters to have a stake in the outcome of their actions. And, I wanted that “stake” to be something immediate. It couldn’t be something without a timeframe. My hero only has a certain time to catch the villain because once the villain realizes he’s on to him, he’ll disappear and my hero will lose his chance. My heroine needs to take the “job” my hero has offered because she needs the money—fast. My villain can’t run and hide even when he’s foiled because of… well, something I haven’t figured out yet.
Their needs have to be immediate and volatile and in complete opposition. And they have to be completely invested. No turning back.
My story gets a little life or death. But I don’t think suspense in every story has to be that dire. I think as long as the characters have an immediate need that is in opposition to another character, an author creates tension and suspense.
So, I wanted to see how everyone else does this. How do you create the suspense between your characters, the immediacy of them accomplishing their goals? Anyone want to offer up their own hero’s or heroine’s motivations for example?
I spent the last ten weeks childless and pretty much all alone. Except for Bumblebee, but he’s not much of a conversationalist. Back in May I had big plans. Big goals and for the first time, they were within sight.
So now kiddo is back, my dad is here for a visit, and I have a month to get this shit done. Here’s my new plan. The desk is going into my bedroom so I can sequester myself as far from the living room and television as I can get. It’ll be right in front of a wall so I can plaster my storyboard up there. September will be all writing all the time.









