On Writing Suspense

Jenny Blake | @ausjenny

Today we have Sandra Orchard visiting us talking about Suspense. Welcome Sandra. 

So you think you might like to write a suspense? 

Well, I’m Sandra Orchard and in the last seven years, I’ve had 16 novels—romantic suspense, mysteries and cozies—traditionally published. And here are my top five tips to help you get started. 

1) Know readers’ expectations of your subgenre 

Writing genre fiction is all about meeting readers’ expectations. So . . . the first thing you need to do is figure out what kind of “suspense” novel you’re writing. 

For example, if it’s a suspense with romantic elements, don’t pitch it as romantic suspense, because a true romantic suspense has both a full suspense plot, and a full romance plot that are intertwined throughout the story. And publishers such as Love Inspired Suspense know their readers want both the emotional satisfaction of a romance and the adrenalin of a suspense, and the odd romantic element tossed into an otherwise riveting suspense won’t cut it for their readers. 

And a mystery is entirely different again. In a mystery, the protagonist sets out to solve a crime that has already been committed. Readers approach mysteries with the anticipation of solving a puzzle along with the sleuth. Whereas, a a suspense is more like a coil that tightens around the protagonist. She’s in a race to avoid being the victim of a crime and the reader is more concerned about how much damage the villain will cause if he’s not stopped. Thrillers may be all of that with high action to boot.

2) Research, research, research

The more you know about the elements you wish to include in your story, the more authentic it will read. If you say, she smelled cordite after a pistol was fired, every reader who knows anything about modern guns will know you didn’t do your research. Research crimes, technology, occupations, personalities, even settings. 

Tension is often heightened in the details.

3) Use Setting to Up the Suspense

Use all five senses to immerse the reader in the action, to foreshadow and to drop clues. But … don’t stop the story to convey description. Same goes for all the other research you’re itching to include in the story. Keep description active, sprinkling it in as the story unfolds. Choose strong verbs and nouns that show the mood of the pov character to do double duty of both heightening suspense, as well as showing the character’s internal conflicts. 

For example, in my debut novel Deep Cover, I give readers this glimpse of the opening scene: 

Rick glanced skyward and prayed for a miracle. A lone backhoe loomed on the horizon, silhouetted against the steel gray sky, its tires caked in mud. Too bad the machine wasn’t big enough to dig him out of this mess. 

Notice the word choices: Loomed, steel-gray, dig, mess—they show his frustration without ever saying he’s frustrated and they ratchet up the stakes for him. 

4) Craft your Villain well 

A common mistake among beginning crime writers is to create two-dimensional, slow-witted villains. The villain’s motives should be as realistic and believable as your main characters’. Your villain’s background must be as well fleshed out as your hero and heroine’s. In my opinion, a well-characterized villain can totally justify his actions in his own mind. He needs to be a worthy opponent. Also, give him a redeeming quality.

5) Play fair

Facts are facts. You can’t pretend they’re not, just to make your life easy. That said, it’s okay if everything in your story isn’t 100% possible, but within your story world it does have to be plausible. 

Moreover, you must play fair with the reader. That means logic counts, and you can’t pull a convenient explanation or twist out of the blue; you have to set it up first. Every detail you’ve written matters, especially in whodunits. As the adage goes, if she’s going to shoot the gun hanging over the fireplace in ch 18, you better have shown it in ch 2. 

Bonus Tip: 

Up the tension and urgency in a scene with short sentences and short paragraphs, even a single word. 

Your Turn: 

Share a suspense writing tip or something you often see in suspense novels that drives you batty.   Or ask a question and I’ll do my best to answer it. 

Today's post is cross posted at Christian Writers Downunder

Sandra Orchard—winner of the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award, the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Daphne du Maurier Award of Excellence, and several Canadian writing awards—leaps off the garden trails of her herbal-medicine-researcher-turned-amateur-sleuth (Port Aster Secrets) series, to the museum corridors of her plucky FBI art crime agent Serena Jones, in A Fool and His Monet, Another Day Another Dali and Over Maya Dead Body. She’s also contributing to several multi-author cozy mystery series with Annie’s Fiction. When not plotting crimes, Sandra plays make-believe with her young grandchildren or hikes with her hubby and husky near their home in Ontario, Canada.

Connect at: www.sandraorchard.com 
http://www.Facebook.com/SandraOrchard 
https://www.pinterest.com/AuthorSOrchard/

Exploring Genre - Unraveling the Mystery of Writing Mysteries

by Virginia Smith | @VirginiaPSmith

Please welcome Virginia Smith to our blog today to talk about mystery. Now over to Virginia.

The contract for my first mystery came as a surprise. At a writers’ conference I sat beside an editor at dinner. During the meal she said she was interested in seeing proposals for mysteries. Though I enjoyed reading mysteries, I’d never written one. Still, ideas began pinging around in my brain. We were eating chicken with mushroom sauce. The week before I’d had lunch with a friend who was a wild mushroom specialist and was occasionally called to the hospital to consult on cases of mushroom poisoning.

Voila!

As we left the table I said to the editor, “I have an idea for a mystery. A kitchen klutz decides to impress everyone by making a casserole for the church potluck, but someone slips poisonous mushrooms into her casserole to poison a gossipy old lady.” The editor smiled and said, “I like it. Send me the manuscript.”

Naturally I was thrilled – for about 30 seconds. Then I panicked. I didn’t have a manuscript. I didn’t even have a paragraph. And I didn’t know how to write a mystery. I rushed to the library and checked out a book called Writing the Modern Mystery. And I learned. Several months later the editor bought that story, which became my first mystery, Murder by Mushroom.

When a writer approaches a mystery, the first consideration is the sub-genre. The differences may be subtle, but they are important in order to meet reader expectations. There are many mystery sub-genres, but the major ones include:

Cozy – A cozy mystery includes a bloodless crime, meaning the reader is not subjected to icky details of the murder or the murder scene. The story often takes place in a small town and may have an element of humor. The plot reveals a series of clues which the sleuth (usually an amateur) follows to solve the crime. Agatha Christie perfected the cozy sub-genre.

Police Procedural – These stories focus on the investigation by one or more law enforcement officers. The reader is treated to an inside look at the investigative process and analysis of the crime from a police perspective.

Private Eye – The sleuth is a professional crime investigator but not a police officer. Like the cozy, the plot movement is established by the sleuth’s discovery of a series of clues.

Legal or Medical – The plot progression and the resolution of the mystery center on the details of either a legal or medical process.

Suspense – Danger is a necessary element in these stories. The sleuth, or someone close to him, is in jeopardy for a large portion of the plot. Solving the crime may be of secondary importance. A successful suspense novel includes a ‘ticking time bomb,’ an element of urgency to find the criminal before disaster occurs.

Romantic Suspense – Like a suspense story, these books establish tension through the threat of personal danger but also combine a strong romantic element. In this sub-genre the romance is equally as important as the mystery. To create a tightly-plotted romantic suspense novel, the suspense element must be related to the romance in some way. The hero and heroine’s developing relationship is enhanced as they work together to solve the mystery and escape the threat of danger.


Once the genre is established, the writer can design the plot. What clues will be given to the reader, and at what point in the story? Who are the suspects, and what are their motives for committing the crime? How will the writer hide the identity of the perpetrator from the reader? When will the identity be revealed? (Many mysteries reveal the antagonist toward the end of the story, but suspense novels may differ.)

The placement of the clues is critical to maintaining tension from the first chapter to the last. A good mystery writer creates a series of questions in readers’ minds. When one question is answered, another is revealed. This technique keeps readers turning pages.

I’ll share two tips I keep in mind when writing a mystery. First, everyone has a secret. Every character is hiding something. It may not be relevant to the crime, but the sleuth doesn’t know that. She only knows Mr. Brown wasn’t where he claimed to be at the time of the murder. Did he commit the crime? She must find out why he lied.

The second technique I employ is to throw in a shocker. I build suspicion of one character throughout the first half of the book. Then, when the reader is convinced that Mrs. Blue killed her husband, I kill off Mrs. Blue! The reader is thrown into confusion – and they love it.

Since that writers’ conference I’ve been fortunate to have opportunities to write in several genres. The techniques I’ve learned while writing mysteries apply to nearly every story. I’ve decided that any book is better with a mystery woven into the plot. And to think – it all started with mushrooms.

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This post is being shared on the Australasian Christian Writers blog and the Christian Writers Downunder blog.

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VIRGINIA SMITH is the bestselling author of over 30 novels, more than half of which are mysteries. Two of Ginny’s romantic suspense novels were finalists for the Daphne du Maurier Award of Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, and two received Holt Medallion Awards of Merit. Learn more about Ginny and her books at www.VirginiaSmith.org, www.facebook.com/ginny.p.smith, and @VirginiaPSmith.

Doing vs Being

By Ruth Amos

One of the things I struggle with on an almost daily basis when it comes to writing is that there is no guarantee of the outcome. I’m not talking financial outcome here although there’s no guarantee of that either. But I’m talking about the outcome when it comes to working for God.

I was raised in a missionary family (in Australia) and we were always encouraged to share the gospel with others. I have been a part of children’s camps, door knocking, street drama, one-on-one conversations with strangers in the street, prayer walks, church child and youth ministry, worship leading, you name it, I’ve probably done it.

I’ve been trained to jump out of my comfort zone and stretch myself and share the Good News with anyone and everyone. I have almost felt that if I don’t feel uncomfortable, then maybe I’m not doing enough for God. Maybe I’m not doing God’s will.

Now, I’m an introvert. Living in mission communities, going on camps, talking to complete and utter strangers - these things are not me! I can do them, I’m socially able and I’ve been both formally and informally trained to do this kind of thing since infancy. But these activities, well, they don’t belong in my happy place.

What is my happy place? It’s sitting in my study, reaching into my imagination, putting words on a page. I love writing.

I hear many authors say that they love ‘having written’ rather than the writing itself, but I tell you - compared to a youth camp, writing is wonderful. And having written is even better!

But the question I struggle with is ‘am I doing enough?’

It takes a long time to write a novel, especially when working full time and helping out at church and raising a family. And I wonder whether it is ok to go on turning down ‘ministry opportunities’ just so that I can sit in my happy place and write. You have to say no to some things to say yes to writing, but does God want me to say no to these obvious kingdom building activities so that I can say yes to being comfortable by myself at home?

And look, if I knew that my little novel could be as successful in reaching people for Jesus as, say, the Narnia series, then of course the sacrifice would be worth it. But I don’t know what its impact will be at all. My novel that I’m spending years working on might not even be published. It might be ripe for the rubbish bin. I’ve heard that first novels often are.

How is that God’s plan?

Where are the results?

How am I kingdom building while sitting in my study working on my craft?

But here’s the thing: God doesn’t want me for what I can do for him. God just wants me. All of me. He wants a relationship with me.

I’ve been encouraged by several podcast and interviews of do-ers to whom God has said ‘I just want you to stop and worship.’ People like Phil Vischer of Veggie Tales, and Bill Myers - McGee and me. Both of these men were working full-on for God when God stopped them in their tracks and told them that they needed to stop doing, and start being more fully in relationship with Him.

God loves me. Full stop. Not because of what I do, not for how many people I bring into the kingdom. I mean, let’s be honest - He does all the bringing anyway.

Sometimes God asks us to jump out of our comfort zones and stretches us, and sometimes he uses the gifts and personalities he’s given us and asks us to do what is beautifully comfortable.

And what we need to do? We need to be willing. Ready. We need to LOVE the Lord our God.

And we can do that in our studies, our supermarkets, on the street, in camps, in our families, everywhere.

Let’s work on being like Jesus, lets spend time loving Jesus, and leave the results up to him.

http://www.writefromthedeep.com/?powerpress_pinw=683-podcast

http://sheridanvoysey.com/encore-episode-veggietales-creator-phil-vischer-on-dreams-loss-and-god/

"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life" 

Ruth's ambition is to lead a quiet life. Some days she is more successful than others. She works three jobs, looks after her family and helps out at church, not to mention the coffee she drinks with friends. She wants to share her quiet life moments here.