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 Australasian Christian Writers

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.

Introducing a reader.

Hi all. This is my first post here so I thought I would introduce myself. Around the online I use the nickname Ausjenny due to the very first board I was ever on having many Jenny's and one other using Jenny from Downunder. I started using Ausjenny as its so much easier to type and it wasn't taken at that stage. I am Ausjenny on most boards, forums etc and it distinguishes me. 


I started blogging just over 4 years ago answering a meme from Camy Tang. I started the blog in a simple way by adding a few reviews, then joined a blog alliance to help promote new books and gain free books to read and review. I then added interviews and still remember my first ever interview was with Mary Connealy. Since then I now do a regular getting to know you interview every Thursday where I introduce authors to readers. 


The past year I have been able to introduce Australian authors and books to my readers which has been a real joy. I have a reader friend in Canada who has loved being introduced to Australian fiction. I love learning more about authors and love being able introduce and promote authors and books.

One question I ask in my interviews is what were your favourite books when you were a child. I have been interested in the answers. As a child my first favourite book was a book of  fairytales. It had 3 stories with one being The Snow Queen which I feel in love with. My next favourite was The Magic Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton. I loved these books and many of her other books. I reread them so many times. I so wanted a tree like that one in my back yard. I have found authors from the Commonwealth countries often mention Enid Blyton but so far no American authors have. I also loved Seven Little Australians and the Billabong books. 2 of my favourite books were Betsy, and the other book was Helen Keller's Teacher. I loved this book.

After school I didn't read a lot for many years until an older lady from church gave me the first book in Janette Oke's Canadian West series. I devoured this book and she gave me the second book early for  my birthday and I then bought the rest in the series. This gave me a love for Mounties, Canada and reading. I have watched the Christian fiction scene changed in the past 25 or so years from just a few novels to where it is today. I am also excited to see the Australian Christian Fiction growing also. I am loving the range we have and looking forward to more exciting things. I am on a few forums at Goodreads and many say they want to read books set in Australia and they want the Australian voice. I look forward to more exciting times.


Thanks for bearing with me for this post. I am not a writer and normally just post interviews and reviews. This has been an interesting experience. 

Jenny Blake aka Ausjenny has her own blog at http://ausjenny.blogspot.com where she posts reviews, interviews and information on new books. Jenny is always looking for authors to feature on her blog.