As most of you know, I was offered a job in a very low income, tiny area with a lot of issues and I accepted. So I'm not ignoring you guys whatsoever. I'm literally just very concerned about my students. I have five preps and it's insane. Juniors, seniors, two APs, and speech. It's been a very, very busy few months, but I thought I'd stop in for a few moments while I'm not lesson planning or grading or whatever else it is I do all day.
And since it's October (and I've gotten a few requests for this in the last few weeks (sorry I'm just now responding!)), let's talk about something fun: Suspense
A lot of people ask me how to build suspense (and this isn't a writing "how-to" because there are no rights and wrongs when it comes to writing and I find "how-to's" stupid, because that just insinuates that writing is formulaic) so I can't tell you how, but I can give some suggestions. So let's do it!
1. Word choice is important
This one is often overlooked for the soul purpose that suspense, horror, and thrillers seem to have a set vocabulary that people rely a little too much on in my opinion. People use words like "eerie", "creepy", "terrifying", "nervous", "scary", and the like to instill a feeling of fear and suspense, and while they are successful to an extent, they're also overused and losing their magic.
Instead, I want you guys to really think about diction. I love teaching about diction and giving word choice assignments, because I love words. Seriously. I love words.
So here's the deal. When we're writing something suspenseful, we have to think about the words we're using. It's not enough to just use words predominately associated with horror (like ghostly). We have to think about all aspects of the word. What are the connotations surrounding these words. (Connotations are the emotional and societal feelings and definitions we attach to words). Try to pick words that have dark undertones. While scary and daunting have the same meaning denotatively, scary is more juvenile while daunting is often applied to an overarching idea or task. Does that make sense? No. Is Addy going on another one of her crazy language trips she sometimes takes? Yes. Let's move on.
We also have to think of how a word sounds. That sounds weird, right? But hear me out (I'm so funny making puns). We want to think about cacophony and euphony. (What the hell are you talking about Addy? (This is the kind of thing I give extra credit for, if someone can explain these things)). I'll try to make this short and sweet.
Let's think about this in terms of music: cacophony are the dark, unpleasing sounds. It's the clash of notes. It's when you play and E and an F together and it makes your skin crawl. So some letters we typically associate with cacophony are in the word itself, "c". When you say the "c" (or even "k" in words like "creepy", "kill", "scary", it feels like you're spitting on people. Your lips curl up in a snarl. Try it!
Another is "s", like "spooky", "shocking", "distress", etc. These letters slip off the tongue and make you shiver, because they're so sinister (someone stop me). It's like a snake. They hiss at you and make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.
You can also look at "d" and "p" as a booming or popping sound and "t" as a sharp, snapping sound. "Disgust", "dreadful", "repulsive", "terror", "panic", "apprehension". Someone name more. I'm using cliché horror words!
Euphony is the pleasing sounds. The harmony. Soft sounds are associated with this, usually with "e", "m", and "n". Does anyone understand? Does anyone want to try to explain this better? Any questions? Leave them in the comments. This is a hard lesson to teach over simple text...but we'll try to get it down! But for now, let's move on.
2. Suspense has to be built
Reading a book is not like watching a movie. While it may make you jump out of your seat when jaws pops out of the corner of the screen without being announced by the dramatic music, it's probably not going to work as well in your story. Writing BOOM and watching a shark jump out of the water don't typically have he same effect.
Instead, it works best when you build suspense in your book. I always disliked it when writers say "when out of nowhere" something dramatic happens, like a bullet whizzes by the character's head or someone jumps out of a tree or whatever. To me, that doesn't do much but disrupt my focus while I try to readjust the image in my head. Anyone else with me, or do you like when writers use the "when out of nowhere" thing? I'm guilty of it myself, because there is a time and place for it. When you want a scene to be disjointed and confusing, it's a great tool to use. When you want your readers checking under their bed and peeking around corners when they put the book down, you have to build up to the climax.
I don't want you to tell me the monster came out of nowhere. I want you to start playing creepy music in the background so I know something is coming, I just don't know when. How do we do this? We drop clues. We can talk about how Rebecca just got home from work and she swears she left the bedroom door open, but it's closed. Wait a second, was that a footstep upstairs? No, surely that was just the cat. Even though, hang on, the cat is on the couch sleeping. Oh shit, what was the squeak? It sounded unmistakably like her closet door, the one she's been meaning to get fixed because that creak is so annoying. Maybe it was just a draft. And for some reason the window in the kitchen is open, but maybe she accidentally left it open last night. And where in the world did her keys go, she swears she set them down on the table by the door the second she walked in.
See. Just like that we know someone is in Rebecca's house without saying she came home, sat on the couch, and out of nowhere was grabbed. We're with Rebecca as she starts noticing weird things that she tries to rationalize as exaggeration (because don't you try to reason with yourself whenever you're getting scared? No, Addy. There is not a monster under your bed, it's just your stupid cat, because he's an asshole that likes to hide under there and bat at the covers). When we finally agree with Rebecca that someone is in the house, it's too late. We know someone is there. We know something is coming. Something big is going to happen. But we have no idea when. See how much better that is?
3. Use your character's reactions to build suspense
Your character's fear is a really powerful way to build suspense. We want to root for the main character and when they're afraid, we should be afraid. When they're anxious and can hardly sit still, we should be nervous. A lot of people don't like their characters to react, but how can you write a story that way? If I'm reading something suspenseful, I want to feel it in the characters. Otherwise, I feel dumb if I'm the only one afraid.
Going back to the previous example, I could've been talking about the way Rebecca's heart is beating so loud she can't tell if it's footsteps or not. We can talk about how her hands are sweating as she reaches for her keys that have disappeared. We can mention her stumbling over her own feet as she tiptoes into the kitchen. There are so many things we can use to build suspense. There's no reason to say "BOOM! Something big is happening, pay attention". Build it up until your readers can't sit still anymore. Have them jumping out of their seats yelling at you to go ahead and break the tension, they can't handle it anymore!
Use your character's reactions. Make them shake. Make them shiver. Make their hearts race. Make them sweat. Make them start to ramble on in their thoughts as they try to rationalize their fears. They don't always have to be level headed. Your characters can freak out and hopefully your readers freak out with them.
And that's all I have about suspense for the moment. I have a lot of work to do, so I'm just going to leave it at that. It's a pretty comprehensive list. If you guys have something to add, go right ahead! If we get enough extra info we might make an additional chapter! And you guys will get credit for your contributions! Yay!
Otherwise, what do you think about suspense? Any tips? Suggestions? Agree? Disagree? Do you have anything to say? As usual, leave your thoughts in the comments. Or my inbox. Or email. Or message board. I don't care. I just like hearing from y'all.
But don't worry, I won't leave without telling you guys my funny story. So, like I said, I got offered a job because my background working with abused and neglected children and so the majority of the kids in my class now have serious psychological and behavioral problems. But they're actually great kids. And they've been responding really well to me. It helps they know I came from a really small town and I have a lot of experience with a lot of the things they're going through.
Anyway, they finally figured out who my best friend is (this school isn't so far away from my hometown, so they know where I'm from, but our schools were different conferences, so we never competed in sports or anything). But as it turns out, one of their coaches used to be an assistant coach at my high school when I was there and apparently their coach has made my best friend a legend to these kids. And one week the Quarterback made this amazing play that was nominated for play of the week by a local new station and I sent the link to the story and everything to my best friend and he sent a message back for me to tell the kid he did a great job. And now the football team is infatuated with my best friend.
They have their coach send me videos of their games to me so I can send them to my best friend and he can critique them when he has a chance. I let them know when I have the "report" back and they come to my room at lunch and discuss football. And they think it's great. And the other day one of them brought in a picture of the record boards in the gym of our old high school. My best friend holds nine records and I hold two for our school. And the kid made me sign the picture. I have no idea where he got it or why he had it, but he was so proud. It was hilarious. They're great kids.