Sea of Genres: Suspense

Welcome to the very first installment of "Sea of Genres"!

Suspense is definitely one of my favorite genres to read. I love good, old, nail-biting action that keeps me on my toes throughout the book. This is the genre I will be covering today. I'm going to focus on giving you the most important tips that I think help your stories come to life.

Breaking up the suspense is a very useful tool in making your book fun to read and is helpful for actually keeping the suspense factor in your action scenes. You don’t want a book that is completely high action scenes. There has to be some balance between those scenes and ones that diffuse the tension a little bit.

This both makes it so the more intense scenes are actually intense and not boring and can sometimes lure your reader into a false sense of security (cue evil laugh).

Now, there are a few ways to do this, but these are the main two.

1. Humor

Add humor to your book.

In between heart-wrenching, nail-biting scenes, add some fun stuff. Add some humor. Maybe you have a side character who just really likes to crack jokes or maybe your characters are put into a funny situation.

It’s important to remember that the reader doesn’t just want straight suspense and seriousness throughout the entire book. That can actually make those high-tension scenes seem rather boring.

Humor can make your reader smile. And whether it’s a suspense, romance, sci-fi, or even a horror themed book, you want your reader to smile at least once. Humor is the best way to do it.

You need humor in all your genres. Even just a little bit. This is one way to keep your reader engaged.

2. Fluff

“Fluff”.

This is the second thing you can add to separate action scenes.

"Fluff" could mean romance, it could mean a cute scene between siblings, it could mean your main character gets a dog and really loves it.

Basically, “fluff” is just something happy and normal that can loosen the tension your reader’s been thrown into with the suspenseful scenes. Normally, it’s a scene where you go, “Aww,” or get a sappy smile on your face.

Too many of these can be a little cheesy or cause you to cringe, but in a book where tensions are high, they are a much needed break for your reader.

Let's say two characters—character A and character B—are on the run together and they're hiding out. They were just pushed off a bridge in their rental car by the people trying to kill them and they had to swim for shore, barely escaping with their life. They'd found a barn to hide out in for the night and all was well.

Until, character A realizes they're comrad, character B, is injured. Somehow the glass from the window they'd kicked to get out of the car when it went down into the water had cut the character's arm. They could have a moment, either a friendship building moment or a romantic moment. Then they could get woken up in the night and the action would begin again.

But do you see my point?

Adding in a little sweet stuff or just stuff that's a not full of suspense and more normal helps keep the character developement and the plot going while engaging your reader at the same time.

Make sure you don't forget that these are people you're writing about.

Now don't get me wrong, I love a fancy dancy fighting move or when the character gets out of a jam in a really cool way. But I think sometimes, we all have to remember that if it's a suspense genre, we are writing about real people who probably can't do all the cool things that James Bond can do.

Unless they're actually trained in some way which is, by all means, awesome.

But most normal people don't have Hulk strength or the flexibility of Elastigirl.

Basically, this goes for any genre but make sure you remember your characters are real people. If they were trained in self defense or were a part time spy or something, cool. But if not, make sure you take that into account and make the feats they perform realistic.

Don't make action-filled scenes too wordy.

This is a well-known lesson in writing, but anytime you are writing an action scene, you don't want to focus a ton on description—especially since you are trying to create suspense and tension.

I mean, if you are writing about how someone is about to fall off a train and then you start describing in-depth the color shoes they're wearing, I can about guarantee the scene is going to lose it's tension.

Also, if some people are fighting, that is not the time to put your fancy word skills to use. We don't want similes about how one person dodged the other one like a frightened puppy.

In high-tension scenes, that is when we make our sentences shorter, less descriptive, and more fast-paced. It keeps the book going and keeps the reader's heart rate up.

My final tip for you all is this:

"Suddenly".

Alright, writers. This tip isn't just for suspense. It's actually an overall tip to keep in mind while writing anything, but I see it in suspense most of the time. So I decided to add it to this post.

Often times when something sudden is happening, writers use the word "suddenly" before it.

Don't get me wrong, it's not bad to do that. I just think that there are better options.

For example:

I smiled, stepping up to the counter. As my hand reached the mug holding my coffee, an explosion rocked the ground and I was thrown back, landing with a thud.

Instead of writing, "Suddenly, an explosion rocked the ground." I wrote "As my hand....an explosion rocked the ground."

Basically, the formula is: as (I or someone else could do something) a (disaster or sudden thing) happened.

Another formula is: before (I or someone else could do something) a (disaster or sudden thing) happened.

If you write "before" or "as" and then an action or a thought (or just the character doing something of some sort), then the sudden disaster will have more surprise since your reader wasn't warned with a resounding "suddenly".

I hope you enjoyed the first installment of "Sea of Genres"! If you have any questions, just message me in the contact box below.

Stay tuned for next week's blog post where I'll be covering mystery!

Happy writing!

-Jocelyn