How To Build Anticipation and Create Suspense

Written by Harry

How do you keep a reader in suspense?

I could be mean and leave this post at that question just to illustrate my point, but that wouldn’t make for interesting reading, now would it?

Suspense is all about building anticipation. That anticipation keeps your readers turning pages or stuck on the page, and anticipation keeps readers coming back for more. Anticipation and suspense makes a story great.

Bait and Hook

There is a term in both writing and music called “the hook”. The hook is the part of the story or the song that makes the reader want to come back for more or makes the listener want to hear the song again. The hook is an element so addictive that no one can stay away.

In writing, the key element to a good hook that creates suspense is that it doesn’t give readers what they want. You heard me: Don’t give them a thing.

Maybe readers have an idea where the plot is going and they’re not quite sure, or maybe they have no idea at all and want to find out so badly they can’t stand it. Either way, don’t reveal your hand too soon.

The Strip Tease

The more you tease, holding back on giving out, the more readers want to know what happens. Just a hint is enough to entice curiosity and make a reader want to have more of what he or she can’t have right now.

Do you remember waiting for your birthday to come or Christmas to arrive? You might have counted the remaining days on the calendar or even tracked hours until that special day arrived. Your parents might have been the type to drop little teasing clues along the way, just enough to keep everyone guessing.

That’s how you add suspense in your story. Reveal a little bit at a time. Heighten the uncertainty. Create a situation where the reader catches just a glimpse of what’s coming and yet cannot say for sure that will be the outcome.

Creating suspense and anticipation is an art. Reveal too much, and you’ve blown your cover. Sound the surprise too soon, and it won’t have impact. Wait too long, and readers lose interest.

The Prestige of the Moment

Finally, you pull back the curtain with a flourish, revealing the truth, and you shout, “Ta DA!”

If built up to the moment properly, readers smack their palms to their foreheads. They should have seen it coming, and of course! How fantastic! Then all the clues and hints you’ve revealed will fall into place, and readers see that it was right there in front of them the whole time.

Creating good suspense is like hunting. You might have to sit in a tree stand in the cold dawn for days on end, waiting and watching while readers wander in and out of your sights. The suspense of their suspense is as much of a flurry of anticipation for you as it is for them.

Finally, the time is right. You can draw the bowstring back and let the arrow fly.

Do you enjoy suspense? How do you feel when anticipation starts to build? Have you recently experienced that agony of not knowing and the need to know more?

(Click here for full lyrics)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!