Yesterday, on this blog, we talked about the difference between mysteries, suspense and thrillers. 

 

Inside each larger category, of course we have sub categories. Just inside suspense novels, we might find espionage/spy novels, conspiracy, medical, legal, political, military, techno, paranormal, women in jeopardy novels, psychological, survival suspense, one of my favorite – treasure hunters, and last but not at all least – romantic suspense.  

 

I’ve written a number of these sub genres – military, women in jep, survival, conspiracy, political, espionage, and of course romantic suspense – but although each has their quirks, they all have the same overall structure. 

 

Let’s start with a Definition: 

An everyday hero or heroine confronts a believable, compelling, immediate and terrifying threat, and using their unique abilities, learning more, confronting their own lies and eventually finding a new strength, they overcome and win the day.

 

When I study something, I like to put structure to it to help me understand the components. As I was studying suspense, and trying to figure out how to communicate these three acts, I realized that I had to tell you about Nikki Anderson’s haunted house. 

 

I was in 6^th grade that year, when Nikki’s father decided to put on a haunted house.  Nikki was a friend from church, and her father an ad man, so he knew how to bring it.  The news travelled quickly through our grade school, and through the church, growing as it passed from each excited student to the next.  By the time Halloween arrived, the expectataions reached epic proportions – we thought we might lose limb, or life. 

 

The day of the event proved the house transformed.  As we drove up, fog hovered over the lawn, an eerie swampy mist.  Maniacal laughter, screams and moaning slithered out onto the street, grabbing up our little hearts as my friends and I huddled outside.

 

Thankfully, I’d attended with a neighborhood boy, David, and as we treaded near it, I scooted just a little behind him.  On the porch, a “dummy” sat by the door, his face grotestque and distorted by some horrible accident.  We thought him stuffed until he came to life, grabbing at us as we hustled inside, trailing a scream behind us.

 

Our hearts already wanted to flee through our chests.  Of course, we didn’t show our fear.  We progressed through rooms filled with slimy brains, and cobwebs and bugs and the chained up axe murderer and…until we came to the electric room. 

 

A barren room with nothing but dim electric lights on the floor, we thought it nothing, just an anti-climatic let-down after we’d chewed on our heart through the creepy rooms.  Then, the lights flashed, like lightening.

 

In the corner we thought we saw a man who look very much – in fact it could be – Freddie Krueger.  Or something just as evil.  Black fedora, red shirt, workglovew with blades. 

 

And…no, it couldn’t be—

 

The light flashed again, and indeed – the man had moved across the room.

 

HE WASN’T CHAINED UP!

 

“Come in,” he said in a voice that made me want to turn and run the other direction.  But there were people behind us.  And the cute neighborhood boy beside me. 

 

At that moment, magic happened.  He reached out and grabbed my hand. And then, we sprinted through the room, screaming.  I think we leaped the last five feet, flying through the opposite door, landing on the floor, free and alive!   

 

We looked at each other, still breathing hard and began to laugh.  We’d made it!  He grinned at me, just as exhilarated.  (Such a romantic moment.  Too bad I was only twelve.)  As we went to retrieve our Halloween candy, we couldn’t stop talking about how we “defeated” the enemy. We were victors!  Halloween haunted house superstars!

 

Not only that, but we lived through a three-act suspense.  We’d Faced the Game, Summoned our Guts, and we enjoyed the Glow of winning.

 

Every suspense contains these three elemental parts. 

 

Act 1: The Game 

The set up:  Players, the Goals, the Rules, Board/Playing field. 

 

Act 2: The Guts

All the great stuff happens during the Guts phase – confronting fears, reaching out in the darkness for the girl’s hand, stealing a kiss, and failing big, and learning something new about yourself. 

 

Act 3: the GLOW.

The glow is the big change inside, summoning your courage, overcoming of the monster, and saving the day. 

 

We’ll be taking each section apart over the next six months on Mondays and Tuesdays here on MBT.  Wednesday, stop in for the Special Teams feature where our specialists blog on how to manage all the other parts of the writing life.  Thursday is Therapist Day, where our resident MBT Book Therapist Rachel Hauck checks in with tips and techniques for a powerful story.  Friday, catch our featured book for a great weekend read. 

 

See you Monday, with THE GAME. 

 

Susie May