Over the past four months, we’ve been covering the basic elements of Act 1 of a Suspense. 

Before we take a little romance rabbit trail (for all your romantic/suspense novelists!) let’s review the basic Act 1 elements:

 

The first act consists of the setup, or what I call: The Game:  Players, the Goals, the Rules, Board/Playing field. 

 

G =  Let us meet the Guys and Gals.  Who are they?  What makes them common/sympathetic?  What makes them extraordinary?  We’ll be talking in coming weeks about developing the romance of a romantic/suspense novel, also, but for now, there are a number of elements a suspense hero/heroine should have.

 

If you took my plotting class, you’ll know I spend a lot of time on developing my characters, and making a plot specific to them.  However, in review there are three elements you must have for a suspense novel: 

 

1. Sympathy.  A hero/heroine need to be believable – everyday people.  Even if they are Navy Seals or police women, they need to have some connect to the reader.  You do this by creating a common element with the reader. 

 

Ask: What situation can you open the story with that connects your reader with a feeling, an idea, a sacrifice or a moment that we can all relate to?  

 

 

2.  Competence.  A Hero/Heroine also need some area of Competence.

            Everyone has something they are good at, even if they don’t know it and a great suspense novel brings this out.  The suspense should challenge their abilities at each turn, and yet in the end, it’s this hidden competence, or rekindle competence that saves the day.

 

            I often start by showing a glimpse of the hero/heroine’s competence, putting them in a situation they are good at – so we know later how we will work to destroy them.

 

3.  Greatest Fear: A hero/heroine in a suspense novel also needs a greatest fear, something we will use to craft that climactic moment when everything goes wrong.  Often the greatest fear has something to do with his/her past, some dark moment, or his/her mistakes.  It’s exactly this greatest fear that you will make happen. 

 

Sometimes you can start a book with the greatest fears coming true.  This is a great way to set a baseline, or an understanding of what could go wrong.  You can also have this greatest fear happen to someone close to the hero/heroine, or have it be in his backstory, and have it dredged up because of something that happens. The key to a Greatest Fear is that it has to be tangible, specific, and possible, and compelling.

 

In a suspense novel the hero/heroine will – using their unique abilities, learning more, confronting their own demons –  eventually find a new strength to overcome and win the day.

 

 

A = Anchoring —  This is the use of storyworld to build suspense.  

            I talk about Anchoring in my hooks class, but it’s so important in a suspense to help your reader see the scenes, and to craft the correct mood that creates a sense of forbodeing.

 

Just as a review, take these two descriptions: 

 

            She stood in the doorway, one foot on the threshold, hands on the frame of the door.  The laughter was menacing and harsh, and in the darkness she sensed movement.  Something cold trickled across her cheek.  “Come in, little Susie,” said a voice from across the hollow room. 

 

            She froze in the doorway, one foot trembling on the threshold, the other cemented on the front porch.  Laughter cackled from inside the black room — the kind that made her shrink back — and ran an icy finger up her spine.  The room was so dark it seemed to press into her, like oil, seeping into her pores.  She licked her lips, swiping from them salt, but her throat closed on the moisture and sucked it dry as the odor of something unwashed and putrid, a marinating New York dumpster, watered her eyes. 

            And then the voice.  Soft, like a tickle in the silence of the room.  Too sweet to be safe.  “Come in, Little Susie.” 

 

Which one is more evocative?  Creepier?  (Hopefully the 2^nd!)  When you’re building scenes in suspense, you want to raise the emotional and sensory level of the reader by using specific, evocative words from the five senses.  Smells: be specific with them, and if you can, use a metaphor.  Sounds: make them stand out.  Sights: give them action, and remember you’re in the pov of the character, so they’ll interpret things through their lens, whether it be fear, or hope, or dread.  Tastes: you can taste your fear – dry throat, tinny, salty.  Touch: like the icy finger up her spine.  Or, I could have added how the wood from the doorframe pressed into her fingers, marking it. 

 

In suspense, use your imagination to get specific with your setting and help your readers really feel as if they’ve walked into that haunted room with the character. 

 

**In Anchoring, you also want to consider the backdrop of where your suspense takes place – find places that make it harder for your hero/heroine to accomplish their goals.  I’ve done scenes on trains, in caves, the Alaskan frontier, night clubs, a monastery, a graveyard, a burning building….any environment that will raise tension, both in the setting and in the plot.

 

 

M = Motivation vs. Stakes –In a great suspense, there is always a rising interplay of balance between the motivation and stakes of the story.  As things get worse, and their fears grow, so also do their motivations to defeat the fears.  Make sure your characters have powerful motivations to push them forward into increasing insurmountable obstacles and compelling stakes.

 

Always ask – does my character have sufficient motivation to fight this battle?  If not, you need to increase the motivations to equal the challenge. 

 

 

E = Event – The bad thing that will happen needs to present a Believable, Compelling, Immediate, & Terrifying Threat

 

Whether the event that is/will happen is caused by an elements or a villain, it needs to have four components:

 

(Elements – sometimes the suspense is an action adventure story, and it’s beating a volcano (Dante’s Peak) or some other natural or man-made element – like The Perfect Storm.)

 

1.      Believable – can show the event happening before, or a small glimpse of what COULD happen. We need to believe that the threat is real, and deadly.  We need to believe that the bad guy WILL pull the trigger, or detonate the bomb, or that the volcano will erupt.    

 

2.      Compelling – it’s personal, and affects their life.  At some point in the story – preferably near the beginning, it needs to get personal.  Either they walk in on the situation/crime, or they are the targets, or they are caught up in it.  This compelling aspect can be peripheral – meaning it can affect loved ones — (this is why romantic suspense works so well)

 

 

3.      The Event needs to also be Immediate —  there needs to be a deadline.  The reader has to believe that the threat will happen, and happen soon. 

 

Note: Somewhere in the middle of the book there needs to be a ticking clock or countdown to the big bang.  Whether it’s the mounting pressure inside the volcano, or the harried hostage taker losing his patience.  Or, it’s the plane running out of fuel. 

 

 

4.       Terrifying – We need to believe that this is  a horrible thing –meaning, we need to see exactly it would be horrible if it happened.  This is different from believing it can happen.  It’s answering the questions — so what?  If it happens, how does it affect me? 

 

You make it terrifying by looking at two different perspectives – personal and public fears. 

 

Personal fears are all about losing someone we love – a family member – a wife, child, something we all fear. 

 

The public fear is about how devastating the event is, and who is affected.  (And if you can throw in someone in the personal circle, that increases the effect.)

 

The reader needs to understand why this threat is scary!

           

Now, you have the Game set up.  In the first three chapters, you want to introduce us to the players, show us the goals, tell us what’s at stake, and then push us into the action.  

 

Now, you’re saying…wait, wait, Suspense books have to start off from the very beginning fast and on the run. 

 

Yes, they do.  And we’re going to get to that during the “tricks” phase.  This is just the overall structure.

 

Tomorrow we’ll jump into Act 2 – or all the GUTS of the story. 

 

See you then!

Susie May