How to Keep Your Reader in Suspense (ALL GENRES)

Suspense is the no.1 element of storytelling. And if you do not know how to build it in your story… well, it’s pretty much like bricks stacked on top of each other without cement.

Your story will fall apart.

Don’t think that your story must be a Sherlock Holmes or Taylor & Rose mystery. In fact, it doesn’t have to be crime fiction, mystery or a detective novel at all!

Suspense is needed in all genres, be it contemporary fiction (like 100 Days of Sunlight), fantasy (such as the Blood Race trilogy), mythological fiction (Immortals of Meluha), historical fiction (Mastaan) or any other genre.

I’ll explain the importance of suspense to you in another post, so keep your eyes peeled!

#1. Set up the scenario

This is the part where we know what the character is going to do, and we can also guess what might be the outcome (which is usually bad) — but we don’t know for sure.

As I can’t explain this whole thing in theoretical words, here’s an example:

E.g. We know that there’s something creepy in the basement, and we also know that the character is going to go there. Outcome: suspense.

#2. Give the reader a surprise, but first leave some clues

Surprise is one of the ingredients to writing an amazing book, but clues and suspense are its building blocks. Let’s take the last example, and here goes the example with the formula:

Surprise: Mutated monster in the basement

Clues: Howling sounds from the basement at night, continuous scratching when everything is silent

Character’s Next Step: Going to find her lost watch in the basement

Outcome: Reader on the edge of their seat!

#3. It’s your story, so play around with it

Stick to one point-of-view (or perspective) as long as it serves you. Don’t think that just because you’re showing the perspective of the protagonist, you can’t show the villain’s, too.

Stick with it as long as needed. Show the main character relaxing in her backyard. Then show the villain grinning maniacally as she/he feeds her/his baby pterodactyl.

But if you really want to stick with one perspective, you can show the main character stumbling across a page of the villain’s teenage diary with an orphan at the end. (If you don’t know what an orphan in literature is, it is basically a paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page or column, thus separated from the rest of the text.)

That will build suspense. Try new things. Let your creativity flow.

#4. Include a prologue or a chapter preface

Same as before, play with your story. And prologues are the best way to include clues, clues which the readers will then find only amusing, but later will realize their grave importance. And chapter prefaces can be a short summary of what happened before, which will cause anticipation (but only if written well) and the chapter itself will satisfy its hunger.

+ Bonus Tip!

#5. Don’t make your story a Sherlock Holmes story

What happens in Sherlock Holmes stories? Holmes leans back on his chair, smokes his pipe, reproaches Watson for coming late, spreads his (supposed) wisdom, a telegram comes, it’s an urgent case, Sherlock inspects the scene, comes back home, leans back on his chair, smokes his pipe, taps his brain and…

Ta-da! The case is solved!

A bit unnatural, don’t you think?

I mean, where are the clues, the suspense… how does it matter to the character and most importantly… why does it matter to the character?!

Remember this — readers like being smarter than your protagonist. They like as well as hate at the same time knowing what your villain is plotting while your main character is oblivious of the entire thing, sunbathing on the beach or dozing off in school.

They like the feeling because… well, everyone likes to know more than someone else! And they hate the feeling as they have already fallen in love with the main character and can’t bear the feeling of not being able to warn them of the approaching danger.

That’s what keeps them at the edge of their seats.

But what about Sherlock Holmes? Not to criticize or anything, but they don’t just build suspense, do they?