3 Ways to Pump Up the Suspense

So I just finished a novel by Kevin O'Brien called Unspeakable. He is one of the authors I had the privilege of meeting while at the Wordcrafters conference. It is the first mystery/thriller I have ever read. I stayed up until two in the morning just to finish it. I tend to bisect stories while I'm reading, so I learned several things about creating suspense in a story.

1. Point of view. I usually write in first person, but recently I've heard a lot of people say that they liked using third person better. While I think that first person is very good for giving the readers a personal look at the protagonist, I also have discovered that you can create characters and portray them to the readers in more detail when writing in third person. One of the things that was so good about that Kevin O'Brien book was that you REALLY cared about the characters and were rooting for them throughout the whole thing. It made for an extremely suspenseful climax.

2. Constant tension. When I write, I usually feel like if I want to keep the readers interested, I need to have an action scene in every chapter. But discovered by reading Unspeakable that that's not the case. You don't have to have a fight scene every chapter to put the suspense. What added suspense in that book was that every scene was set up so that the worst possible thing could happen -- whether it happened or not -- the protagonist was aware of it. Sometimes they thought they were being stalked. Sometimes the lights went out and they heard strange noises. Most of the time, it ended up being nothing or the scene cut off, but this kept you in constant suspense. This concept was kind of a huge epiphany for me. It greatly affects how you look at your own writing.

3. Think creepy. This is the advice that Kevin O'Brien gave at the conference. Don't go for the stereotypical, make things abstract and strange. This doesn't mean that you have to be gory and gruesome, but you should bring some fear to the readers, particularly when presenting the antagonist to them. The creepier things get and the more you pump up the suspense, the more they're going to care about what happens to your characters.

I would strongly recommend reading some of his work. It is very entertaining and educational. Thank you for listening to my ramblings. If you have any input, please comment below.