If I told you I liked reading suspense, what sort of books would pop into your mind? The latest thriller from Harlan Coben? An action-adventure book like The Hunger Games?
Although the term suspense is sometimes used interchangeably with other terms like thrillers, there are differences.
A Matter of Terms
As the name suggests, a thriller provides thrills. We’d expect lots of action, do-or-die moments, danger and edge-of-your-seat scenarios. That sort of book would have suspense in it, but the story is driven by the action.
Suspense is more about what might happen. It’s common in thrillers and action-adventures, but it can occur in any genre. It’s what gives a book its page-turning quality. Will their greatest fear come to pass? Will she accept his proposal? Will they get to the treasure first? Will the family secret rip them apart?
There might be more scope for suspense if you’re writing in the suspense, thriller, crime, action-adventure or horror genres. But you can add suspense elements to any genre. In this post, I’ll look at two common techniques: the ticking bomb and the locked room.
The Ticking Bomb
This could literally be a bomb that has to be defused in time, but could be anything in which there is a time limit or time pressure. For example:
- Will they find the kidnap victim before he/she is killed?
- Will they discover an antidote before the victim dies?
- Can they persuade a desperate person to step off the ledge and back inside before they jump?
- Will they find the earthquake survivors before their air runs out?
- Will the pilot of the small plane find a safe place to land before she runs out of fuel?
- Will someone arrive before a deadline? (e.g., the executive who’s stuck in traffic and will miss closing the big deal at the 9.00 am meeting; the mother who had to help her elderly neighbour and may now miss her daughter’s ballet recital; the person who overslept and may now miss their international flight; the hero who has to get to the church before 3.00 pm to stop the heroine marrying the wrong guy).
In The Martian by Andy Weir, the astronaut only has enough food for a certain length of time. If he’s not rescued in that window, he’ll die.
In The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon, a teenage girl has less than a day to stop her family being deported from the US.
In Jonas by Susan May Warren, heroine Sibba Kovac is actually a bomb disposal expert. However, tensions run high when she and Jonas have to stop the bad guys detonating a dirty bomb over Eastern Europe.
The movie Galaxy Quest used this technique for comic effect when the characters played by Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver thought the bomb was going to explode when it got to zero, but it stopped with one second to go because that’s what always happens in the TV episodes.
Can you think of a way to add some time pressure into your latest work in progress?
The Locked Room
This can actually be a locked room–think Jodie Foster in Panic Room–but it can be any enclosed or restricted space from which people are trying to escape (e.g., an underground tunnel after a cave-in, a cell or cage, a vehicle, an elevator). It’s sometimes used in conjunction with the ticking bomb.
In The Husband by Dean Koontz, Mitch Rafferty has been framed so that it looks like he killed his wife, Holly. Meanwhile, the very-much-alive Holly is trying to escape from an attic where she’s being held captive.
In Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, a group of guests are trapped on a small island with an unseen killer and no way to get off the island.
Most of the movie Speed takes place on a bus that will blow up if it goes below 50 mph. Sandra Bullock drives that bus through all sorts of obstacles, while Keanu Reeves has to work out how to get everyone off the bus without alerting the killer and blowing everyone to smithereens.
A number of TV shows have had someone buried alive in a coffin and their teammates have to find them before the air runs out (CSI, Murdoch Mysteries, Hudson and Rex).
When I was running a recent workshop on this topic, Mazzy Adams also noted that the ‘locked space’ could be a psychological one. In her novel Licence to Die (GRUnGE.001), computer genius Chris causes problems for some of the other characters because he’s locked in a grief-inadequacy-revenge mindset. When he finally breaks free of that, he’s able to have a positive impact on the outcomes.
Another example is the agoraphobic character of Anna in A. J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window, who witnesses a crime across the way but is unable to leave her house because of her fears.
Whether it’s a physical or psychological barrier, the ‘locked room’ can heighten the tension for your characters.
A Caveat
It should be remembered that these are just tools to help you add a little suspense to your story. They’re not meant to be gimmicky ways of propping up poor writing, shallow characterisation or woeful plotting. With a little thought, however, they can add some extra spice to the mix and make your work a page-turner.
Can you think of any examples of ‘ticking bombs’ or ‘locked rooms’ from books, movies or TV shows? I’d love to hear your examples.
Photo Credit
Featured photo by Gerd Altman on Pixabay.