Elliot Kessler

Reading a book is like opening presents on Christmas day. You begin to open your gifts, and you can’t wait to see what it is, and your adrenaline runs high. The results can exceed your expectations, meet your expectations, or be soul-crushingly disappointing. Same thing with books.

Suspense is a tool used often by authors. It is the practice of making a promise in your story and then holding off on that promise for as long as possible. It’s why novels take hours to read. Because authors either have a lot of story to tell, or they want to stretch out the suspense for as long as they can (or both). It’s also why a lot of stories fail. Take the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy, for instance. J. J. Abrams set up quite a few mysteries in “The Force Awakens,” such as “Who are Rey’s parents?” “Who is Snoke?” and “Why is Luke hiding on an island?” That was what made “The Force Awakens” an interesting jumping-off point for the sequels. But then “The Last Jedi” rolled around, and Rian Johnson did not make us wait until the third movie to learn the answers to these questions, which would have built even more suspense. Instead, he gave us answers to all of them, and all of the answers were very, very disappointing. “Who are Rey’s parents?” A bunch of nobodies who abandoned Rey on Jakku. “Who is Snoke?” Doesn’t matter. He’s dead. “Why is Luke hiding on an island?” Because he failed Ben Solo when Ben turned to the dark side, and now Luke is too chicken to do anything about it. This is why quite a few stories have failed. They promised something interesting and then go back on their promise, saying that it never even mattered in the first place and you were stupid to think it did.

Suspense is something I’ve been working on a lot. I’m writing a mystery novel, and I’m trying to find ways to increase the tension in the story as it goes along. I know how it begins, I know how it ends, and I have some idea of what goes in the middle, but I just need to sort it out for myself. I think that’s where the suspense begins for the author. Figuring out what the story is going to look like. We have this idea in our head, and we think it can be the greatest story ever, but then we begin to plot it out, and it doesn’t look like it did in our heads. We get frustrated and give up instead of continuing on and finding a way to make it work. I was stuck on my novel too, and I had no idea how to progress the story. It’s a mystery, and so I kept trying to have the main character talk to suspects and look through evidence, but he never really had any personal stakes in the story. He was simply doing his job with nothing at risk, which wasn’t enough for me. I didn’t know what else to do. I read and watched quite a few mysteries. I read “A Study in Scarlet,” “The Sign of the Four,” and “The Caves of Steel,” and I watched several Batman movies, as Batman was the main source of inspiration for my character. I also watched a few episodes of “Psych,” “Monk,” and “Columbo.” I noticed one thing that some of these mysteries did to add to the stakes and suspense: they added a love interest for the character and put them at risk.

Bingo! I had it! My character is very lonely, and the whole theme of the story is loneliness. I knew exactly how to fit a love interest into my story. The suspense had ended, and the surprise exceeded my expectations. I am still outlining the novel, but I am very happy with where it’s going, and I cannot wait for you guys to read it for yourselves. Now, I have to get back to work on it. Thanks for reading! God bless you guys.