"[T]he novel becomes an intrigue-generating machine, marching us steadily uphill towards the elusive narrative summit at which, though we cannot see it, we sense that all will be revealed. Alas, we reach the summit, and discover that the breathtaking view we have been awaiting is, instead, a punch in the nose from an insignificant fist."
That's literary critic Wyatt Mason explaining how some books fail in the suspense department. Suspense is one of the hardest effects a writer can handle, and today, I brought in a honest-to-goodness expert.
Meet thriller novelist Jason Pinter. He has three suspenseful novels under his belt, following the hardboiled adventures his fictional journalist, Henry Parker. His newest installment, The Stolen, just came out.
Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions.
In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.
Jason Boog:
Your writing, over three books, has maintained a gripping level of suspense and enough pay-off for your readers to keep coming back. On a practical level, how do you build this successful level of suspense in your prose? Any advice for how writers can make more suspenseful stories without ruining the ending?
Jason Pinter:
I think the trick in creating suspense is... Click here to continue reading.
... unraveling your story fast enough to keep the reader turning the pages, but slow enough to make sure that the twists and secrets are only delivered after enough of a build up to the point where they matter.
To me, it all starts with the characters. Anyone can shoot a gun. Anyone can grab a flashlight and investigate something. But it only creates real suspense if you care about who's doing it.
I love writing about Henry Parker and the other characters in his world, and in each book I try to flesh him out a little more. I usually have the ending in mind when I begin the book, and if the ending doesn't deliver a stomach punch to me (in a good way) it won't for the reader.
With the book I'm finishing up right now, I thought I knew the ending all along, but about 85% of the way into it suddenly I thought, "wait, that's not what's going to happen, this is what's going to happen." And any time you can surprise yourself, I figure it's got to be a good thing.
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