 Drama: July 19, 2023 Issue [#12055] |
This week: Suspense Through Character Behavior Edited by: Joy  
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“You don't get suspense when the reader doesn't know what happens next--you get suspense when the reader *cares* what happens next. You don't get forward momentum from lots of frenetic things happening--you get it when the reader cares about what happens.”
Ann Leckie
“A quirky, colorful character overstays her welcome after a few chapters, unless trouble comes calling.”
James Scott Bell, Elements of Fiction Writing - Conflict and Suspense
“Tension makes the reader care, while suspense makes the reader want to read on. Tension relates mostly to relationships between characters and the situation in which the main character is right now.”
Rayne Hall, Writing Dark Stories: How to Write Horror and Other Disturbing Short Stories
“Meaning, yes -- I don't really exist except on the page or in the back of your brain. But if you think it's weird a fictional character's telling this story, you ain't seen what happened, yet.”
Kyle Michel Sullivan, The Lyons' Den
“The best stories come from deep within us and are of us. Either our inner child comes out to play and makes all things possible, or we mold our characters and events from our own experiences, or our dreams of wanting to experience.”
Judith Kohnen, One Chance, One Moment
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about creating suspense through character action and personality and quirky behavior.
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
We all love suspense, don’t we! We love the tension, the anticipation, the expectation etc., but what is best type of suspense which also may become literary as we write it?
Since suspense in a story can be created in many ways, say through a situation or a disaster or even in a romance, the most engaging type of suspense is created through characters’ personalities and behaviors. A character is the main element that can make a situation or an action suspenseful.
This is because characters can have goals that really matter to them, such as surviving, escaping, winning, becoming a leader, mastering an art, or changing the world, at least the story world they are in. Character motives can be secretive or even hidden from the characters themselves. Their actions can contradict their established personalities and situations. For example, a seemingly kind and trustworthy protagonist may suddenly exhibit suspicious behavior, leaving readers wondering if there is something darker lurking beneath the surface.
Then, a character may engage in a risky or dangerous behavior. This can be particularly effective when the readers are aware of the potential consequences or when the character is oblivious to the dangers they face. By placing characters in dangerous situations or having them make questionable decisions, we can heighten the suspense and keep readers anxiously anticipating the outcome. This is because we have endeared them to the readers earlier, despite their character flaws. Thus, when such a character knowingly walks into a trap, our readers’ concern for the character’s well-being intensifies the suspense.
One example in literary fiction where a character knowingly walks into a trap can be found in George Orwell's dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. The protagonist, Winston Smith, becomes involved with the resistance movement against the totalitarian regime of Big Brother. However, he is eventually betrayed by a member of the movement, O'Brien, whom he believed to be a fellow dissenter. As seen in this novel, a strong hero needs a strong opponent. The opponent should be at least as strong as the hero, and preferably stronger. And the hero’s biggest limitation is himself.
Here is a small section from the last part of the novel when O’Brien is torturing Winston. This example demonstrates how a character, Winston, knowingly walks into a trap despite his awareness that he may be deceived.
‘How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?’
‘I don’t know. I don’t know. You will kill me if you do that again. Four, five, six—in all honesty I don’t know.’
‘Better,’ said O’Brien.
A needle slid into Winston’s arm. Almost in the same instant a blissful, healing warmth spread all through his body. The pain was already half-forgotten. He opened his eyes and looked up gratefully at O’Brien. At sight of the heavy, lined face, so ugly and so intelligent, his heart seemed to turn over.
As seen in the example above, when you take away a hero’s ability to defend himself and/or others, you can create intense suspense.
Another type of character behavior that can create suspense is when the character’s behavior is inconsistent or unstable. If a character's actions are erratic or contradictory, readers are left uncertain about their true intentions or next moves. This unpredictability builds tension as readers attempt to decipher the character's motives and anticipate their future actions. It keeps readers guessing and engrossed in the story.
One example in literary fiction where unstable character behavior creates suspense is found in the novel Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. In the story, when the character of Amy Dunne disappears, her husband Nick becomes the primary suspect. In this novel, both Nick’s and Amy’s characters are unpredictable and they are the ones who tell us their story, as unreliable narrators. Even at the end of the book, their unpredictability is apparent.
“We are on the eve of becoming the world’s best, brightest nuclear family. We just need to sustain it. Nick doesn’t have it down perfect. This morning he was stroking my hair and asking what else he could do for me, and I said: ‘My gosh, Nick, why are you so wonderful to me?’
He was supposed to say: You deserve it. I love you.
But he said, ‘Because I feel sorry for you.’
‘Why?’
‘Because every morning you have to wake up and be you.’
Then, the interplay between characters can also generate suspense. By establishing conflicts, rivalries, or ambiguous relationships, we create tension and anticipation. If we add to these time pressure and the idiosyncrasies of the secondary characters, we can create a perfectly suspenseful fiction.
Still, another way to create and heighten suspense through characters is to withhold information about their true nature or past, as in Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier where the protagonist is haunted by the memory of her husband's first wife, whose shadowy past creates an atmosphere of uncertainty and anticipation. When readers have limited knowledge about a character, their behavior becomes even more intriguing.
For a story of suspense, we can also use cliffhangers when characters find themselves in precarious situations as does Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes stories by ending his chapters with unresolved threats. Plus, false leads or misdirection by unreliable characters can divert the attention of the reader from the actual resolution as in Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express.
May your stories and characters create powerful suspense, and may your heroes face their greatest fears with much success!
Until next time! 
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 This Issue's Tip: Instead of a writing tip today, here's a list of 10 suspense stories. These stories are known for their ability to create suspense through the actions and motivations of their characters, keeping readers on the edges of their seats.
"Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn
"The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins
"The Silence of the Lambs" by Thomas Harris
"And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie
"The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown
"The Shining" by Stephen King
"Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson
"Psycho" by Robert Bloch
"The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
"In the Woods" by Tana French
"The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe
"The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins
"Sharp Objects" by Gillian Flynn
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Feedback for "Writing the Family Memoir"
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Elle - on hiatus 
I've written a memoir of my mother's parents' lives and their four children. I am hoping to do the same for my father's parents and their children, and then start working my way backwards through the generations as best I can. I had the finished product printed, but only a few copies for relatives, and never thought about presenting it as a website. Interesting idea, I might look into that.
What a wonderful thing you did,  Elle - on hiatus ! I hope you find time to write about the other side of your family, too. I bet on your mother's side, people were thrilled to no end. I wonder if your account of your family could interest the other readers, too. 
Thanks for writing about it to this newsletter. I really appreciate it very much.
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Beholden 
Thank you very much for including my story, Ghosted Memoirs, among your Editor's picks section.
Thanks for writing to this newsletter. I liked your story very much.
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