Monday 9 May 2011

Guest blogger Jean Henry Mead on Pacing a Novel’s Suspense

I’m lucky in my friends. The guest bloggers I’ve had have all had interesting things to say about writing and their experiences in the industry. (Not to mention brother Ron’s insights and apercus into the meaning of life.) Here’s another with some telling observations about the all-important topic of narrative pace. It’s from Jean Henry Mead.

I once read an article by mystery novelist Phyllis Whitney concerning pacing and suspense. She said the best advice she received was from the editor of Weird Tales Magazine, a highly respected pulp magazine published before she began writing novels. The editor said she shouldn't try to keep her stories at constant high pitch, that readers grow as bored with continuous excitement as they do with nothing happening at all.

Pacing suspense is important because a reader needs time to relax between action scenes. Another important aspect of writing suspense novels, she said, is that your reader will find endless defeat and discouragement too unpleasant to read. Writers are, first and foremost, entertainers. And main characters’ lives should never be easy although small victories have to be paced strategically along the way to keep the plot interesting.

Much like mystery novelist Marlys Millhiser, Whitney started her novels with a setting. She said she wanted a place that gave her fresh and interesting material, even though it may be in her own backyard. In her first mystery novel, Red is for Murder, she went to Chicago’s loop to get behind-the-scenes background on the window decorating business. Because the book only sold 3,000 copies, she returned to writing for children, but years later, the book was reprinted in a number of paperback editions as The Red Carnelian.

Once she had her setting, Whitney searched for a protagonist driven to solve a life and death situation. The more serious and threatening the problem, the higher the reader’s interest. Whitney stressed that a writer needs to think about this powerful drive during the novel’s planning stages because it’s easier to build the plot around the problem in an action story than something much quieter. However, inner turmoil can be just as suspenseful as the threat of bodily harm if the writer remains aware of the character’s desperate need to reach a certain goal. Action doesn’t necessarily have to be violent.

The protagonist doesn’t know from the beginning of the story how to solve her problem, but sooner or later, she decides something needs to be done. That’s when the story actually begins. The character may make the wrong decision but he needs to do something rather than just drift along through several chapters.

Give your character(s) purpose and a goal to reach by the end of the book. If your protagonist is unable to reach her goal or solve her problem, bring in another character who can help. This new character may have ulterior motives or a different goal, and therein lies suspense.

An eccentric character can also provide suspense by doing the unexpected, thus making the situation worse. Whitney advised against more than one strange character per novel because it suspends belief. But any character doing the unexpected can build suspense. If the reader knows what’s going to happen next, she soon becomes bored and may lay the book aside. So to prevent that from happening, surprise your reader with something unusual although logical. Whitney had one of her characters making her way down a long, dark, narrow passageway when she suddenly touches a human face. That’s not only unexpected, it's suspenseful.

In my own mystery/suspense novels, the Logan & Cafferty series, I try to balance the action with humorous dialogue. That, in my opinion, prevents the characters from becoming cardboard cutouts and endears them to my readers. In my latest novel, Murder on the Interstate, my two protagonists, Dana Logan and Sarah Cafferty, are delivering humorous lines in the midst of a flash flood when they’re in danger of drowning. And Sarah does some crying in order to prevent suspension of belief. She also confesses that she irrigated her underwear.

Marlys Millhiser once showed me her suspense chart with separate lines for pacing action, storyline, subplots and exposition, chapter by chapter. She said it helps her to prevent melodrama.

Not a bad idea.

26 comments:

  1. Thanks for hosting Jean today. This is an excellent post. I wanted to let your readers know about a contest Jean is running during her Pump Up Your Book VBT in May. Here are the details:

    The author's virtual book tour takes place from May 2-May 27. Three copies of Murder on the Interstate will be given away and one of the winners (from a drawing of blog visitors leaving comments) will be a character in her next book. The tour schedule is posted at: http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2011/03/25/murder-on-the-interstate-virtual-book-tour-may-2011/

    Good luck to all who enter.

    Thanks again for being a wonderful host.

    Cheryl

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  2. Thank you for hosting my blog tour, Bill. It's a pleasure to appear here, my friend. Thanks also for the kind words from Cheryl and for her nice book review today at the Book
    connection: http://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/

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  3. Jean, a thoughtful essay ... my hat's off to you for being able to pose an articulate discussion about something as ethereal as pacing ... way beyond the capability of my little brain.
    As an aside: Phyllis Whitney was discouraged because she 'only sold 3000 copies' of her book ... sheeesh, I'd be doing cartwheels!

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  4. So would I, Christopher, but that was back in the days before the Internet and so much competition from other writers. Thanks for the kind words.

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  5. Such good points, Jean! I cringe whenever I see "non-stop" suspense in a review. You're right, if there is no pulling back of the tension and then coming back and whacking the reader with renewed suspense, the tension breaks.

    Best of luck with your new book!

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  6. Thanks, Pat. I like the way you phrased that.
    You need to give the reader a rest period between action scenes before whacking them again. :)

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  7. concise and helpful... nicely done.

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  8. I've heard the suspense goes a little like a roller coaster, up and down. Could be with every chapter, could be a series of chapters. I remember Hitchcock was asked to change the ending to The Birds because he left them up with no ease of a comedown.

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  9. You're right, Stephen. The action/suspense has to ease up now and then to allow the reader to breathe. We don't want to lose any of them. :)

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  10. Before I started down the road as a novelist, I loved romantic suspense (think Harelequins). I thought it would be easy to duplicate because you did a chapter on romance and then another with suspense. Each kept the story moving but allowed down time for a little "romantic action."
    What I found was it wasn't an easy thing to recreate. I can't do romance. My books are all straight mysteries now.

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  11. Jean, you've revealed to me the secret of how to get 100 blog hits in a single day (the first time it's happened on this blog). I obviously need to get you to write every posting.

    I'm glad it's attracting so much interest.

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  12. Loved your post, Jean. Phyllis Whitney was one of my favourite suspense authors, along with Mary Stewart, and I still have at least one of her novels in my bookcase. Thanks for giving such a good explanation of pace.

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  13. Very interesting, Jean, and clearly written. It's true, you can't have non-stop action. Once in a while your characters have to have their own down time to live their own lives so that they're at least somewhat comforting to the reader. Great blog entry!

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  14. W.S., my romantic scenes are brief and the characters never go further than a kiss. My poor lovesick sheriff never gives up, however, and the reader wonders whether the protagonist is ever going to take him seriously, from one novel to the next.:) I use humor to break up the suspense and hopefully prevent boring scenes.

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  15. Thank you for the kind words, Rosemary. Phyllis Whitney was also one of my favorites. I leraned to write suspense from reading her novels.

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  16. Thank you, Beth. I couldn't agree with you more. I look forward to sharing the Mystery We Write Blog Tour tour with you and a dozen other authors, May 23-August 14.

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  17. Thank you, Bill, for hosting my virtual tour. I wouldn't dream of writing every post here. I enjoy your blog articles too much. :)

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  18. This was a great article and the perfect timing for me and what I am going through with a story right now. :)

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  19. Thank you, Elizabeth. I'm glad my article was helpful. There was very little advice available when I began writing, and certainly no Internet, or Brilliant Study books to help aspiring writers learn their craft, which is why I'm a late bloomer. :)

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  20. Thank you for this thoughtful information. I have taken your advice and immediately changed the marital dynamic between my protagonist, Maya French, and her husband in A Woman's Touch, the first in my Resort to Murder mystery series. This adds internal tension and external conflict. Why has Hugh gone missing from not only the scene of the crime but also his work and his home?

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  21. I liked this blog it was informative, amusing,succinct where it needed to be, and darned good advice. Even long in the tooth writers could learn something here. Well done.
    jackleverett.me.uk

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  22. Good advice, Jean. It's all about balance.

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  23. Excellent article, Jean. As writers, we all want to keep our readers reading and cheering for our protagonists! Good advice. Thank you.
    Heidi M. Thomas
    http://www.heidimthomas.com

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  24. I'm glad my article was some help, Marta.

    Thanks, Jackie, JR and Heidi, for your kind words. It took many years of trial and error to learn the techniques of writing, and I still have a lot to learn.

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  25. Marta, the book sounds fascinating. Best of luck with it.

    Thank you, Jack. No matter how old you are or how long you've been writing, there's always advice that can improve your work.

    Thanks, JR, I couldn't agree with you more about balance.

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