Keep an eye on how much mystery your story demands, and when.
The moment you reveal something in a novel sets a reader’s expectations. Kurt Vonnegut told writers to tell everything as soon as you can. Clarity is our aim when we adopt this tactic. The moment a reader is confused about a story’s activity is a troublesome time. Now the reader is thinking about the storytelling, instead of being wrapped up in the story’s drama.
“Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible,” said Vonnegut, the author of Slaughterhouse Five. “To heck with suspense.” Well, that’s a stylistic choice, one that’s reflected in his novels. Vonnegut’s goodness is his characters’ understanding about their fates. Wondering what might happen next: not a part of his genius. (You might disagree, and I’d love to hear from you about Kurt.)
“To heck with suspense” is a safe choice for less-experienced writers. Without suspense, through, the thrillers and horror, stories of crime and detection, they all suffer or don’t exist at all. Early in my study of fiction, an author coach recommended Patricia Highsmith’s craft book, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction. Highsmith’s work was on display when the Netflix series Ripley hit our streaming screens. The characters in the series are based on The Talented Mr. Ripley, plus three other novels featuring the main character Tom Ripley.
I held high hopes for the series, created and written by Schnidler’s List screenwriter Steven Zaillian. We are never sure what Tom Ripley will do, and by that I don’t mean we’re confused. We have suspicions and possibilities in mind. Suspicion is a key word to hold onto while we write a thriller, or crime novels. We play along and stay with the story because we wonder if the worst that can happen, will happen.
My coach pointed out Highsmith’s book because my early draft was too matter-of-fact. I was reporting what was happening (no surprise there, since I arrived with a journalist’s practices). Suspense invites wonder into a story. It also slows your pace, and pacing can be one of the biggest challenges if you’re early in your writing career. A breakneck pace that keeps things clear can be successful. Like everything in writing, pace is something to balance. Sometimes we want things to be simply given to us, like Vonnegut advised. At other times readers want to simmer in the possibilities.
No filmmaker ever displayed suspense talents better than Alfred Hitchcock’s. The director who gave us Strangers on a Train (another Highsmith novel; so many became films) would make something terrible happen and let us wonder when it would happen next.
Keeping things clear
The element that reins us in is clarity. At the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Frank Conroy built a pyramid of writing skills to master. Deep at the bedrock were meaning, sense, and clarity. Without them the reader is adrift, their compass spinning, all of the landmarks changing. Yes, we need clarity, plus knowing the meaning (what’s at stake) and seeing how things make sense in the world. Suspense is a third rail of energy in any story where we’re invited to anticipate the outcome.
Anticipation, of course, is a hotbed of intense engagement. A fight that explodes in an episode of the Hulu series Life & Beth is riveting because we expect the worst to happen between sisters. They’re both damaged and there’s micro-dosing for mushrooms in play. Even in a comedy, there can be suspense at work. The unexpected, as Highsmith calls it, is the multiplier when suspense is already in use. A blistering scene in the movie The Grifters is the best use of the unexpected I’ve ever seen in a story.
Use suspense whenever you can employ it — and it doesn’t drag your pacing. A seminar I took at Tin House gave me novelist Jim Shephard’s phrase “rate of revelation.” One manuscript we critiqued and Shephard taught against left us crawling through details of a kitchen fridge. Watching your rate, and balancing it against the clarity Vonnegut preached, is part of revision strategy and tactics. I love working with authors in development so both clarity and suspense have their spotlight moments.
Tucked away in the pages of Highsmith’s book is my index card called Plot Questions. Consider how you’re managing these subjects while you plot your book, after you’ve done your character work.
- What are the compulsions in the story?
- What are the obstacles?
- Is your protagonist active, showing their agency?
- Is there a time-crunch?
- Is the ending inevitable and surprising?
That last one is the height of being nimble and clever. It probably won’t come out of your earliest drafts. It’s okay. You can become surprised at your ending after a few good attempts.
