4 Tactics to Elevate the Suspense in Any Story

Hi, IWSG readers! Today Savannah Cordova from Reedsy has one dynamite post that I know you're going to appreciate. Take it away, Savannah.

Suspense is one of those elements that, depending on your genre of choice, you might think you can disregard as a writer. But in reality, every good narrative needs some degree of suspense — whether that’s rooted in a classic “whodunnit” of a murder mystery, or the more lighthearted question of whether two romantic leads will get together in the end.

To cultivate the right atmosphere, here are four tried-and-true tactics to elevate suspense in any story… that’s right, not just in mysteries and thrillers! And to prove it, I’ll even include examples from various genres (though beware of mild spoilers ahead).

1. Present a bold yet ambiguous statement

One way to instantly elevate the suspense in your story — and which may be useful for grabbing readers’ attention from the start — is to make some kind of bold statement that implies something interesting, but doesn’t elaborate further in the moment.

The first time I encountered this tactic was in the Liane Moriarty novel Truly Madly Guilty. While the story didn’t end up being my absolute favorite, this particular line stopped me in my tracks. For context, in the book’s first chapter, the narrator is watching her friend give a speech using a set of index cards:

There was something heartbreaking about those cards, as if Clementine had remembered that little tip from their oratory lessons at school. She must have cut them up with scissors. Not her grandmother’s pearl-­handled ones. They’d gone missing.

Three simple words change this passage from a fairly mundane description to one with a tug of suspense. How did Clementine’s scissors go missing, and how does the narrator even know they’re gone? What have they been used for, and how might it relate to Clementine’s speech (which we already know, even from this first chapter, is about something bad)?

Of course, Moriarty writes domestic thrillers, and this particular style might not work for other types of fiction. So to give another, non-thriller example, here’s a similar line from the opening of Leigh Bardugo’s new historical fantasy novel, The Familiar:

If the bread hadn’t burned, this would be a very different story.

Once more, simple yet effective. Over the next few lines, Bardugo makes some more observations about this sort of “butterfly effect”, but includes few contextual details — though crucially, she does include the phrase “all of the tragedy to follow.” So again, readers know that something not-so-good is in store… but what, and for whom, remains a mystery.

You’ll be amazed how well this tactic can work across genres. Whether it’s delivered as part of your general narration, via the thoughts of an unreliable narrator, or in the form of a cryptic character’s speech, putting forth such a statement and then refusing to say any more about it is a surefire way to increase suspense.

2. Implement some kind of “countdown”

The “bold statement” tactic works well on a line-by-line level, but let’s now look at a bigger-picture method of elevating suspense: introducing a “countdown” of some sort. This technique will naturally create narrative urgency, and can even help you structure your story if you’re not sure how to go about it!

If you’re not sure what I mean by “countdown”, just think of any fictional plot based on a 

predetermined number of events. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, for example, is structured around the three tasks of the Triwizard Tournament, each one introducing more drama than the last. Another good example is Ready Player One, which revolves around the discovery of three virtual “keys” that will award the finder with fame and fortune. (Indeed, if you’ve heard of the literary rule of three, it will be no surprise that many of these countdowns come in trios!)

To give one more potent example — this one from an actual suspense novel (and one I was definitely too young to be reading at the time) — let’s consider Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz. For those who haven’t read it, this is a truly unhinged novel about a man who is stalked and tormented by a family of clowns, all in the wake of his dying grandfather having predicted “five terrible days” in his grandson’s life.

I won’t go into detail about these events, but needless to say, this was a very memorable book. While the subject matter was surely part of that, I also vividly recall just how suspenseful the story was; when I first read the book around age twelve, I was sweating bullets to see how the protagonist would grapple with each predicted “terrible day”.

Who’s to say whether Life Expectancy would hold up in retrospect, but the looming terror of that five-day countdown certainly did its job on me at the time. So remember, if you’re looking to inject some suspense into your own story, you can’t go wrong with a countdown of sorts!

3. Make one of your characters “disappear”

Here’s another classic suspense-building tactic: having one of your characters vanish from the page — or appear to vanish. Nothing is more tantalizing than a disappearing act… particularly if you’ve gotten readers invested in the character, which will make them feel genuinely anxious about that character’s fate.

The quintessential example here is Gone Girl — it’s right there in the title! When Amy Dunne disappears from her suburban home, she leaves her husband, Nick, mystified (as per his own internal monologue) and seemingly guilty (according to the media circus that ensues). While Amy does vanish pretty early in the book, Gillian Flynn cleverly gets us invested in her character by having further chapters alternate between her POV and Nick’s.

These conflicting narratives make it impossible to know what’s true, what’s false, and what is perhaps intentionally hidden — ratcheting up the suspense until the midpoint of the book, when the shocking real truth about Amy is revealed. It’s an absolute masterclass in twisty drama (and in my opinion, has yet to be outdone by any domestic thriller since).

But while this is the “classic” approach, there are other, subtler ways to “disappear” a character as well — with one of my favorite methods being used in Daisy Jones and the Six. In this novel, we follow a group of former bandmates recounting their glory days in the seventies… but one band member, Pete Loving, is conspicuously absent. He appears in the anecdotes about the past, but not as one of the people giving “present-day” accounts. As readers begin to notice this, the question mounts: what ever happened to this guy?

As those who’ve read the book will know, Pete turns out fine; he’s just not interested in participating in the oral history, preferring to leave the past in the past. But his lack of narration nonetheless builds an almost-subconscious suspense for readers — and when he’s shown to be alive and well, you can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

4. Give equal weight to every possibility

Lastly, it might sound obvious, but the best way to build literary suspense — and this applies to every story, no matter what your genre! — is to simply leave as many paths open as possible in terms of what will happen.

Unlike the other tactics on this list, this one is much easier said than done. You’ll need to weave just enough uncertainty into your story to keep readers guessing, not revealing the truth until it’s exactly the right time. But if you can pull it off, you’ll end up with the ideal balance of suspense: an ending which feels satisfying, yet which most readers won’t necessarily guess, because there are just too many other possibilities.

One of my favorite novelists is Ann Patchett, and while you wouldn’t call her books “suspenseful” in the typical sense, she is a virtuoso of the “many possibilities” narrative. Her 2019 book The Dutch House exemplifies this beautifully — it’s the story of two siblings whose mother abandons them and whose father dies, leaving them at the mercy of their “wicked” stepmother, who ultimately tries to disinherit them.

But while each new plot point feels entirely organic, it’s impossible to predict what will happen next. Will the siblings reconcile with their stepmother, or will they go searching for their real mother? How will all this affect their future relationships; indeed, where can they go from here, as young adults who are not quite orphans, but with no real sense of what a family should be?

This review refers to The Dutch House as having an “irresistible narrative drive” — in other words, fostering just the right amount of suspense for readers, even if it’s not a heart-pounding thriller. And this is what I wish to impress upon any author who’s still skeptical of the need for suspense: sure, you don’t need a scintillating murder mystery with twelve possible suspects, but you do need that narrative drive.

On that note, I sincerely hope these tips have helped you out! Whatever you’re writing now — whether it’s a thriller or a slow-burn romance — you can use these tactics to build stories about which readers will say: “I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next.” Best of luck!

Thanks so much Savannah! Great information.