Elemetnts of Fiction Writing

7/30/2019 Elemetnts of Fiction Writing

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CONFLICT & SUSPENSE

JAMES SCOTT BELL

E L E M E N T S of F I C T I ON W R I T I N G


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1

INTRODUCTION

Trouble is my business. Raymond Chandler

Once you get a character with a problem, a serious problem,

plotting is just a fancy name for how he or she tries to get out

of the predicament.

Barnaby Conrad

You tell stories.You tell stories because you want people to read them.You want readers to be moved, entertained, maybe even enlightened.You want to tell stories that wrap readers up and get them lost in a world

youve created, with color ul characters and plots that dont let up.It doesnt matter what genre you write in. You want all these things hap-

pening because thats what makes the magic connection in this alchemy wecall fction.

Yes, thats it. You want to make a little magic.You can, you know.Most aspects o the cra o writing fction can be learned. You can prac-

tice them and put them to work or you.Frankly, I get a little mi ed when someone says fction writing cant

be taught. Tat would come as news to all the young writers who were in-structed by teachers, editors, books, and articles. People like John Grisham,who dined monthly on Writers Digest magazine.


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PART 1: Confict .......................................................................................................8CHAPTER 1 What a Great Story Is Really All About .............................9CHAPTER 2 Brainstorming or Confict ............................................... 16 CHAPTER 3 Te Foundations o Confict .............................................33CHAPTER 4 Te Structure o Confict ...................................................65CHAPTER 5 Point o View and Confict ............................................... 75CHAPTER 6 Opening With Confict ......................................................82CHAPTER 7 Keep It Moving in the Middle ........................................... 92CHAPTER 8 Subplots, Flashbacks, and Backstory .............................125CHAPTER 9 Inner Confict .................................................................. 135CHAPTER 10 Confict in Dialogue ........................................................ 145CHAPTER 11 Confict in Teme ............................................................ 159CHAPTER 12 Styling or Confict .......................................................... 168CHAPTER 13 Revising or Confict ........................................................ 174CHAPTER 14 ools or Confict ............................................................. 179

P ART 2: Suspense ................................................................................................188CHAPTER 15 What Happens Next? ......................................................189CHAPTER 16 Cli -Hangers ................................................................... 195CHAPTER 17 Stretching the ension ..................................................... 201CHAPTER 18 Dialogue and Suspense ................................................... 210CHAPTER 19 Suspense in Setting .......................................................... 216

CONTENTS


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CHAPTER 20 Style and Suspense .......................................................... 221CHAPTER 21 Instant Suspense..............................................................230CHAPTER 22 Putting It All Together ....................................................249

APPENDIX: A Confict Analysis o Two Novels .................................253


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189

CHAPTER 15

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

T he greatest storytelling experience o my li e occurred when I was inhigh school. A riend o mine ran the flm club and arranged a showing o Al red HitchcocksPsycho. Id never seen the movie be ore. Not on televi-sion or anywhere else.

For the screening, he booked the auditorium and showed the flm at night.Te place was packed.And when the lights went down and the movie started, the place was

electric with anticipation.Some who had seen the movie be ore knew when to scream.Tey screamed when Janet Leigh frst arrives at the Bates Motel.O course, when she takes her in amous shower, the screams were all over

the place. Maybe even I screamed. I couldnt hear mysel . But I was so caught upin the movie by that point I didnt really notice anything else but my own pulse.I was gripped by the power o Hitchcockian suspense. I was in a dream.

When Martin Balsam started walking toward the house, the screamswere intense. When Vera Miles started toward that same house, the screamscould have cracked plaster. And they didnt stop till the end o the movie.

Im telling you, thats the way to see Psycho or the frst time. Not ontelevision. Not alone. See it at night, in a crowded theater. I there is thun-der and lightning outside, so much the better.

Tats the eeling you should be going or. Not scream-out-loud suspensenecessarily but the kind that holds you in its grip and wont let go.

Te kind that has the readers asking, What happens next?


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190 CONFLICT & SUSPENSE

Tats suspense. And every novel needs it.In an interview, best-selling author Sandra Brown said, Suspense is an-

other essential. Tat doesnt necessarily mean the Boo! kind o suspense.Every novel should have suspense. Its the element that keeps the readerturning the pages. I try and pose a question, subliminally, to my reader onthe frst page i possible, and I withhold the answer to that question untilthe very fnal pages. New questions arise along the way, and theyre gradu-ally answered as the story un olds. But that main, overriding question, theone that makes a story out o a mere idea, is the last one to be answered.

Suspense in fction creates a eeling o pleasurable uncertainty. Te read-

er doesnt know whats going to happen, but is compelled to keep readingto fnd out. Tat eeling must, o course, permeate a genre thriller; but it is

just as essential or a character-driven or literary novel. Unless readers eelpleasurable uncertainty, the story will drag.

Suspense is the delay of resolution. Its rom the French, meaning tocause to hang. You are letting the answer hang out there, and readers keepgoing to fnd out when the hanging thing will fnally be resolved.

Te more emotionally involved the reader is with the hanging question,the more worry generated about the characters and there ore the greaterthe degree o suspense.

A character might be looking or his pajamas. Where are they? Tatquestion is hanging in the air, but its unlikely to generate a whole lot o reader concern.

Unless, o course, his pajamas are where he has the note that is the key

to the mystery, and some cleaning service took them while he was asleep.Tats the goal: to create such a bond with the characters in a plot o high

stakes that the reader has to know how the whole thing shakes outand todo it or the whole length o the book.

In this section, we will take suspense apart and look at it rom all angles.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN

MYSTERY AND SUSPENSEBoth mystery and suspense are tools o compelling fction. Its help ul toknow the di erence so you can better judge your strategy. Heres a start:


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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT ? 191

Mystery = who did it?Suspense = will it happen again?

Mystery is like a hedge maze as you go rom clue to clue.Suspense is like the trash masher in Star Wars, closing in.

Mystery is about fguring it out.Suspense is about keeping sa e.

Mystery is a puzzle.Suspense is a nightmare.

Mysteries ask, What will the lead character fnd next? Suspense asks, What will happen next to the Lead character?

Tere is a lot o crossover here. A thriller can have a central mystery, as inTe Da Vinci Code. And a mystery can have plenty o suspense, as in TeBig Sleep.A de handling o both elements makes or a hugely pleasur-able reading experience.

THE STRANDS OF SUSPENSE

In chapter our, I talked about the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Youknow those giant cables that drape over pylons? Tose super-heavy-duty cables are actually made up o many smaller ones, twisted together.

And thats a good way to think o suspense, too. Di erent strands work-ing together to support the whole.

I like to think o suspense in the ollowing ways:

Macro SuspenseSince suspense is the withholding o resolution, your novel must hold asense o suspense rom beginning to end. Te readers must be turning thepages because they need to fnd out what happens. I you have set up thestory with the right stakesdeath on the linethe big question is, Will thecharacter make it out o this alive?

Without macro suspense, nothing else you do in your individual sceneswill matter. Te readers will simply not care.


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You might have written the best chase scenes in the history o literature,but i there is no sense that the POV character is in real trouble, the chaseis o little moment.

In Velocity , Dean Koontz sets up a dizzying dilemma or the ordinary guy Lead, Billy Wiles. Coming out to his car afer a bartending stint, he

nds this note:

If you dont take this note to the police and get them involved, I will kill a

lovely blond schoolteacher somewhere in Napa County.

If you do take this note to the police, I will instead kill an elderly

woman active in charity work.

You have six hours to decide. The choice is yours.

What kind o sick joke is this? Billy, rattled by it, takes the note to his police-man riend, who says its a prank. Forget about it. Billy tries, but when sixhours has passed, Billy wonders, has someone been murdered? Surely not.

And we wonder, too. But Koontz doesnt give the answer. Billy goes intowork the next day, and as he goes about his routine we cant help wonderingi there has indeed been a murder.

Koontz can make us wait now, string us along as he will, because he hasset up a hugely suspense ul premise.Can you ormulate a macro suspense sentence, one that sums up all the

stakes or the Lead throughout the novel? I youve done your work on death as the stake, you should be able to do it.

Will Scarlett survive the Civil War, save her home, and nd true love atlast? (Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell)

Will Dr. David Beck nd his wi e, thought to be dead or eight longyears? ( ell No Oneby Harlan Coben)

Will Prince Albert be able to overcome his stutter in time to rally his peopleagainst the Nazi menace? ( Te Kings Speech, screenplay by David Seidler)

ry it or your novel now and keep that sentence handy as a reminder.

Scene SuspenseEach individual scene should have suspense, and each can i you build uponthe characters ears and worries. Tere is something unresolved in the scene,namely the outcome. Te character has entered the scene with an objec-tive (and this, in turn, is related to his overall objective in the novel). He


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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT ? 193

encounters obstacles in the scene, so we wonder i he will come out o thescene success ully or unsuccess ully.

In the flm Te Graduate, based on the novel by Charles Webb, Ben- jamin Braddock has called Mrs. Robinson to meet him at a hotel. He hasmade the ate ul decision to accept her o ero hersel .

In the scene at the hotel, Bens objective is to meet with Mrs. Robinsonwithout being noticed. But he has obstacles. Like the suspicious desk clerk who asks him i hes here or an a air. Ben is aghast. Te Singleman par-ty? the clerk o ers. Ben is relieved. But only or a moment.

Later, when he goes to the same clerk to get a room, there is more sus-picion, such as Bens only luggage being a toothbrush.

Here Ben knows what the obstacles are, and his ear actor is whetherhell be exposed as having an illicit tryst with an older woman, the wi e o his athers partner, no less.

In Gone With the Wind theres a terri ying escape rom the burning o Atlanta. Te suspense comes rom the questions, Will Scarlett get out o there with the pregnant Melanie? Get out be ore the mob steals her horse?Get out be ore fre alls on her and kills her? Te suspense o this scene mat-ters because we know the stakes or Scarlett in the overall story. Tis is herworld coming apart, and she is the only one in her amily who seems to havethe strength to salvage some o it.

HypersuspenseHypersuspense happens when the character does not know what the orcesare that oppose himand neither does the reader.

You are part o the story along with the Lead, looking to fgure out whatsgoing on. When you write in frst-person POV, its almost automatic i youwithhold answers rom the Lead.

In du Mauriers Rebecca,the narrator recounts the story as it happened,not giving us the beneft o her knowledge right away (since shes the onetelling it, she could have come right out and said, Heres the deal on Re-becca but where is the un in that?).

Contrast that with one o the best-selling novels o the 1970s,Love Story.It begins with the frst-person narrator telling readers that this is the story o a girl who died.


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Does that dissipate the hypersuspense? No, it just shifs the ocus. How did she die? We get the love story rst, be ore we get to the death.

But you can also accomplish the same thing in third-person POV, just

by keeping it close and limited. Follow one Lead throughout. Dont revealanything else to the reader rom another POV.

I you do use multiple POVs that clue the reader in, you can always keepthe Lead in the dark as he tries to gure out who is opposing him.

Paragraph SuspenseTe smallest unit or suspense purposes is the paragraph. Tink o each one

as having the possibility o withholding in ormation or ramping up ten-sion. For example:

Roger turned the corner onto Spring Street. The day was bright and

clear and he could see City Hall in the distance. The tower, with its pyra-

mid-shaped cap, reminded him of something. Yes, that was it. The hood

ornament hed seen on Crandalls car. That night at the beach. What

did it mean? Crandall was there all along!

Maybe that works or you and maybe it doesnt. But upon re ection youmight decide you want to stretch out the suspense even urther:

Roger turned the corner onto Spring Street. The day was cloudy and

dark. He could barely see City Hall. The pyramid-shaped cap, visible

in the muck, reminded him of something. What was it? What? It was

there, on the edge of his mind. Reel it in, bring it closer. It was something.

Something important. But he couldnt get it.

Dialogue exchanges are also made up o paragraphs, and o er urther oppor-tunity or suspense and stretching tension. Well cover that in chapter 18.

Every novel, o every genre, o ers increasing possibilities or suspense. I you keep in mind the various strands available, it will soon become secondnature or you to exploit them skill ully. Youll be writing page turners.


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Scott Bell is the best-selling author o more than

twenty novels, and is a Christy Award winner or Final Witness in 2000. His iction has been reviewed in Pub-lishers Weekly , Booklist , Library Journal , and the Library Review. Hes the author o Write Great Fiction: Plot & Struc-ture , Write Great Fiction: Revision & Self-Editing , and Te

Art of War for Writers . He writes orWriters Digest maga-zine. Bell has taught fction writing courses at Pepperdine University and

is a regular on the con erence circuit. His website is www.jamesscottbell.com. He lives and writes in Los Angeles, Cali ornia.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 265


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RAMP UP THE TENSIONAND KEEP YOUR READERS HOOKED

Inside youll fnd everything you need to know to spice up your story, move yourplot orward, and keep your readers turning pages. Expert thriller author andwriting instructor James Scott Bell shows you how to cra scenes, create charac-ters, and develop storylines that harness con ict and suspense to carry your story

rom the frst word to the last.Learn rom examples o success ul novels and movies as you trans orm your

work romho-hum to high-tension.

Pack the beginning, middle, and end o your book with the right amounto con ict.

Tap into the suspense ul power o each characters inner con ict. Build con ict into your storys point o view. Balance subplots, ashbacks, and backstory to keep your story moving

orward.

Maximize the tension in your characters dialogue. Amp up the suspense when you revise.

Confict & Suspense o ers proven techniques that help you cra fction your read-ers wont be able to put down.

About the AuthorJames Scott Bell is the best-selling author o more than twenty novels, Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure, Write Great Fiction: Revision & Sel -Editing , and Te Art o War or Writers. Learn more at www.jamesscottbell.com.

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ISBN-10: 1-59963-273-XISBN-13: 978-1-59963-273-5

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BONUS ONLINE EXCLUSIVE:Download a free PDF of Bells in-depth conict analysis of his novel

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Elemetnts of Fiction Writing