David A. Wimsett's Perspectives

Some writers try to create suspense by concealing information with the idea readers will be surprised when a character discovers something or an action takes place.

Cliffhanger endings are effective, but keeping details from readers and audiences doesn’t create suspense. It creates frustration. Suspense comes from revealing information a little at a time.

In a script I recently read in my TV writing class, a spec pilot opens with the discovery of a murder. The victim is not revealed.
The script then goes back a week in time and introduces several characters in conflict. Some of them we root for and others we despise.

The pilot ends where the police arrive at the dead body from the opening. The victim is still not revealed.

This writer thought viewers would be intrigued to tune in the next week and discover who was killed. Instead, they created frustration. By hiding the identity of the victim, audiences have no investment in the character. If they knew who was killed, they could feel an emotional connection and care about the deceased.

Consider a scene from a movie where a cloaked figure enters an office from a balcony, places something in a desk drawer and leaves.

A second person enters and sits at the desk.

A third person enters and sits in front of the desk.

They discuss an embezzlement by someone in the company. They don’t know who it is, but are waiting for a courier to being a letter with evidence.

The letter arrives. Before they can open it, they hear a car crash and go out on the balcony to see what happened.
As they leave, a bomb explodes in the desk. When they rush back in, the letter is destroyed.

The bomb explosion is shocking. It destroys the evidence, but the scene has no suspense because we don’t know the people are in the danger.

Imagine a rewrite. The cloaked person places a bomb in a desk drawer.

The other people enter and discuss who might be the embezzler. As they speak, we cut to the bomb where a timer is ticking down.

We move back to the conversation, then back to the bomb. The timer continues to tick down.

The people step out onto the balcony and we cut to the bomb. The timer reaches zero and the bomb explodes.

We now have suspense because we’re involved in the characters’ lives and the action.

I’m sure you’ve read books where scene A is followed by Scene B which is followed by Scene C and so on. For instance:

1. SCENE A: Mary gets in her car and drives to the store.
2. SCENE B: She buys some pasta and sauce.
3. SCENE C: She drives back to her house.
4. SCENE D: Her mother comes over for dinner.

There’s a progression of action that leads to an incident, but the story lacks tension. Consider a rewrite.

1. SCENE A: Mary’s mother calls and says she’s coming over for dinner in two hours.
2. SCENE B: Mary frantically opens her refrigerator and cabinets to find she has no food to cook.
3. SCENE C: Mary charges to her car and drives off for the grocery store.
4. SCENE D: Mary left during rush hour and gets caught in a traffic jam.
5. SCENE E: Mary turns off on a side street and takes a route she knows because she’s a paramedic.
6. SCENE F: This delays Mary and the store is closed.
7. SCENE G: Mary slams on her horn in frustration.
8. SCENE H: This causes a man to come out of a new Chinese buffet she never noticed before.
9. SCENE H: It has take-out but just ran out of containers.
10. SCENE I: Mary grabs two empty containers from the back seat of her car from lunch the day before.
11. SCENE J: Mary charges back into the restaurant and throws food into the containers, making a mess.
12. SCENE K: The owner gets mad and shoves her out the door before she can fill the containers.
13. SCENE L: Mary’s mother will arrive in fifteen minutes so she weaves in and out of traffic.
14. SCENE M: The contents of one container spills out onto the front seat and down to the floor.
15. SCENE N: Mary runs into the house and divides the remaining container’s contents onto two plates just as the doorbell rings.
16. SCENE O: Mary’s mother comes in and suggests they go out to a Chinese restaurant because there isn’t enough food for the both of them.

The action in each scene drives the action in the next one. In this way, the story creates tension and situational humor that ties each of the different plot elements together.