The Three S's of my story.

I do like my fans to have to speculate after they read a chapter. I want them to see several different possibilities for the character to go, who the character may be, or how a situation will be resolved.

I sometimes like to surprise and sometime I prefer suspense. There is a difference. I read an article about writing tips covering tension in a story. The only reason to read a book is for the tension. So I set about discovering the means to create tension in a book. As I state, there are two ways: surprise and suspense. Alfred Hitchcock had his own definition (I think it was him, I have read so many writing tips). Imagine five men sitting around a poker table. One man gets up and goes outside to his car to retrieve something. A bomb goes off under the poker table. Surprise! Now the same scene, five men at the table joking about the idiots that walk around with those the end is near signs and then the writer "shows" the bomb ticking and the time left under the table. The men are each constantly getting up, going the bathroom, get some food, all the while the bomb is ticking. You are wondering if they will find it, you are wondering which of the men might be killed, you even are made to wonder if the man that left for to retrieve something from the car was the killer because the bomb went off while he was outside. But all the time the reader is on the edge of their seat knowing the bomb is ticking. That is suspense.

I believe you need both in a story. Once a writer has set about surprising his readers she needs to make sure it is believable. (I for one think Rawlings early admission he liked Lydia was a surprise and of course who tied for the horse was also a surprise- I don't think anyone gave Kent a real chance. But I did use the readers passion for Darcy as the smokescreen). I have plenty of surprises and so now I can go either way with the story even now I can surprise you with no surprise at all. In fact, that is the fun of writing. Being able to catch the reader speculating. But there should be a reason for the surprise and not just for the sake of surprise. I have a reason for Rawlings to be interested in Lydia. So while it was a surprise to the reader, it will make more and more sense as we traipse through the chapters. Never surprise for surprise alone. It will bore the reader. Only use surprise to move the story forward. but not as much as suspense.

Ah, suspense. That bomb ticking and ticking. Sometimes the reader will be let in on the answer and other times the story will just build with the reader speculating the answer. Knowing the bomb is there is knowing the answer of sorts - it will go off. speculations about when and who dies exist. Now sometimes suspense is created without the reader being given the answer. Let us say the writer showed a man setting up the bomb (dressed in black) then going back to his car and changing clothes and then waiting for others to show up. He walks in with the deck of cards. Now we know there is a bomb, we know he knows, but we don't know what will happen and we don't know which man it is. So while we know about the bomb we don't know the rest. Suspense galore.

Having suspense in my story is one of my goals. Right now the main suspense is what is Blake's intentions. I have slowly built in the reader's mind that he can go several ways. But the reader is held in suspense until he acts. Another example is who is Kent and what is he up to, of course I started it now because the Blake one is coming to a point where the reader will soon know. Kent picks up the story suspense and it will get more intense. But in the end the underlying true suspense has been and will remain, Darcy and secondly, the alliance they have created. And again, I do not want suspense without reason.

As this is my first ever writing project, I am learning as I go. When I plotted my story, I asked myself at each point would this work better as a surprise or suspense. I will try never to surprise for surprise sake and to keep the suspense real. My three S's: Surprise, Suspense, and Speculation. Have I achieved this? Do you wish to turn the page? Do you long for the rest of the story? Would you stay up all night to finish? Those are the reasons to read a book according to the publishers. I hope to achieve at least a little of this.