So What Happens Next?
by Charlotte Bennardo You know the joke: How do you keep someone in suspense? I don't know, how? Photo by Sound On: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-red-long-sleeve-shirt-3760767/ (silence......) Suspense is an integral part of fiction, even if the book is not a mystery or thriller. There has to be a bit of suspense in every book to keep the reader turning the page. There are a number of ways to create it: End the chapter on a cliffhanger: The door creaked open... Have the character or narrator ask questions, and then don't answer them right away: "Who's there?" Was that the front door opening? Add something unexpected: When she opened the door, there stood her dead husband. Use setting to convey a threatening atmosphere: Lightning slashed the sky, illuminating the room briefly. And the shadow of a menacing figure moving toward her. Take something away: The handcuffs snapped around her wrists, and her life as she knew it, was over. There are other ways to cr
