Lynette Eason on Putting the Suspense Puzzle Together

Lynette Eason is a master at creating fiction that keeps your seat of the pants glued to the chair turning page after page. I asked her to share some writing "secrets." 

I was asked to write on the secrets of writing suspense. As I started thinking about it, I decided there weren’t really any secrets, just different ways of doing things. I know different authors have different way of writing. We’re all individuals. What works for one writer may not work for another.

I’m a SOTP writer. Meaning, SEAT OF THE PANTS. I write what comes to me. I write in sequential order and I edit as I go. If I get a brilliant idea halfway through the manuscript, I go back and add, but basically by the time I get done with the story, I’m done. However, that’s not to say that I don’t do some very basic plotting. And I think this is because I approach writing a story like doing a puzzle.

Step 1: Sort out all of the side pieces and frame your puzzle – This is the brief synopsis stage. A short summary of how I want the story to go.  There are not any real details here, but I have a beginning, a few scenes for the middle and the way the story will end.

Step 2: Find the dominant color and put all of the pieces together in one section -  Here is where I do my character development. Even though I’m a SOTP writer, I really need to know my characters before I can write anything worth keeping. I have a character worksheet I start filling in. Details are important here, like family, best friends, educational backgrounds, biggest fear, biggest secret, love interest, even what’s in the wallet or the purse.

Step 3: Find where the dominant color belongs in the puzzle and place in the approximate section within the frame. The few scenes I’ve sketched out need to go in the right place. I do use a writing software called Scrivener. It helps me keep my scenes organized. I love the ability to jot down an idea and store it later. When I come back to the software, I can move the scenes around to see which order works best—where they best fit into the puzzle—er story.

Step 4: Start filling in the gaps.  At this point, I have a pretty good outline of the story. Now I just need to go through one last time and make sure I’ve put in all the details, all the red herrings, explained all of the clues and not left anything dangling. Now, here is a little tip: As I’m writing the story, I’ve got to keep all this “stuff” in my head. However, there are times when I’m going along that I’ll come to a stop because I need to research something, or I can’t remember the name of a certain character, or what time of day it is. Whatever the detail is that I need to put in, I simply stop writing, insert a comment at that point using track changes and then later, go through all of the comments I made and insert the necessary information.

Step 5: The last piece of the puzzle = the last read through. Go through the whole story cleaning it up and doing one last edit. By the time you get to the end, you should be done.

So, as you see, writing suspense isn’t so much about secrets as it is about hard work and paying attention to details, taking your time and being creative. Putting the puzzle together one piece at a time until you have the big picture.

Special Guest Saturday: Margaret Daley on Writing Suspense

WRITING INSPIRATIONL ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

By Margaret Daley

An inspirational romantic suspense has three main elements: a suspense or mystery, romance and faith element. For me that means I have to juggle three aspects of a story within a 275 page manuscript. Not an easy task and one that requires a lot of planning and thought. In a suspense pacing is so important. A reader expects to be taken on a merry ride where the hero and heroine are threatened, running for their lives, trying to solve something, trying to save someone. In a mystery, which I call a whodunit, the action might be more sedate but not necessarily. My stories often combine the elements of a suspense and a mystery.

A romantic suspense is usually fifty percent suspense and fifty percent romance. So often the problem arises when you are working your way through the suspense part of your book and you forget to have your hero and heroine fall in love. It can be harder to show it when they are being threatened or running for their lives. But if you have a furious pace throughout your book, it will overload your readers. I have read many romantic suspense books and there should always be moments of down time. That can be when you build the romance between your hero and heroine. Even when they are running for their lives, it is a good thing to keep them emotionally connected and aware of each other.

In an inspirational romantic suspense you must also delve into the spiritual growth of your hero and heroine. I find it is easier in a romantic suspense because of the heightened action and often the life and death aspect of these type of stories. We turn to the Lord in times of trouble and when we need Him. This can feed very naturally into your story.

But again I will stress because you have to juggle faith, romance and suspense, you must plan. In a lot of stories you will need to give false information and clues as well as real ones. Readers like to have a chance to figure out who is behind all the commotion in your story. I do realize some suspense (not mystery) books the reader will already know who the villain is and that is fine. An example is the heroine being stalked by an ex-husband or ex-boyfriend. She knows who he is, but she is in grave danger.

So where do you start? The first thing I usually come up with is a premise for my story. Sometimes it can be something as simple as a favorite setting like the jungle in Heart of the Amazon or an occupation in my Guardians, Inc. series starting in December 2010 for Love Inspired Suspense. This series is about female bodyguards. In So Dark the Night I came up with the premise what would happen to a sister who witnessed her brother’s murder and fled the scene with the killers after her. Or in Vanished, the premise was what would happen if a sheriff had to be both lawman and father when his daughter is kidnapped by someone from his past. Usually it is easiest to come up with some kind of concept and build a story from there.

A great way to learn about writing inspirational romantic suspense books is to join writing organizations that educate and support writers in networking and learning the craft. American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW at http://www.acfw.com/ ) is a wonderful place to connect with others who love to write Christian fiction.

My next romantic suspense from Love Inspired Suspense is Christmas Bodyguard in December 2010 and Trail of Lies in April 2011. Visit my Web site at http://www.margaretdaley.com/  to see more articles about writing and to read about my upcoming books. Also visit my blog at http://www.margaretdaley.blogspot.com/  to read author interviews and have an opportunity to win a book in weekly drawing.