Skip to content

Tag Archives: Suspense

What Is “Hidden Story,” and Why Do You Need One?

Today we’re going to discuss a part of your novel you might not even be aware exists. This elusive element of your writing is called the “hidden story,” and it’s essential to delivering a tale that will keep your readers up way past their bedtimes.

What I Learned About Writing This Week…from Agatha Christie

I’ve spent the last few days getting scared out of my wits by a wholly unexpected source: Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.

On Writing Rules: How to Build Suspense the Right Way

Tweet As Stephen King and Edgar Allan Poe have both toiled to teach us, suspense in storytelling mostly comes from the things you don’t say. However, as I pointed out yesterday, every storyteller has a stern obligation to provide readers with everything they need to know to understand what’s going on. Walking the thin line […]

On Writing Rules: Creating Suspense without Your Abusing Readers

Tweet Yesterday I told the story of a math teacher who kept me in suspense, and ultimately spared me the nightmare of taking more math classes. I also talked about how little I liked math in the first place because it was just a set of soulless rules. And then I promised you another creative […]

On Writing Rules: Waiting

Tweet Not too long ago, I unleashed some pretty harsh words on math. (If you don’t feel like following the link, the harsh words were “dang you.”) I didn’t excel at math in high school — not because I  didn’t get it, but because I didn’t care. With the strange exception of factoring polynomials, I […]