Tag: raise the stakes

Categories
Mystery/Thriller/Suspense

How to Use REal Life to Make Suspense Come Alive

mystery suspense thriller

There’s nothing more disappointing than picking up a novel described as mystery, suspense, or thriller, fully expecting a hair-raising adventure, only to find it failed to meet its genre expectations.

A bee sting doesn’t merit being called a suspense scene unless the heroine is deathly allergic and will go into anaphylactic shock without immediate treatment. Then, tension soars because the reader wonders if the murderer cleverly orchestrated the danger.

Wondering if a baseball player will hit a home run in the last inning of the game can become intense, but what if the stakes shot higher? How much more would the suspense escalate if someone replaced the game ball with a fake one containing a bomb? What? Who? And why?

Think about actual life situations and the escalating feelings of shock, fear, trepidation, and horror that are increasingly overwhelming. Did goosebumps appear? Were there screams and tears? Shaking, nervousness, or fainting?

Make your scenes realistic, like these.

1. A man’s face appeared in the kitchen window while she washed the dinner dishes. She screamed. Water doused the floor. She bolted. Shock, fear, and adrenaline sent her plowing through the house as she tried to escape.

2. The green car pulled to the curb. The passenger door flung open, exposing the empty passenger seat. The driver pointed a gun and demanded she get in, or else. She darted down the street toward home, and he didn’t shoot, but sped away.

3. Two female teenagers walked down the road, returning home from the store a few blocks from home. A pickup passed with two men in the flat bed portion of the truck. Gunshots fired. The zing of a bullet passed close to one girl’s head. The other girl held her hands over her ears and screamed.

4. A young mother soaked in the bathtub while her baby napped. Her husband stormed into the bathroom in a rage, pointing a gun in her face. He claimed she was the enemy, and he was going to kill her. He ranted and left as quickly as he’d come. Soaking wet, she jerked on her clothing, grabbed her baby, and ran for her life.

5. A teenage girl moved into an apartment for her first experience of living on her own. She arrived home from work one day and settled in for a quiet evening. Suddenly, unfamiliar angry male voices shouted and pounded on the front door. Mortified, she ran to her bedroom, locked the door, and scampered into the closet, pulling clothes over her head. Crash! They kicked in the front door and started shooting. Her hands shook uncontrollably, but she called her mom and whispered through breathless sobs that she was about to die. Her bedroom doorknob twisted. Sirens rang. Heavy footsteps grew distant as the men ran from the apartment. Police arrived only moments before her mother. She jumped into her mom’s arms and left, never to return to the apartment. This innocent teen escaped death, but the trauma remained.

Each scenario mentioned above actually happened. How easy would it be to expound on them and develop a fabulous suspense story?

Breathe life into your characters and make their feelings and reactions realistic. Read the newspapers, listen to the news, or watch the crowds. There’s a hidden story out there waiting to emerge.

Loretta Eidson

Loretta Eidson writes romantic suspense. She has won and been a finalist in several writing contests, including first place in romantic suspense in the Foundations Awards at the 2018 Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference, a finalist in ACFW’s 2018 Genesis, was a finalist in the 2018 Fabulous Five, and a double finalist in the 2017 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence.

Loretta lives in North Mississippi with her husband Kenneth, a retired Memphis Police Captain. She loves salted caramel lava cake, dark chocolate, and caramel Frappuccinos.

Visit her:

Categories
Mystery/Thriller/Suspense

Escalating Conflict

mystery suspense thriller

Sit down with a good book and hope for a relaxing evening. The opening sentence immediately captures your attention, and before long, an hour has turned into four. Your feet are tucked under you, and you’re buried beneath a blanket, and yet, you keep turning the page. Why?

The stakes keep rising, tension soars, and the protagonist walks into a trap. Your mouth goes dry, and your pulse increases? She shouldn’t go alone. Will she become his next victim?

“Wait,” your inner voice yells. You want to help her avoid harm or certain death, but you can’t. It’s the author’s responsibility to pull her through.

Page by page, the suspense intensifies. Suddenly, the antagonist appears. He’s snide and vindictive and plans his attack. He knows her weakness and will use it to get what he wants. He sharpens his knife and slides the blade across his finger. Blood oozes. He confirms it’s sharpness and laughs.

But wait, the protagonist is now running through the dense fog in the depths of a forest, and, yes, she’s alone. She’s out of breath, but she knows he’s on her trail. How much further can she run? She stalls and hides behind a tree. Will he hear her gasping for breath?

You swallow hard, and your heart races — anticipation grabs your throat. The story can’t end like this. She can’t die, can she? You turn the page, still consumed with the story. What will happen next?

His arms reach around the tree with a knife in one hand. You gasp. He gives his wrist a quick thrust in hopes of eliminating his prey, but slices into the tree trunk instead. Did she escape? You must keep reading to find out and help her reach safety.

Suspense is one of those gripping genres that keeps you on your toes. Thrillers do the same. Well-Written suspense or thrillers will thrust you into the depths of the story, and capture your intrigue.

Once such incident happened to me. As much as I love suspense, I picked up a thriller. The plot was so intense I couldn’t put the book down. I didn’t like the cynical antagonist, and yet, I kept reading. Why? Because I had to know how the story would end and have the satisfaction of knowing that the bad guy met his fate.

This reaction is just what the author desires of her audience, to capture their attention and keep them turning the page. It takes well-organized planning for authors to pull off such responses.

  • Create the reader’s empathy for your protagonist by helping them identity with her internal struggle.
  • Put pressure on your antagonist.
  • Keep the stakes high. What does she want, and what does she have to lose?
  • Keep your reader guessing about what will happen next. Write the unpredictable.
  • Escalate tension. Short sentences help build tension.
  • Using red herrings helps redirect the reader’s attention from the real antagonist and creates added tension and uncertainty.
  • Fulfill your promise to deliver a satisfying outcome/ending.

Suspense, thrillers, and mysteries will continue to draw readers of all ages. What have you learned by writing and reading in these genres?

Loretta Eidson writes romantic suspense. She has won and been a finalist in several writing contests, including first place in romantic suspense in the Foundations Awards at the 2018 Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference, a finalist in ACFW’s 2018 Genesis, was a finalist in the 2018 Fabulous Five, and a double finalist in the 2017 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence.

            Loretta lives in North Mississippi with her husband Kenneth, a retired Memphis Police Captain. She loves salted caramel lava cake, dark chocolate, and caramel Frappuccinos.

Visit her:

Website: lorettaeidson.com

Facebok: loretta.eidson.7 

Categories
Screenwriting

High Concept

Recently, I was motivated to start work on a new screenplay, one that has been a passion project of mine for some time. It involved taking a cult classic from my childhood and updating the storyline for the present day.

Before I could begin plotting out the story events, I wanted to do some brainstorming to see what modern-day twists I could add to a dated story. My first step was to go back to the writing basics:

  • Who
  • What
  • Where
  • When
  • Why

We’ve already discussed the what (takeaway,) but this month I want to look at the “why.” Why does this story need to be told?  Why is it relevant now? Why will people want to invest time and money into watching it?

In the screenwriting business, this is called a concept and if the stakes are high enough, it becomes a high concept. I cannot emphasize the importance of screenplays being high concept. Producers, studios, and investors want projects that are high concept.

High Concept?

Let’s face it; Hollywood is a business town as much as New York City is. It doesn’t matter what kind of story you’re telling or what your takeaway is, if it isn’t going to make money, studios won’t produce it—high concept typically means a high return on the investment.

In my opinion, this is why the Christian film industry sells itself short; they want to change or save the world, but they only target Christian audiences. Even though their messages about salvation, hope and love should be a very high concept.

If you’re still not sure how to tell if your screenplay is high concept, I found a few pointers in Script magazine:

  1. High level of entertainment value
  2. High degree of originality
  3. High level of uniqueness (different than original)
  4. Highly visual
  5. Possesses a clear emotional focus (root emotion)
  6. Targets a broad, general audience, or a large niche market
  7. Sparks a “what if” question[i]

A way to test if your screenplay is high concept is to ask, what if this or that doesn’t happen? The answer to your what-if should be high risk. This doesn’t necessarily mean complicated. Just that the possibilities are high.

Overly complicated narratives can lose the entertainment factor by overwhelming the audience. A high concept film should be easy to understand: light versus dark, good versus evil, pride versus humility. Keep the stakes high, but keep the story easy enough to follow.

Keep It Simple?

Screenwriting coach and legend Scott Myers suggests “the six-word rule.” “So, if you’ve got a story which has you confused, do this: Try your hand at a logline or short summary. Then zero in on the six words in your description which do the best job communicating the essence of your story.”[ii] I don’t think the descriptions need to be that brief, but no more than two sentences. Below are a few of my favorite high concept movies.

  • Home Alone What if a young boy is left home alone while the family is on vacation and burglars tried to break in?
  • Jurassic Park What if scientists cloned dinosaurs and put them in a park for people to visit?
  • Transformers  What if alien robots invaded earth and hid in plain sight?
  • Groundhog Day What if I a weatherman relived Groundhog Day over and over?

High concept movies have box office appeal, but not necessarily blockbuster budgets. Stories don’t need to be showy or flashy to appeal to a broad audience. Sometimes it’s as simple as touching the heart of an audience or a universal curiosity that makes a movie high concept.

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

[i] https://scriptmag.com/features/story-talk-high-concept-yes-it-actually-means-something

[ii] https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/dumb-little-writing-tricks-that-work-the-six-word-test-f1bc38a8122d