Suspense

 K.M. Weiland says there are two elements in her The Two Most Important Tricks for How to Build Suspense:

Whatever the genre, suspense always results from two important ingredients: a question and a wait.

I think this idea came to when I read Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, but I thought in terms of mystery than suspense. Ms.Weiland uses William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! for her example.

Pacing plays a huge role in pulling off a successful waiting period. To force readers to savor every deliciously and frustratingly tantalizing moment, authors need to slow their pacing to a snail’s pace. Faulkner, a master of pacing, does this so beautifully, you can almost see his characters moving in slow motion as they approach the shack, climb the porch steps, enter the house, and start up the stairs. Every moment is drawn out with aching suspense sure to have readers clenching the book with bone-white fingers.

Pacing has always been a concern, especially since I seem to both underwrite and overwrite. I lopped off part of my "Road Tripping"  after cutting much from the prior version that seemed as belonging to a longer story and now felt mushy. That revision still felt mushy, so chop chop. And all that is before I sit down and give it a serious re-reading! What concerns me - a concern already in place although I have promised putting off the revision until next week - is pacing. Oh, and content - that people will stick around however quickly I move along the story!

sch 8/12