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Key Conditions for Reader Suspense:
Part 4 - Uncertainty
by John D. Brown
The following is part of a continuing series. If you wish to start at the beginning, head to “It’s All About The Reader.”
Surprise
In my last post, I talked about the fact that for readers to feel suspense our character’s problem has to be hard to solve. But that’s only part of the equation. It has to be hard, sure, but the outcome has to also be uncertain. Otherwise, there’s no worry.
The character must have a chance to solve the problem up until the end, but for no extended period of time can it look like winning or losing is assured, because the moment the reader can predict the ending and the major turns along the way, that’s the moment they will lose interest.
Think about this. It’s the first quarter of a football game, and the score is 64 to 0. Anybody sticking around for that one to play out?
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