WRITING YOUR SCREENPLAY: SUSPENSE
Most of us know it well — the feeling that something TERRIBLE lurks around the corner.
We dread the worst possible outcome in a given situation. Suddenly we’re swimming in adrenaline and cortisol, preparing ourselves for fight or flight.
This is suspense.
For writers, to create suspense is to provoke anxiety or fear in the reader — the fear of what’s to come for the character(s) we identify with and love.
Even if you’re not a thriller writer, even if rom-coms or quiet dramas are your territory, suspense is a must-learn aspect of storytelling. Why? Because suspense makes for emotional engagement and the all-important turning of the page.
Last post, we talked about revelation of character. We talked about providing the reader with small nibbles to pique their interest about the depths of a person’s soul or intentions. Essentially, we discussed setting up questions or mystery.
In mystery, the characters know more than the reader, so the reader turns the page to figure out what’s going on and what’s going to happen.
In suspense, the reader often knows more than the characters. The reader sees the potential threat before the characters do and squirms, hoping the character makes it out in tact.
The most helpful anecdote about this comes from the master of suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock.
Four people sitting around a table, talking about baseball, whatever you like… Five minutes of it — very dull. Suddenly, a bomb goes off… blows the people to smithereens. What does the audience have? Ten seconds of shock. Take the same scene and tell the audience there’s a bomb under that table and it will go off in five minutes and the whole emotion of the audience is totally different.
In a compelling story, the reader cares immensely about a character’s goals and safety.
Suspense, then, is the delicate layering of threats to that character. This week, we’ll look at how several scripts keep us on the edge of our seat.
If you’re looking to make your script (or even just one scene) more suspenseful, remember, effective suspense —
Shows us (the reader or audience) the threat
Shows or explains beforehand what will happen if something goes wrong
Shows the clock ticking (i.e. - the water rising, the speedometer rising….)
AND LIKE A SUSPENSEFUL CLIFFHANGER:
JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT INSTALLMENT WHEN WE DISCUSS RAISING THE STAKES!! In the meantime, if you have any questions about these or other scripts in the library, feel free to e-mail us at library@wgfoundation.org
Happy writing!
Libraries aren’t just for research and reading — they’re centers for community. Help us continue to preserve the work of film and TV writers and uplift the next generation by making a donation today.