Suspense, Surprise and Cliffhangers
I've been doing a lot of thinking about the tension between readers and books. And how as a reader I need books that give me all kinds of tension. The can't put it down stay up too late to finish it tension. The can put it down at night but can't wait to pick it up again tension and the perfect subway reading tension - I don't miss my stop, but keeps me totally entertained for 20 minutes, two times a day - tension.
A varied diet of reading experiences. They can't all be ROOM. I would die.
But I want to write the can't put it down kind of tension.
So, I'm trying to figure it out - as we all are. And of course the best lessons in writing these days are on TV, so I started to look there and of course after last nights Game of Thrones I realized how it hit that painfully sweet spot between surprise, suspense and cliffhanger. We can survive without all three but as writers why not shoot high?
I'm reading Divergent right now and it's full of suspense. Lot's of questions, some more pressing than others. High stakes. I am totally enjoying this book, but I can put it down. No Surprises. No gasp out loud moments. I'm half way through and I'm sure they're coming, but...I'm halfway through. Surprise me already. Flip this world on it's ear. Yeah, Peter got stabbed in the eye - but I don't care about Peter. Tris' mom was Dauntless, sort of saw that coming. Plenty of suspense, no surprise. No cliffhangers. For all it's violence and high stakes, it's a low tension book.
I watched the first season of Deadwood back to back this weekend for a break from working. Oh, this show...it's a fail on so many levels. But it's success - those characters, that world building, those actors, carry it. It's the equivalent of a subway read for me. Basically, I'm reading for the voice, sort of like the first few Stephanie Plum books. I was invested in Seth and Alma. Trixie. Totally riveted by Ian McShane...but I skimmed to get to those parts I liked. And talk about a show that needed a couple of cliffhangers...something! Murder someone we care about! Surprise me.
The second season of True Blood infuriated me with it's false cliffhangers. It would create surprise and suspense by giving us an episode end that was totally staged. Remember when Bill went to go see the Queen because she was the only hope for something that I don't remember and when he walks in the room all we see is a woman's leg covered in blood? Oh My GOD! The queen is DEAD! Oh no what will happen now? The next episode it wasn't the queen's leg, but the woman she was feeding from? UGH! Stop playing with me. Stop creating tension where there isn't any - or make real tension! Lafayette is dead! No, he's not. Bill is dead! No...he's not. Enough all ready.
Which brings me to Game of Thrones. They've killed everyone that took us into that story and that world. Every hero, every villain - dead. Each time it was a gasp out loud moment. And last night when they killed Lord Stark - you'd think we lost the sympathetic center of that show. The driving story. Sean Bean, for crying out loud. But they didn't just kill him, they gave birth to a terrible new villian. A teenage boy totally out of control. And the same damn episode they give us scene after scene of other character's that just build our love, our investment. I'm more invested in the half-man's story now, then I ever was really in Lord Stark's. I liked Lord Stark, but come on! I LOVE Tyroine. The pregnant queen out there in the desert with the dying husband and the black magic...the new Lord Stark, so young and leading a rebellion. Starting the book with characters that you intend to kill off to make room for new heroes and villains that we are MORE invested in...and there are zombies!!!
Honest to god, I keep thinking that suspense is part of writing romance. It's ingrained. And Surprise... well, surprise will come to me, right? Those little moments of magic...I can't plan for that! Cliffhangers I can manufacture. How wrong I am. How totally wrong. I need to plan this stuff, plot it out, build it in. I can't leave these crucial ingredients to chance. Game of Thrones certainly isn't and it's the best thing out there.
A varied diet of reading experiences. They can't all be ROOM. I would die.
But I want to write the can't put it down kind of tension.
So, I'm trying to figure it out - as we all are. And of course the best lessons in writing these days are on TV, so I started to look there and of course after last nights Game of Thrones I realized how it hit that painfully sweet spot between surprise, suspense and cliffhanger. We can survive without all three but as writers why not shoot high?
I'm reading Divergent right now and it's full of suspense. Lot's of questions, some more pressing than others. High stakes. I am totally enjoying this book, but I can put it down. No Surprises. No gasp out loud moments. I'm half way through and I'm sure they're coming, but...I'm halfway through. Surprise me already. Flip this world on it's ear. Yeah, Peter got stabbed in the eye - but I don't care about Peter. Tris' mom was Dauntless, sort of saw that coming. Plenty of suspense, no surprise. No cliffhangers. For all it's violence and high stakes, it's a low tension book.
I watched the first season of Deadwood back to back this weekend for a break from working. Oh, this show...it's a fail on so many levels. But it's success - those characters, that world building, those actors, carry it. It's the equivalent of a subway read for me. Basically, I'm reading for the voice, sort of like the first few Stephanie Plum books. I was invested in Seth and Alma. Trixie. Totally riveted by Ian McShane...but I skimmed to get to those parts I liked. And talk about a show that needed a couple of cliffhangers...something! Murder someone we care about! Surprise me.
The second season of True Blood infuriated me with it's false cliffhangers. It would create surprise and suspense by giving us an episode end that was totally staged. Remember when Bill went to go see the Queen because she was the only hope for something that I don't remember and when he walks in the room all we see is a woman's leg covered in blood? Oh My GOD! The queen is DEAD! Oh no what will happen now? The next episode it wasn't the queen's leg, but the woman she was feeding from? UGH! Stop playing with me. Stop creating tension where there isn't any - or make real tension! Lafayette is dead! No, he's not. Bill is dead! No...he's not. Enough all ready.
Which brings me to Game of Thrones. They've killed everyone that took us into that story and that world. Every hero, every villain - dead. Each time it was a gasp out loud moment. And last night when they killed Lord Stark - you'd think we lost the sympathetic center of that show. The driving story. Sean Bean, for crying out loud. But they didn't just kill him, they gave birth to a terrible new villian. A teenage boy totally out of control. And the same damn episode they give us scene after scene of other character's that just build our love, our investment. I'm more invested in the half-man's story now, then I ever was really in Lord Stark's. I liked Lord Stark, but come on! I LOVE Tyroine. The pregnant queen out there in the desert with the dying husband and the black magic...the new Lord Stark, so young and leading a rebellion. Starting the book with characters that you intend to kill off to make room for new heroes and villains that we are MORE invested in...and there are zombies!!!
Honest to god, I keep thinking that suspense is part of writing romance. It's ingrained. And Surprise... well, surprise will come to me, right? Those little moments of magic...I can't plan for that! Cliffhangers I can manufacture. How wrong I am. How totally wrong. I need to plan this stuff, plot it out, build it in. I can't leave these crucial ingredients to chance. Game of Thrones certainly isn't and it's the best thing out there.
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