As promised, this is an open thread for discussion of advanced suspense techniques -- the stuff that goes beyond the typical dime-store murder mystery.We talked in Wednesday's bagger about an Esquire story that recounted a prison break. If you couldn't come to the bagger, but would like to join the discussion you can read the story here.
Even if you were at the bagger, the online version has features like clickable footnotes. I hate footnotes, but if you like them you can find them online or in the magazine version. If you don't like to read from a computer screen but are a footnote lover, come see me and I will lend you my copy of Esquire.
non-fiction example: First lines of Mrs. Kelly's Monster by Jon Franklin:
ReplyDeleteIn the cold hours of a winter morning Dr. Thomas Barbee Ducker, chief brain surgeon at the University of Maryland Hospital, rises before dawn. His wife serves him waffles but no coffee. Coffee makes his hands shake.
Why would it matter that his hands shake? That line, and the question that attends it, implies that it matters. Soon you will find out why.
In downtown Baltimore, on the 12th floor of University Hospital, Edna Kelly's husband tells her goodbye. For 57 years Mrs. Kelly shared her skull with the monster: No more. Today she is frightened but determined.
Why is she frightened? Because she might die. You get that 2 grafs later, but again, this line cues the ominous music.
fiction example: In Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book," about a little boy raised by the inhabitants of a graveyard, there's a character, Silas, who becomes the boy's guardian. Silas is clearly different from everyone else in the graveyard (those who have died and now 'live' there) but Gaiman doesn't say flat out who or what Silas is; every time Silas is in the story, though, you'll get a line about him that gives you a clue -- such as, the time of day he awakens, or his materialization, with soft flapping sounds, next to the boy ... stuff like that. It's low grade suspense, keeping you interested in learning more and more about Silas, one drip at a time.