Books

What is Suspense?

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Author Joe Konrath gave some advice on his blog on how to create suspense. It read, in part:

Writing is a lot like teasing your younger brother with a secret.

The longer you hold it over his head, the more worked up he gets.

All
stories, no matter the genre, can benefit from suspense. The tension
doesn’t have to be in the form of the bad guy stalking the hero. It can
be much simpler, much less dramatic, but still make the reader want to
keep reading. For example:

"You seem upset," Jack said. "What’s up?"

"I’ll tell you later." Herb said. "In private."

And we have suspense.

No, what you have is bad writing and an irritated reader. I like Joe a lot and, ordinarily, I think he  gives very good advice.  This time, I have to disagree with my friend.   The example he shares isn’t suspense… it’s a cheat, something weaker writers use when they don’t know how to generate any real suspense, which comes from character and conflict, not gimmickry.

Suspense is about conflict, about the obstacles between the hero and his goal. Suspense is about stakes — personal, physical, and emotional — and a race against the clock. Suspense is about the unknown and a head-long dive into it. Suspense is not about contrivance and word-games.

The example Joe gives is the literary equivalent of the TV moment when the heavy opens the drawer in his desk to gaze at his gun…or the serial killer sticks a knife in a picture of his next victim…or the bad guy picks up the phone and says to someone "Sgt. Hooker is nosing around. He must be eliminated before he stumbles on our evil plan"… or having key plot points happen during the commerical so the viewer won’t be aware of them.

I was about to leave a comment telling Joe why I think his advice this time is dead wrong but several other novelists, like Rob Roberge and my brother Tod, beat me to it (they also teach writing at UCLA and UC Riverside). Here’s what Rob said on Joe’s blog:

this so misunderstands the nature of suspense…suspense occurs when
the reader says "What will happen next?" It doesn’t occur when the
reader says "What is happening?" This is a cheap gimmick…and good
writing, no matter the genre, avoids gimmicks…to not say what’s going
on (as in the example you use where a character asks a question and
then have it unanswered), is the sign of an insecure text that doesn’t
trust there’s enough story to hold the reader with good writing and
characters, so they use manipulation and beginner’s tricks.

And here’s what Tod said:

I read a book recently by a crime novelist of some renown who shall
remain nameless and this is exactly the sort of drama building he did
— cryptic conversations that augered for a big reveal somewhere later
on, but which only served to annoy me as a reader, primarily because
the narrator knew all the answers but chose not to share them with the
reader. It felt like a short cut in place of actual emotion and drama.
As a writer, I knew what this writer was doing, could see it taking
shape 100 pages before the big reveal came and I thought, in my writer
hat, Oh, this is a silly thing to do. As a reader I thought, as I sat
out by my pool, Oh, give me a break, just tell me the damn piece of
evidence!

What are your thoughts?

The Case for Hard Case Crime

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Bookgasm has a Q&A with Hard Case Crime editor/author Charles Ardai, who discusses the evolution of the imprint and the impact that publishing Stephen King’s COLORADO KID has had on their visibility inside, and outside, the industry.

this book has been very important to us. While we got plenty of media
coverage before publishing THE COLORADO KID, we got a lot more
afterwards. And with a print run in excess of one million copies, the
book was simply seen by a lot more people than our books normally are.
Far more people know about Hard Case Crime today than would have if
Steve had never written that book for us. How many of them will become
regular readers of our other books? That’s hard to say. But I imagine
some will, and we’re very grateful for that.

Coming Home

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I spent my last day in NY sitting around the table with the writing staff of MONK, going over each scene in the story, looking for the humor and the heart, the little moments that will add texture to the script. I left with very detailed notes and will start writing the script on Monday.

On the flight back to LA, I sat next to David Strathairn, the star of GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK.  He was a very nice guy. He was on his way out for the SAG Awards this weekend. We talked a bit about movies and TV, but mostly we chatted about other things…the sort of stuff you might talk about with any passenger you meet on a flight. I was really struck by what a pleasant, polite, regular guy he was.

Mr. Monk and the L.A. Writer

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This is my last night in NY, where I am working with the staff of MONK on an episode that Bill Rabkin and I will write for the upcoming season.

As I’ve said before, the episode is very loosely based on my novel MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE.  We pretty much have the beats of the story/mystery nailed. So today, as a group, we fleshed out the emotional through-line, fine-tuned some of the clues, and choreographed the details of the comic "set pieces."  Tomorrow morning we’ll polish up the details a bit more and then I’ll hop on a plane back to LA. On the flight, I’ll probably work on MR. MONK AND THE BLUE FLU, my third MONK novel. 

After this trip, I have an even clearer sense of the subtle ways my "literary" Monk differs from the "TV" Monk.  Many of those differences have to do with the nature of the two mediums — how stories are told in books vs. television.  But the biggest differences was my decision to tell the stories from Natalie’s POV.  The Monk we’re seeing in the books is Natalie’s Monk, and is therefore shaped by her character and her view of the world. The Monk we see on TV isn’t from any one character’s perspective…it’s from our individual perspectives as viewers.

Speaking of the MONK novel, I had breakfast today with my editor and publisher, who tell me the book is doing very well. I have a feeling they will be greenlighting more MONK novels very soon… I’ll certainly know, one way or another, before MR. MONK GOES TO HAWAII comes out in June.

Flying off the Shelves at B&N

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I’ve just learned that MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE is #40 on the Barnes & Noble mass market bestseller list this
week and #5 on the B&N mass market mystery bestseller list.

Meanwhile, our episode for MONK is developing nicely. We’re having such a good time working on the story with Andy Breckman and his terrific writing staff.  The story has only passing resemblance now to MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE. The episode won’t even have the same title as the book and I’m fine with that. I think it’s worked out for the best — had we done a straight-forward adaptation, anyone who read the book after seeing the episode would have thought it was a novelization. Now the book can continue to stand entirely on its own and so can the episode.

Mr. Monk and the Pierce Brosnan Impersonator

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I spent the day out in Summit, NJ working with the MONK writing staff on our next script for the show.  It is so much fun cracking a story with them — you spend the whole day laughing (a stark contrast to, say, plotting a story on MISSING).  These guys have way, way too much fun. It’s a shame all shows can’t be like this.

The script began as an adaptation of my novel MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE but, for a number of reasons, is evolving into something very different and, I think, very funny. By the end of the week, my writing partner Bill Rabkin and I should be heading back to L.A. with an approved outline and the go-ahead to script.

What’s really weird for me is working on the MONK script by day, then returning to my hotel room to work on the MONK book by night.  I’m telling stories about the same character, but in two very different mediums.

I’m squeezing in a little socializing while I’m here — dinner with my literary agent on Wednesday, breakfast with my publishers on Thursday, and dinner on Thursday with my old friend Terry Winter, an exec producer on THE SOPRANOS. He’s come a long, long way since we worked together on THE COSBY MYSTERIES and THE NEW ADVENTURES OF FLIPPER.