Overuse of Suspense

            Lately I’ve been seeing a trend in a lot the shows I’ve been watching. It is the overuse of suspense.

            Suspense is an incredible tool for any form of entertainment. It’s what keeps the audience on the edge of their seats, engaged, and coming back for more. However, like all tools, it must be used in moderation.

            Unfortunately, the TV world is run on ratings – to get those ratings, as many people as possible need to be watching the show. What’s the easiest way to get people watching? Suspense. Putting a cliff-hanger at the end of every episode is a sure-fire way to keep the audience interested – and talking about – the show until the following week or season.

            But then the suspense begins to lose its effectiveness. The audience starts to expect it and not only does it stop compelling them to come back as much, it becomes... well, boring. Predictable. The moment everything is seeming to work out, the audience already knows that something terrible is about to happen. The urgent desire to find out what happens next is replaced by an exhausted, “What, this again?”

            When I was learning about suspense for my writing, I picked up one very important tip: give the audience a break sometimes. It is essential when working with suspense, because otherwise the suspense has the opposite effect from what was intended. I good tip for making a plot interesting is to chase your character up a tree and then throw rocks at them, but there’s one very important thing to remember: sometimes, the character has to succeed. If there are no victories, there’s no hope – and hope in impossible situations is what really keeps the audience engaged.

            The other thing to remember is that suspense can be subtle. Everything can turn out well at the end of an episode or chapter and the audience will still come back for more if there are questions left unanswered. There doesn’t always have to be a cataclysmic, plot-wrenching disaster.

            So, use suspense, but use it in all of its forms. Apply it with a brush, not a roller.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

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If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Imagination

            Imagination is a wonderful thing. I can’t imagine a world without it – and in a world without it, I couldn't imagine anything at all. So, I find it strange that imagination is so often labeled as a childish thing; something we’re supposed to grow out of.

            I think that a lot of people never stop to think about how much we actually rely on imagination. The truth is, we would have nothing without it. We would be hunters/gatherers living in caves without tools – because the first tool was just a thing that someone imagined could be used for something else. Homes, too, are a product of imagination. Someone imagined a way to create their own shelter, then they built it. I don’t even need to mention all the technology we rely on.

            Even our languages – spoken and written – came from imagination. Someone imagined a certain combination of sounds could paint a picture of a person, place, thing, or action. Then someone did the same thing with squiggles in the dirt or paint on a cave wall. What creative people they were!

            I’ll admit there is a down-side to imagination, and that’s fear. We can imagine all kinds of terrible things far worse than what is actually out there. As an example, the other night I turned out the light before going to bed, but instead of getting straight into bed like I usually do, I crouched down beside the bed and was as silent as possible. Colleen, who was already in bed, knowing that I was in the room somewhere and that I enjoy scaring her periodically, was terrified. She was sure I was going to jump out at her, although I told her later (and got swatted for it) that I had no intention of doing so because I knew her imagination could scare her far more than I could.

            But that’s one negative point, and it actually branches into a positive one – entertainment! What would life be without entertainment and how could entertainment exist without imagination? Everything from the simplest game to books and movies required imagination to create. So unless someone does nothing but eat, sleep and work, their lives rely on imagination in some way.

            All things considered, I think that imagination is the most valuable thing we have. Imagine that. If imagination is childish, then I’m perfectly happy to stay a child forever. A world without imagination is a world that shouldn't exist.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.