Suspense is the feeling you get when the reader knows what is coming, but the character doesn't!
Here are some ways to add suspense to your story:
- What's at stake? For the reader to know what's coming, you need to state the "stakes" up front. Tell the reader what is going to happen unless the hero can save the day. Explain what catastrophe must be averted so that the readers can bite their nails worrying about it throughout the story.
- Use an omniscient point of view - in order for the readers to understand, you need to show what's going on with both the protagonist and the antagonist.
- Make time matter - a running deadline always ramps up suspense!
- Make the stakes matter - you don't have to have your hero defend the universe, but whatever is at stake must mean something important to the hero. Make failure something that would really hurt, either physically or emotionally.
- Push the limits - your hero should be facing nearly insurmountable odds! The readers should be wondering "how in the world is he going to get through that?" Make the hero use all his wits, strength, and intelligence to solve the problem.
- Keep up the conflict - the main problem shouldn't be the only one! The antagonist is going to keep throwing wrenches into the works - if the antagonist is a person, then he's going to plot ways to overcome the hero; if the antagonist is something like a natural disaster, then there are going to be additional minor obstacles along the way.
- Complicate things! The more pressure you can pile on that poor hero, the more suspense you will have. Pile on more problems until the hero is barely hanging on!
- Throw a curve - never go for the predictable! Think about how a situation would usually play out, then change things around and make yours do something unusual. The readers will be relaxing, thinking they know what's coming next, and then you throw them a curve and shock them!
