Mastering Suspense, Structure, and Plot: How to Write Gripping Stories That Keep Readers on the Edge of Their Seats

Make your writing compelling! Excellent book, excellent information for all writers, regardless of genre or experience. Solid explanations and illustrations of what makes writing compelling--what elements capture and KEEP readers' attention, and keep them turning the pages, as well as how to structure a story that carries the reader (and multiple plot lines) from page to page. The author explains strategies and easy-to-follow methods for weaving compelling elements together, suggesting structures that make the story and plot stronger. Like many, I have a shelf full of writing books--most of which I thought I HAD to have, and then read only the first few pages of before skimming the rest (maybe) and setting aside. I started reading this book, stopped, got up and got a highlighter, started reading again, stopped again, went and got a pen and a notebook, and then read cover-to cover, marking and taking notes. The author explains suspense, structure, and plot--all things I thought I understood--in a way that made me see and understand them (and be able to USE them) in a new light. I'm using that new understanding to craft a stronger story. I highly recommend this book to all writers, and am sure I'll be referring to it again and again. (I just bought some colored flags to mark particularly important sections, so that I can find them easily, and refer to them as I go.) (ps--I did find some of the examples a little odd, and one reference early on that I couldn't make heads or tails of, but that's really a minor wobble.)

Every time I think of Jane Cleland’s book, “Mastering Suspense,” I envision the famous showdown between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan during Star Wars: A New Hope. It’s a legendary scene of dark vs. light; student vs. teacher. Upon seeing Obi-Wan for the first time in decades, Vader says: “I’ve been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master.” After reading this book, I feel a little bit like Darth Vader in that duel. Well-taught, empowered, and confident. But hopefully with a little less arrogance and a happier ending in store. I’ve had the pleasure of personally learning under Jane’s mentorship at my MFA program, an experience I esteem highly and cherish greatly. This book is a bit like that: a personal mentorship. Here, Jane has divulged actionable methods for creating better works of writing. This isn’t a book just for mystery writers. She wrote with a wide audience in mind. Whether you’re a memoirist, a historian, or a novelist, you’ll see suspense in a new light. Even better, Jane has provided a masterful process by which you can incorporate suspense into your writing. My favorite sections included exercises you can employ to deepen your knowledge (of characters), expand your settings (and use them to create suspense), and explore nuances regarding betrayal and confusion. Like Alfred Hitchcock once said, surprise is cheap—anyone can do it—but suspense? Suspense is what keeps readers on the edge of their seats.

To continue preparing to write the next book in my series, I chose a craft book dedicated to plot structure with an emphasis on suspense and twists. Rather than being targeted to one genre, the book ensures that all of the writing advice can be applied to any genre, from political thrillers to nonfiction memoirs. Cleland doesn't just "lecture" about the proper way to do things. The book includes activities, case studies, and suggestions for ways to create a tight story from character development and plot structure down to the individual sentence level. This book is accessible to new authors while still being helpful to those who are more experienced, with multiple projects under their belts. I look forward to using some of the recommended exercises and suggestions to craft my next story.

Insightful, inspiring, and chock-full of great tips! I particularly liked “Jane’s Plotting Roadmap” and “ metaphor machine.” Jane not only gives clear guidance on plotting and suspense, she offers outstanding example to illustrate it, from her own work as well as many others. I keep going back to it.

I just finished Jane’s superb book. It is MUST reading for fiction writers, whether you’re just starting out or have a few books under your belt. Jane’s voice shines through in the pages—I can picture her standing in the front of the room during a workshop saying the same words, or see the same words in one of her many emails to me as she critiqued my work as one of my writing teachers in years past. I must admit it was especially cool to see she used my first two novels as an example of how to use subplots in a series, including me with some of the great series authors such as Robert Parker (Spenser), John MacDonald (Travis McGee), Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games), and her own Josie Prescott mysteries. Her book has found a spot on my Writing Craft bookshelf alongside my desk.

Easy-to-read, easy-to-follow advice for fiction authors. Despite having published 6 thrillers, I found some tips that I'll apply to the novel that I'm working on today. The summary lists make it easy to refer back to the key points in each chapter.

I gave it as a gift to my daughter and she absolutely loves the book! She plans to use it while writing her next book! Highly recommend!

I was hoping for something like Story Engineering, by Larry Brooks or Trough of Hell by H.R D'Costa or Structuring Your Novel by K.M. Weiland, but it didn't quite get there. It was well written and well edited, but too much of the book read like an infomercial for the Author who used her own writings for many or most of the examples. It had some good information, but it often did not clearly explain what the Author was trying to get across.

I’m working on a mystery and this book has been packed with useful ideas and helpful exercises. A must have for writers of crime fiction and suspense.

I can't wait to edit my latest thriller after reading this! There's advice from everything to word choice to sentence structure to plotting methods and techniques for ramping up the tension. I especially like the list of distancing verbs! Practical advice with great exercises and examples in every chapter.

Essential for everyone who wants to be a writer.

great

What can I say, this book is veeery helpful. Some of the advice wasn't too new to me, for I charged through countless blogs, Authortube channels and other books beforehand, but still, this book contains such useful information that I haven't read anywhere else and sometimes I sat there like "Ohhhh. Noice." It presents very useful frameworks like the Plotting Road Map and interesting "KPIs" like the average word count per sentence for pacing coordination. And a ton of good techniques on implementing suspense through various "channels". All in all, I really recommend it, if you are interested in the big and smaller bits of plot and suspense implementation as well as writing.