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When it comes to reading mystery novels, we all know what personally works for us. After all, reading is subjective, and what works for one avid reader might not work for another. So, as an author, how does someone appeal to a wide audience while also creating a mysterious piece that they’re proud of? The key is in the suspense. Suspense is what makes the mystery novel, well, mysterious. When someone reads a mystery novel, they want to be on the edge of their seats, questioning every character’s motivation and alibi, putting pieces together in their mind.
Compiled here is a list of different recommended “Do’s and Don’ts” to build suspense in your mystery novel. Since suspense is the main component that sets apart mystery novels from any other, it's important that all you up-and-coming mystery novelists out there polish up your techniques! This article wishes to push you all in the right ("write" - get it?) direction and point out common mistakes or small blips that many mystery novels succumb to.
Do: Pace Your Story Accordingly
Pacing is crucial to building suspense in mystery novels, meaning that if it isn’t consistent, it can easily break the tension that the novel was building up. At the beginning of a mystery novel, the pace is typically slower, allowing for the characters to be introduced and the setting to be established. This is known as the exposition. However, when the crime is revealed and as the investigation continues, the pace should fluctuate with the story. It is important to not bounce back and forth constantly. It can be off-putting and take the reader out of the story as well as generally confuse them. At the same time, having a slow pace throughout the whole novel can be boring to the reader, preventing them from completing the story. Instead, try changing the pacing to correlate with the events of the story, that way the pace fluctuates and keeps the readers on their toes. When the protagonist is chasing a suspect or is finally piecing the evidence together, the pace should speed up to match that intensity.
We’ve all encountered a book that was too slow at the beginning to continue to read past the first few chapters. Or maybe a story that bounced around so much that we had to set it down for our own sanity. Both of these instances show how important pacing is to create an enjoyable story. Starting a new novel is exciting and we understand wanting to get everything out on the pages, but it's important to have a balance between the slow and fast pace to effectively build the suspense that’ll keep your audience entranced with the story.
Do: Build Great Relationships Between the Characters
One of the most memorable aspects of any novel, regardless of genre, is the characters. Readers love to connect with the characters, invest in their lives, and relate to their experiences. This is heightened in mystery novels, making the different twists and betrayals worse when the relationships between the characters are built correctly. A murder committed by a stranger with no real connection to the protagonist is different from a murder committed by their best friend out of jealousy. For the relationships to be more impactful for the audience, the relationships have to be built up and consistently maintained. Have you ever read a story that had two characters that only interacted at work, then all of a sudden, in the end, they’re romantically involved? Yeah, we have too, and it is one of the biggest pet peeves of readers. If there is a relationship you wish to have relevant to your story, you have to be sure to express it through dialogue, the thoughts of the characters, or subtle hints in the actions of the characters. In mystery novels, these relationships pull the audience in.
For instance, let’s say there’s a father and son, and the son was fed up with the father’s mistreatment, leading to the father’s demise. In this case, the author could show the mistreatment through flashbacks and make the audience feel the son’s hurt and rage, making him a more complex character. Without this relationship being explored and shown to the audience, there is nothing for the audience to sympathize with, leaving the character to be 2-dimensional and not as interesting to the reader. When the audience watches these characters interact, they form bonds with them, and they relate with them. When one of them is killed off or revealed to be the culprit, it makes their hearts ache for them. Furthermore, when the motivations of the characters are revealed, the audience could sympathize with them, such as with the son, making the novel much more interesting. Compare this idea with a random murder that occurred with the murderer having no previous association with the victim and decide which story you’d like to read more.
Do: Build and Flesh Out the World
The setting of the mystery is imperative to how the audience imagines the story as they read it. If you want it to be an old western mystery, you could build the world by making everyone talk a certain way, describing the surroundings in detail, and having events take place that further establishes what kind of world the mystery takes place in. Now you may be asking yourself, why does this matter? Isn’t this article supposed to be about building suspense? The answer is certain aspects of different settings can be utilized to make the story more suspenseful.
In a western setting, the technology lacks compared to a modern-day setting, making finding the culprit much harder for the protagonist. There would have to be different ways the protagonist finds the culprit, by discovering hidden clues, talking to the townsfolk, and unexpected events taking place to reveal more of the plot. The fact that the characters are forced to go beyond typical means that readers are used to (such as fingerprint technology, DNA tests, etc.) adds to the suspense. The readers will find themselves asking “what are they going to do next?” and will want to continue reading to find out!
It’s also important, in general, and in any genre, to make sure that the world you build is consistent. This goes along the same idea that you don’t want to confuse your readers. For example, if there is a certain law system established in the western mystery, make sure that nothing happens that disregards that system or acts like it doesn’t exist. The readers notice, and they will always notice.
Don’t: Reveal Too Much in the Beginning
This can go hand in hand with the pacing of your story, as the reader must finish the book. If the culprit is revealed too early and the remainder of the story is about unnecessary information, it can turn readers away. Stories that say something like “This is how I caught the hash-slinging-slasher in spring of 1990” in the first chapter can lead the reader to not want to engage in the story anymore. It’s been established that the component that makes a mystery novel is the suspense, so if the reader already knows the protagonist was or was not successful, it takes the fun out of the story.
It’s also important to time plot twists and reveals so they don’t happen too early in the story as well, making the whole book feel rushed. You have to be sure that you’re leaving enough new content to be discovered throughout your book, and that cannot happen if everything is given to the reader in the first half of the story. Even if you have a big plot twist ready later in the story, you still want to ensure that you’re adding new, small bits of information here and there to keep the audience’s attention. If the plot gets stagnant for too long, the readers will end up putting the book down and we don’t want that!
Don’t: Let Your Characters Fall Flat
Have you ever been so excited to watch a movie and then once you begin, you realize the actors are not… great… and it immediately makes you want to turn it off or walk out of the theater? That is an equivalent experience to a reader so excited about a book but continues reading and finds that most of the characters are flat. A “flat character” is completely 2-dimensional, meaning that there is no character development and nothing to make the audience interested in any actions, thoughts, or motives they possess because they’re cliche or generic. A great way to avoid this is to give them backstories and motivations and convey them as real people through the way they interact with the other characters. Make the interactions believable and relatable and make sure that the characters talk like any other person would in real life. Make them question their values, express remorse, and think about doing something morally wrong but opposing it. Anything that shows that your character is more than just ink on paper. This will make them more lovable to the audience, raising the stakes when something wrong happens since there’s potential for their favorite characters to get hurt. This not only builds suspense in itself but added with other suspense elements, it can make the reader’s heart race and ache as the story unfolds.
Don’t: Be Too Outlandish
Some of the most riveting tales are the most realistic and relatable. This is not to say that the mystery novel can’t be set in new worlds or the past, but more so to express that it’s important to make sure that what happens in the story is believable. If you have a story in a certain setting, make sure the events that occur are believable to that setting. The events of the story need to make sense, with not too much happening at one time to make the reader say, “how does that even work?” If there cannot be distinct lines drawn to connect the bits and pieces of the story, then the story itself is too outlandish. If a victim survived a bombing attack, it should be explained how rather than being left alone since that would test the integrity of the story.
If events keep happening in the story that doesn’t make any sense to the reader, then the reader isn’t going to feel suspense. They’re going to feel confused and maybe even a little upset that they have no idea what’s going on. It’s awesome to utilize plot twists and grand reveals as a way to build your mystery, but it is equally as important that the twists and reveals make sense and can be explained if need be.
Just Remember...
Writing a novel can be tricky work since there’re many different factors to think about as you write. It can be a long and exhausting process, but the payout is always worth it. Thankfully, there are many resources that you can use to help better your writing and also get the feedback that you need and deserve. Another quick “don’t” to add to this list: don’t be afraid of the errors you’ll make along the way. Errors are there to make us better, and we wouldn’t be where we are now without them. Open your mind to new possibilities and explore the world of mysteries at your own pace. Have fun with your writing, build suspense, and catch that culprit (or don’t, it's up to you)!
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