[Elements of Fiction Writing 04] • Conflict, Action and Suspense

What makes a book a page-turner? How do you grab your readers from the start and hold them through the last sentence? How do you make your plot twist and turn and keep the action moving without losing continuity?

You do it by generating drama and developing it using conflict, action and suspense. You make your reader burn to know what's going to happen next. You create tension…and build it…to the breaking point.

William Noble shows you how to intensify that pressure throughout your story. You'll learn exactly what constitutes conflict, action and suspense, how they relate to other important ingredients in your story, and—perhaps most important—how to manipulate them.

Through thorough, step-by-step instruction, you'll learn how to…

• set the stage with techniques and devices that enhance drama.

• introduce suspense from the very beginning of your story.

• build suspense through cliff hangers, dialogue, mood, character    development, point of view, subtlety and indirection, and time and    place.

• bring all that conflict, action and suspense to a gripping    conclusion.

There are all sorts of ways to create tension in your prose—from using adjectives and nouns that drip with imagery to making quick scene cuts and transitions to accelerating the pace. Learn them here. Then use them, and your story will plunge your readers into a river of worry…and the current will carry them to The End.

About the Author

William Noble is the author of several writing books, short fiction and nonfiction pieces. He has taught and lectured about writing at the Breadloaf Writer's Conference and others.