One of my favorite guilty pleasures is curling up in my chair with a steaming cup of Darjeeling and a good mystery.
Book form, or film, it really doesn’t matter.
In fact, I was one of those people incessantly bugging the good folks at Netflix when their contract ran out on “Murder, She Wrote” to do whatever it took to get the show back in their catalog.
That said, I had eagerly anticipated the tips that would be revealed in Josie Prescott Antiques mystery series author Jane K. Cleland‘s session at the 2014 Writer’s Digest Conference entitled “Creating Suspense: 13 Techniques for Making Your Readers Sweat.” Ms. Cleland did not disappoint.
Her advice can easily apply to any genre of fiction. What novel isn’t improved by adding suspense? Isn’t that a tried and true technique for keeping readers turning those pages?
Here are five of my favorite tips from Ms. Cleland’s presentation:
Any comments?