1. The Elements of Suspense

2. All Stories Contain Certain Elements
Plot
Character
Setting
Dialogue
Narrative

3. Suspense
Anxiety or apprehension resulting from an uncertain, undecided, or mysterious situation
Dictionary.com

4. In suspense there must be an unknown; a suspicion, a mystery, a danger we expect

5. Suspense (mystery, intrigue, tension) is built with:
Facts
Innuendo
Atmosphere
Action

6. Ways to deepen suspense…
Dreams
foreshadowing what may happen
showing the character’s deepest fears, his haunting past

7. Ways to deepen suspense…
Clues
journals / diaries / letters / notes / pictures, etc.
physical evidence that can be used to determine time of death, how, and where

8. Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing: when an author mentions or hints at something that will happen later in the story
FORE means ahead.
A SHADOW is a glimpse of something without the complete details.

9. Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived with her mother
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived with her mother. Her mother asked her to take her old and lonely grandmother some food one day. "Don't stop along the way. Go straight to your Grandma's house and back. Don't talk to any strangers and watch out for the wolf in the woods! Now get along!"
This is an example of foreshadowing. Little Red Riding Hood’s mother is warning her about the wolf in the woods, which hints at what may happen next.

10. Ways to deepen suspense…
The Weather
the season can match or contrast the characters’ emotional state

11. Ways to deepen suspense…
The Senses
the smell of blood, the stench of an alley
the taste of fear
reaction to finding a dead body
the feel of blood-soaked clothing

12. Ways to deepen suspense…
The Villain
his/her motivations or intentions
simple greed, jealousy, money
the complicated serial killer mind

13. Ways to deepen suspense…
Other characters
plant red herrings
shift suspicion onto them