How Tension and Suspense Can Set the Pacing of a Story

“I believe suspense drives all fiction, not only mystery,” says editor Helga Schier. “Unless we really are interested in what happens next, we won’t turn the pages.” Suspense, she explains, is the reader’s anticipation for what’s going to happen next in a story. There must first be tension in a story for a reader to care enough about what might happen next. To create tension and suspense, it’s important that plot events have consequences. Schier encourages writers to move past the mundane moments...