David Baldacci’s Writing Tips for Pacing, Tension, and Suspense

When writing thrillers, building suspense and tension keeps readers guessing about what will happen and creates feelings of anticipation and excitement as the story unfolds. Action scenes can be compelling, but first, the writer must know how to both build up the impending danger and keep the reader’s mind invested from the first chapter to the last. You want to grab your audience’s attention—and to keep it as well.

1. 1. Introduces central conflict. Introducing your central conflict—also known as the “dramatic question”—earlier on when novel writing can instantly ignite readers’ curiosity. Posing key questions in the beginning gives the reader something to look forward to answering as they read on. David likes to open his novels with immediate tension; in particular, he likes to open with a loss. When a character loses something, the reader assumes that the character will want revenge, and they wonder how that will happen. If you build suspense properly, a story’s climax can be more impactful and engaging, and the reader’s expectations will be met by a satisfying pay-off.
2. 2. Helps with pacing. A crucial aspect of the thriller/suspense genre is the story’s pacing, which is the speed at which the narrative progresses for the reader. It may seem like an action-filled thriller should move at a fast pace, but the trick is balancing different paces throughout the novel. A story suffering from slow pacing and too little action will bore the reader. Too much action or interest will wear a reader down and overwhelm them with activity. Finding the right balance is critical when writing suspense novels.
3. 3. Keeps readers’ interest. Suspense and tension are all about withholding certain information and making the reader desperate to find out more. A common way to do this is by the use of cliffhangers. Originally, a cliffhanger referred to a final, unresolved scene where a character’s life was at stake, but they can also be utilized in smaller ways before the end of the book. When you withhold information from the reader about a subject they want answers to, they’ll keep turning the pages to find out what it is.

Good suspense writing will make your audience want to keep reading until the last page. The story shouldn’t be predictable, the character development should track with the world you’ve set up, and the reader should never feel bored. David Baldacci has a few guidelines he follows:

1. 1. Create a delay. To keep your audience on the edge of their seats and ramp up the feeling of worry, delay an important event in your story. Was the lawyer supposed to be at the courthouse now? Where is he? Why can’t anyone get in touch with him? When you create a delay, you subvert the expectations of the reader, and lessen the probability of predictability within your narrative.
2. 2. Add physical danger. Putting your characters in harm’s way is a good way to grab your reader’s attention. Nothing heightens tension like knowing that your character is about to get injured or die.
3. 3. Foreshadow big events. Foreshadowing is how you clue your audience in on what will likely happen. The impending doom of a potential breaking point creates a feeling of anticipation, and can make the reader care more about the events leading up to that moment.
4. 4. Use misdirection. Misdirection involves intentional misfocus of the reader’s attention and keep them on their toes. You must always be one step ahead of your reader while subtly guiding their guesses about what’s about to happen. One way to accomplish this is by using a “red herring,” which is a plot device specifically garnered to make people draw false conclusions about a situation. For instance, introducing a “bad guy” with a vague backstory will lead the reader to create their own assumptions about who this person is and attempt to fill in the blanks. However, while the audience is focused on that, they’re not suspecting the true villain, which can create a large amount of tension—especially when the red herring is finally exposed for what it is. Another way to craft misdirection and enhance tension is by use of plot twists, which is when something unexpected happens in your storyline.
5. 5. Use multiple points of view. Your narrative can follow the point of view of more than just the main character. You should always want to stay a step ahead of your reader, and it can be useful for suspenseful stories when your reader is a step ahead of the characters. Seeing the world through the different eyes of the people who live in it can add another layer to your fiction writing. For example, if your protagonist is heading to the Capitol Building, and your reader already knows that your villain is hiding out there, the reader will be filled with anticipation because they realize your hero is walking into a trap.
6. 6. Show a character’s worries. You want your audience to feel what your characters are feeling. Readers will naturally get anxious when they realize how anxious your characters are.
7. 7. Add a ticking clock. Time pressure in your story will always up the ante. Bonus points when that time pressure seems to make the character’s goals legitimately impossible, but they manage it anyway. A ticking clock could be literal, like a bomb that’s rigged to explode, or it could be less traditional, like only having a certain amount of time to find out the truth—like in David Baldacci’s thriller No Man’s Land (2016). By introducing a time limit for a particular plot event, you tighten the reins on the story. However, once the clock starts ticking, you’ve got to keep up the fast pace of your story, or risk losing your audience.

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David Baldacci was born in Virginia and has been writing since childhood. David wrote short stories and screenplays for two decades with little success and was practicing law when he published his first novel, Absolute Power.

Since then, David has focused on writing legal thrillers and suspense novels. He has authored forty-two international bestseller novels for adults and seven novels for young readers. David’s books are available in more than forty-five languages and over eighty countries.