The Surprising Way to Build Tension in Your Novel

Unsplash image by Hannes Wolf

I was watching this interview with author Brit Bennett last week, preparing for my Book Club for Writers meeting next week, when she said something that made me sit up: A story becomes much more interesting when you tell readers things versus holding them back.

She went on to explain that she wants the reader to be concerned with what she, the author, is concerned with. She doesn’t want readers distracted by things that don’t matter. In the case of The Vanishing Half, Bennett tells us up front that Stella (the twin that didn’t return home) isn’t dead at all but living her life somewhere else, passing as white. If she hadn’t spelled that out from the start, it would be easy for readers to wonder whether Stella was alive because we don’t see her on the page until the middle of the book.

"We create tension by what we reveal, not by what we withhold,” Bennett says in the interview. As writers, the temptation is often to build mystery and suspense by keeping things hidden. But readers need to know the lay of the land, the stakes of the situation. They need firm guideposts to lead them through the story so that they won’t feel cheated (or bored). With your reader firmly in tow, you, the author, the god of the story, can tell the tale you are so eager to tell.

Brit Bennett’s recommendation: As you're drafting your novel, spell it all out for the reader. Reveal all the things! Then step back with a critical eye and remove what you need to.

Try it and let me know how it works for you.