Episode 130: Conflict & Suspense by James Scott Bell
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Today, Fable and the Verbivore unpack James Scott Bell’s book “Elements of Fiction Writing: Conflict and Suspense”.
We both feel that this is one of the most clearly written and applicable books on the craft of writing that we’ve read to date. The author uses examples from a wide range of media (books across genres, classic novels, TV, and film) to show the many ways the elements he’s exploring can be used to tell stories. He also gives useful exercises to help identify how these writing tools could fit within your own work.
In this episode, we talk about our main takeaways from this book. Such as:
The reader should have an understanding of what the character hopes and desires
The stakes of the story need to be clear and should always feel like death - physical, professional, or psychological
Slowing down and stretching out time in a high stakes scene can be an effective way to stretch the tension and emotion out for the reader
Interest and suspense can be added to a scene by putting a small obstacle, like a locked door, in the way of your protagonist
Adding a small disagreement to dialogue can add instant conflict and uncertainty
We’d highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to explore ways to add interest and increase conflict in their work, and who is looking to help keep readers turning pages.
We hope you enjoy this episode! Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!
Into the woods,
Fable & The Verbivore
Notes:
Fable references a quote by director Alfred Hitchcock. Here is that quote
“What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out.”
The book that Fable references that discusses “tension on every page” is “Writing the Breakout Novel” by Donald Maass.
The Verbivore references a Seinfeld TV series quote that James Scott Bell includes in his book to help make a point about choosing interesting elements that also fit within your story. Here is that quote:
“I don't think you do. You see, you know how to *take* the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation. And that's really the most important part of the reservation: the holding. Anybody can just take them.”
The Verbivore references the “Elements of Fiction Writing” series of books that is connected with WritersDigest.com. We often reference the articles on this website as part of our writing discussions. Here is a link to the list of books in this series: https://www.goodreads.com/series/67685-elements-of-fiction-writing
In case you’re interested, we’ve done several past episodes that look at the craft of writing from a varity of lenses. Here are those episodes:
Books & Movies Mentioned:
Elements of Fiction Writing: Conflict and Suspense by James Scott Bell
The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White
Rope – Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
How to Write Dazzling Dialogue: The Fastest Way to Improve Any Manuscript (Bell on Writing) by James Scott Bell
Plot & Structure: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Plot That Grips Readers from Start to Finish by James Scott Bell
Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)