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Creating Suspense Dialogue and Character in Crime Fiction

This document discusses key elements of crime fiction including characters, dialogue, suspense and tension. It outlines 5 basic elements of crime fiction: 1) a detective, 2) a crime, 3) suspects, 4) an antagonist, and 5) a setting. It emphasizes developing complex, layered characters and avoiding cliched backstories. Suspense is crucial and is best achieved through uncertainty around outcomes, delaying revelations, and developing characters readers are invested in. Foreshadowing future events and ensuring every action has consequences helps build suspense throughout a story.

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Zinya Ayaz
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97 views

Creating Suspense Dialogue and Character in Crime Fiction

This document discusses key elements of crime fiction including characters, dialogue, suspense and tension. It outlines 5 basic elements of crime fiction: 1) a detective, 2) a crime, 3) suspects, 4) an antagonist, and 5) a setting. It emphasizes developing complex, layered characters and avoiding cliched backstories. Suspense is crucial and is best achieved through uncertainty around outcomes, delaying revelations, and developing characters readers are invested in. Foreshadowing future events and ensuring every action has consequences helps build suspense throughout a story.

Uploaded by

Zinya Ayaz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Topic:

Crime Fiction (discuss character and dialogue, suspense and


tension)
Crime Fiction
Definition:
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel,
and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on
criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur
or a professional detective, of a serious crime, generally a murder.Most
crime drama focuses on crime investigation and does not feature the
court room. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly
ubiquitous to the genre.

5 Basic Elements of Crime Fiction


1. A Detective:
Every good detective storyline will have a detective, usually featured as
the protagonist. But putting a private investigator in your story isn’t as
easy as it sounds—you’ll need to develop a character that readers will
enjoy following during an entire novel.

2. A Crime:
 Most detective stories revolve around a central crime or string of
related crimes. Since the crime will be the catalyst of your short story or
novel, it should be interesting, memorable, and seemingly unsolvable.

3. Suspects:
Many detective stories include an array of suspects that could have
committed the crime (either they have weak alibis or have a history of
lying). Your suspects are a vital part of your detective story because
they serve as red herrings (or distractions) that will direct readers’
attention away from the true culprit.

4. An Antagonist:
 Every good detective story—and every good story in general—has an
antagonist or the person whose goals are in direct conflict with the
antagonist’s.

5. A setting:
The setting is a very important part of any detective story because the
action in most detective stories takes place on the streets of its
location, and therefore the stories are inextricably linked to the time
and place they are set in and are memorable because of those details.

Character And Dialogue


When you think of crime fiction the first thing you think of is the
protagonist: Marlowe, Robicheaux, Scarpetta, etc. It is not crucial to
have an original protagonist, but it helps. Look for what hasn’t been
done yet. As popular as crime novels with private investigatorsare, it is
difficult to disagree with James Ellroy’s remark that the last time a PI
investigated a real murder was never.
A far more believable protagonist than the PI is the ordinary man or
woman – the taxi-driver, the house-breaker, the journalist, someone
with a real job – who gets caught up in a crime or with the
consequences of a crime. Whatever protagonist you choose it is
advisable when introducing your main character to let the facts emerge
gradually. As in real life we get to know a character by sight,smell and
sound and a few snatches of dialogue, or more often by what is not
said. Do not under any circumstances use mirrors or shop windows to
describe physically your main character. Much of the information about
a protagonist does not surface in the narrative, but making a
comprehensive profile allows a writer to know their main character
intimately and how they will react. Such information will come out
indirectly through dialogue and action, but the writer needs to know it
first. It also helps to have some unspoken complication from your
protagonist’s past as well as something from the present. Usually this is
an emotional obstacle. Too often in crime fiction it is alcoholism or a
murdered spouse, but an emotional wound is part of the territory.
Whatever complications exist in your character’s past, don’t reveal
them too early.

Suspense And Tension


Suspense is tied up with anxiety, and therefore is generally superior to
surprise. Suspense and surprise, however, can work together in a
complementary way. The role of suspense is crucial in any crime novel
and in most fiction that strives for a wide readership. All narratives
need to create some uncertainty. These may involve life or death
decisions or suspense may depend whether or not to open a door. With
suspense you can never be too certain of the outcome. Delay makes
the process more thrilling, even within minor scenes. Suspense is the
way you make your audience worry and the more involved your
readers become with your characters the more tension they will feel.
The highest kind of suspense, according to John Gardner, ‘involves the
Sartreananguish of choice; that is, our suspenseful concern is not just
with what will happen but with the moral implications of action’.
Certainly suspense works best with highly-developed characters. With
comic-book characters who tend to be either black or white there is
little real suspense for we can easily predict what action they will
choose. When characters are presented in shades of grey and are,
therefore, more human, suspense is heightened as readers are
uncertain about the outcome and worry over which choice the
characters will make and ultimately what the results will be.
Foreshadowing is an important part of creating suspense. Ideally in
crime fiction every episode prefigures something to come. Every action
has a consequence.
Suspense is created by foreshadowing, by withholding the revelation. A
good task is to devise two scenes, a foreshadowing scene and a
realisation scene to create suspense. When characters are going to
decide something. Tension on every page is perhaps the best piece of
advice a teacher can give the writer of crime fiction, but it is easier said
than done. This does not mean melodramatic conflict with characters
screaming and throwing furniture at every opportunity; on the
contrary, it means that lurkingbehind even casual conversations should
be a sense of menace, that minor scenes should contain some kind of
conflict either spoken or unspoken.

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