Do you ever find yourself on the edge of your seat, eagerly awaiting the outcome of a thrilling movie or book? If so, you're experiencing suspense. Suspense is a state of mental uncertainty, anxiety, indecision, or doubt. It's the anticipation of the outcome of a plot or the solution to an uncertainty, riddle, or mystery. It can be found in both fiction and non-fiction works, and it's often used to create tension and keep readers engaged.
In literature, film, television, and plays, suspense is an important tool for maintaining interest. It's derived from the old French word 'suspense', meaning 'delay', and a Latin root meaning 'to hang up or interrupt'. Suspense can be used to create tension and anticipation by referring to future events in history. It can also be used to make readers feel the same suspense as the characters in a story.
When you add suspense to your script, you can choose to answer that question or keep it unanswered until the end of the story. If you want your reader to feel the suspense your character feels, then you're trying to create dramatic suspense. On the other hand, if you want to create the kind of suspense where the reader wants to know how things are going to turn out, then you're trying to create narrative suspense. It's tempting to exaggerate the plot of a film because you want every scene to be exciting, but you need moments of stillness to create suspense.
Cinema is a visual medium, but there are many ways to use suspense without having to resort to showing anything in particular. According to its true definition, suspense is an emotion experienced when you see or read something scary or dramatic, as well as an expectation or anticipation of something happening by the public. Anything that keeps you in a state of waiting with enthusiasm (or nervousness) for something to happen is full of suspense.
