Building Tension with Tess Gerritsen
International bestselling author Tess Gerritsen knows suspense. Her popular thrillers include Life Support (1997), The Surgeon (2001), Body Double (2004), Vanish (2005), and The Mephisto Club (2006), and her most recent title, The Bone Garden (2007). Her books have been translated into 31 languages, and more than 15 million copies have been sold around the world.
Gerritsen maintains a popular blog where she talks about a range of issues from a writer's perspective. Recently, she wrote that "a lot of writers confuse suspense with action." I asked her to expand on that a bit."I've always felt that the threat of violence is far more gripping than violence itself," Gerritsen says. "As an example, I think of the film Aliens, starring Sigourney Weaver. The most unbearable tension for me during the film was before the monsters had even been located. The Marines knew the creatures were somewhere in the complex, and they could spot signs of an earlier battle between the aliens and the colonists, but the confrontation was still to come. As every nail-biting moment passed, as they advanced into the building, I was on the edge of my seat, waiting for the creatures to appear. The suspense was exquisite."
Once
the battle begins, however, the tension dissipates. "But as long as
the threat hangs over the characters, as long as you suspect that
something awful is going to happen, you're on the edge of your seat.
When violence actually occurs, there's nothing more to fear."Which is why Gerritsen keeps the violence "at bay for as long as possible, while simultaneously maintaining a continual sense of threat."
Gerritsen's technique is hard won. She begins her writing day with coffee and does all her first drafts with pen and paper. " I've tried composing on computer," she says, "and it never works."
Her writing sessions, she explains, are usually accompanied by a lot of sighing, moaning, and sounds of pain. "It's hard for me, and it never gets easier."
But that hard work shows up on the page. One example is her 1995 bestseller, Vanish.
"There's a scene," Gerritsen says, "where two young women are hidden on
the roof and can hear the sounds of murder going on inside the house.
Only when things go silent do they dare creep back into the house, and
find their housemates slaughtered. They know they need money and warm
clothing to make their escape, so they frantically gather those
necessities before fleeing. During which you the reader are thinking
get out, get out NOW! Nothing violent happens to them in that
chapter. But because you know the killers could come back any minute
-- indeed, the killers could already be watching for them to step out
of the house -- you expect the worst."Gerritsen explains further, "It's the sort of scene, if it were a movie, where you'd hear the nervous tremolo of a violin in the soundtrack. I guess that's how I'd best describe it -- the scene with something's about to happen theme music!"
It's that kind of music that keeps readers turning the pages in a Gerritsen novel.
James Scott Bell is the author of
Try Dying (Center Street), first in the Ty Buchanan thriller series, and
Write Great Fiction: Plot &
Structure (Writers Digest Books).
ThrillerFest
ITW's annual celebration of the thriller world is the largest event of its kind, a meeting place for authors, readers, budding writers, and publishing industry professionals.
For 2011, we’ll be back in the heart of New York in July with the ThrillerFest conference including CraftFest and AgentFest.
ThrillerFest VI will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.
The dates will be July 6-9, 2011.
More information to follow.
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