Suspense, as a concept, is something I’m pretty sure all writers comprehend.
Suspense (/səˈspɛns/):
Noun
“A state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen.” (Source: Google.)
After all, most writers begin their journey as a reader, and most readers love the thrill of a story unfolding – of experiencing every reversal and triumph that befall the characters as the plot moves along its way toward an as-yet unforeseen conclusion.
True, some readers do read the very last page of the book first – perhaps to ensure the story will have a happy ending. However a last page really doesn’t convey much when taken out of context of all that comes before it, so even such a reader will be forced to weather the ebbs and flows of a storyline in the sequence in which they occur.
As a reader myself, however, it occurred to me recently that there are actually two types of suspense in storytelling. Taken in turn, each type produces the following reaction in my head: