While we dived into enduring things last time, today I'm going to write about how to use those things which aren't there yet. It is about the feeling called suspense. Afterwards, I'll apply my learnings in an unexpected manner.
Suspense
That, of course, was a lie. But it showcases what I mean: The feelings that arise in an audience when there is an unresolved conclusion, a missing tone in a harmony, a foreshadowing, an interesting mystery.
On the designer side we're talking again about expectation management, about which I previously wrote a blog post. There I differentiated an expectational arc into promise, progress and payoff. The promises were divided into meta-promises (setting up the style of the work), world-knowledge (setting up the storyworld) and hypothesises, which are all expectational arcs related to how the story unfolds. One could say they are concerned with questions and statements such as:
- "What happens next?"
- "Probably X will happen"
This is what storytelling, to my knowledge, is interested in: The dynamics in the audiences heads while the story is told to them and of course - how to create which ones.
In my previous post I also wrote that "expectation management fundamentally breaks down to the gaps between":
- how it really is - story
- what informations are presented/revealed - plot
- what is understood - player's mental model
Furthermore: "Storytellers [..] may use the gap between points 1. and 2./3. to make a story more compelling through interesting reveals at the right time (pacing) and subversions".
Now, one way of creating interesting reveals is to make a prominent and meaningful promise, dragging the progress slowly but steadily while keeping on promising prominently, and creating a final reveal.
I'd label the feeling felt while progress is building suspense. It is on the same page as moments of intensity, of "holding ones breath" or not being able to see what'll come next.
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| What will happen to the man? What is the kid's role? |
There surely are other such patterns: I'm thinking of surprises, plot twists, the calm before the storm, a moment of rest and such things.
But for today, let suspense be me guide.
Further Reading / Inspiration
#20 Expectation Management, link. The basis for this post, containing the sources to concepts like promise, progressm payoff and hypothesis
The Building Of Stories, page 55 and following, link. A very nice explanation of what suspense is and how to create it
- Bordwell, Thompson, Smith: Film Art, Chapter 3: Narrative Form. Great book that consciously differentiates between story and plot, and builds its advices based upon that.
A Cyberpunk Storyquest - Writing Suspense
Searching to get something finished, I'll continue on the cyberpunky storyquest I began last time, hoping that such a smaller project will be finished more likely.
What will I do? I'll write. The moments I present here are those where I wanted to create suspension:
The sun is setting in my back
Orange lights - no, red lights chasing me
Black and red, devils forms
Accelerating, catching up, surrounding me
Their hatred is approaching me
My senses on alert
What is it?
1.) That smell..
2.) Them sounds..
3.) Those vibration..
...
The constant beat
Again, again and again
My body a flash of violet and silver
A fiery violet heart, oceans of anger
Waiting to be unleashed
We need to press on
You and me, my military friends
You'll drive me into my abyss, your abyss with your whips of steel
In the first case it's about withholding what it is, that's following the avatar (which is revealed when choosing any decision line), in the second case the player might wonder more intensively what his avatar is acually up to.
Ideas for Feedback
What other patterns of expectation management (like suspense, twist, etc.) come to your mind?
Are my writing samples not clear enough in their promise to be suspenseful?
Conclusion
This post had a very nice topic and leads into a direction that I'd like to pursue further. There are already several possible related topics on my mind.
There is a certain suspense to life itself too, I'm realizing. What will happen with me and those dear to me? Although I of course know of the parallel between plot/story and life, this thought never came to my mind before.
Granted, for me, a certain suspense does surround my next post.
Until then, have a good time!
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