WRITING COURSE: TENSION AND SUSPENSE IN FICTION
11 modules
103 lessons
16 writing exercises
Audio for every lesson (coming soon)
Instant feedback on every writing exercise
In online writing courses, you usually don’t get any feedback on your exercises, or you have to wait for a reply. With ViaScripta, you get your feedback right away, on every exercise, as often as you like.
ViaScripta always knows what you’re learning. If an exercise is about tension, it looks at the tension in your writing, not at whether your piece is well written in general.
You get pointers on your own sentences: what’s already working, where it goes wrong, what you can do differently, and why. You don’t have to get it right the first time. No one’s looking over your shoulder.
Feedback
Learn to build tension that holds your reader.
You write stories, but you can feel the tension ebbing away right where it should be building. Your reader checks out at the very moment you want to hold on to them. This course gives you the techniques to turn that around.
You master the art of delay, so your reader only lets go when you allow it. You control the pacing, dole out information, and write scenes no one walks out of early.
What You’ll Learn
The three pillars of tension
You work with uncertainty, engagement, and stakes at the same time. Without any one of the three, every suspenseful scene falters.
Pacing that sweeps your reader along
You speed up with short sentences and slow down just before the turning point. Your reader races along breathlessly or holds their breath, because you’re the one who decides.
Delay without frustration
You raise questions and answer them at exactly the right moment. You plant clues that only pay off twenty pages later.
Tension at the sentence level
Every word counts. You put the most dangerous word at the end of the sentence. You control what your reader feels, sentence by sentence, word by word.
Characters who charge every scene with tension
You write characters whose flaws and blind spots drive the tension from within. Under pressure, the masks come off, and that’s when things really get tense.
A setting that works for you
You turn an empty parking garage into an oppressive space. A cozy family dinner into a minefield. Your setting heightens the tension without extra words.
Structure as a weapon of suspense
You break up the chronology, switch between storylines, and choose the point of view that throws your reader off the most.
Suspense in every genre
You bring thriller pacing to literary fiction, horror atmosphere to a family saga. You know the conventions of every genre, and you break them when it makes your story stronger.
Write stories your reader won’t put down.
You want your reader to stay with you from the first paragraph to the last sentence. The Tension and Suspense in Fiction course gives you the techniques to make that happen in every scene and every chapter. Start with module 1 today.
Grow as a writer with our courses.
From first story to masterpiece. Choose the course that fits your ambitions.
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- Fiction Tension and Suspense in Fiction Learn to hold your reader from the first page to the last. View Course
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- Journalism Narrative Feature Writing Bring stories to life with an eye for detail and context. View Course
- Editing Copyediting and Line Editing Hone your writing until it says exactly what you mean, nothing more and nothing less. View Course
