Whether you write the grittiest crime, the goriest horror or the sweetest romance, if you want to keep a reader hooked until the end of the book,your story must include tension and suspense. This is not just for mystery novels and ghost stories! So how do you create suspense? How is it different to tension? What methods are employed to keep a reader engrossed? While you can learn these things from any genre, since it is the season of All Hallowtide, Jules and Madeleine decided that it would be fun to take a selection of Gothic novels and demonstrate how the authors use these techniques. You can then apply them to any genre you like. On the slab this week Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier, Dracula by Bram Stoker, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and man more.
Title music: Ecstasy by Smiling Cynic
Episode 270: Its Complicated - the Highs and Lows of Relationships in Speculative Fiction
Episode 269: Making Friends and Influencing People - The Heroine's Journey in Speculative Fiction
Episode 268: He Growled, She Ejaculated - Reader Peeves and How to Avoid Them
Episode 267: The Beast Within - Exploring Characters with Darker Sides
Episode 266: That's Not Equality - When Sexism Dresses as Feminism in Speculative Fiction Part 2
Episode 265: That's Not Equality - When Sexism Dresses Up as Feminism in Speculative Fiction: Part 1
Episode 264 Challenging the System - How Magic Helps Us Deconstruct History, Politics and Social Issues
Episode 263: The Blade Itself - the Genesis of the Sword in History, Mythology and Speculative Fiction
Episode 262: Of Liking and Loathing - How to Hook Readers on your Characters
Episode 261: Reading the Classics - Hidden Meaning and Censorship in Stoker, Bronte and Shelley
Episode 260: Links and Linguistics - Why Word Choice Matters in Writing
Episode 259: Taking a Toxicity Reading - Criticism and Compromise in Speculative Fiction
Episode 258: Frills and Flirtations - What Clothing brings to Speculative Fiction
Episode 257: Peacekeepers to Punishers - The Police Force in Speculative Fiction
Episode 256: Assembling the Skeleton - Showing, Telling and Cutting Out Scenes in Speculative Fiction
Episode 255: The Trials and Triumphs of 2020
Episode 254: Blood on the Snow - The Darker Christmas Stories
Episode 253: The Good Neighbours - Festive Faeries and Winter Elves
Episode 252: Why is There Never a Happy Ending? - and Other Questions Writers Get Asked
Episode 251 To Queer or not to Queer - Including LGBTQ+ Characters in Speculative Fiction
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