Over the years of my writing career I have been on many courses and workshops for different aspects of writing by a wide variety of well known published writers not only those who write for children. Some of my favourite writing talks are crime ‘noir’ conferences where I have discovered a wide range of writing tips and techniques.

One of the main things I have realised is that suspense, tension and conflict are all finely linked. You create one by ramping up the other and have to balance these factors with the final resolution. Here are a few of the things I have learnt and have found useful, which may help you to achieve this.

1. Make achieving their goal a race against time. There is nothing like a deadline for keeping the adrenaline pumping around the body. The greater the need to achieve the goal and the less time available to achieve this the higher the stakes, the tension and the suspense.
2. Lull the reader into a false sense of security by using longer sentence just before you reveal the shock of the unexpected.
3. In contrast, short, sharp sentences mimic the disjointed thought patterns of fear and urgency.
4. Make your readers root for your characters safety by ramping up the danger.
5. Using the present tense at the highest points of tension will make the narrative more immediate.
6. Make the source of the fear a surprise to the reader.
7. To make your readers care and worry about the main character make your protagonist vulnerable in some way.
8. Use foreshadowing to rank up the danger by letting your readers know of these vulnerable attributes such as allergies or phobias early on in the story and then make it inevitable they have to face these situations later in the story.
9. In a similar way, give your character a desire, wound or internal struggle your readers can identify with and then use your reader’s empathy and concern for the impending danger to escalate the tension.
10. View the world though the protagonists eyes so the reader can identify with your main character and experience what they are feeling.
11. Use all the senses to get your readers to hear, touch, smell and taste the action.
12. Initially the less people who believe the protagonist and who do not understand their fear of the antagonist and the seriousness of the threat, the more suspense is created.
13. As you progress through the story more people should become worried, afraid, sad or curious. This will increase the tension.
14. Strip the protagonist of something essential to their safety.
15. Use the power of three. Have small alarming things happen three times to reinforce the conflict, so the concern is mentioned, then it is reinforced and then people begin to realise there is a problem.
16. Use familiar things, people and situations in different contexts to make your readers feel uneasy.
17. Let the reader know more than your characters do. So they can see the villain metaphorically creeping up behind your main character before the main character is aware.
18. Use superstitions even if your character is not superstitious to rank up the suspense and tension, such as making the meeting at number thirteen, accidentally walking under a ladder or a black cat crossing their path.
19. Delay what is really happening by having a small worrying event which your character ponders and tries to fix this when something bigger happens they need to solve and then have a final climax at the end of the chapter. This will help keep the readers turning the pages to find out what happens next.
20. Think carefully about your word choices. You can create a dark, spooky atmosphere by using gloomy and macabre words rather than happy, sunny words.

I hope these ideas help you and if you have any more ways of creating suspense, you would like to share, please leave a comment.

Writers need to interest and entertain their readers. To do this, they have to make sure every word is understandable by using plain, simple language and concrete words. Obscure technical terms, foreign phrases, long unpronounceable names and jargon may make sense to those in the know but not to the majority. It puts up an unnecessary barriers that will deter your readers.

Inspiring some children to read is difficult enough as it is, so why make it more difficult for them? My advice is don’t hesitate to break the rules if the alternative is to write something that looks and sounds contrived or ugly. To avoid badly constructed sentences that grate on the ear read what you have written aloud. Record it if you have to and listen back.

Your aim should be to get the meaning across directly without using artificial and over literary sentences. This will help your stories understand the turn of events and keep your readers turning the pages. To achieve this try to put yourself in the shoes of the readers. 

Before putting your pen to paper ask yourself:

1. What am I trying to say?
2. What words will express it?
3. What images will make it clearer?
4. Is this image fresh and original enough to have an effect?

Choose precise words and invent your own images to make your meaning clearer. We have been told by countless people that the use of hackneyed similes, metaphors and other phrases is pure lazy writing. So when editing your work check if you are using original descriptions.

Metaphors like: ‘you win some, you lose some’, ‘a fish in troubled waters’, ‘hard as nails’ and ‘snow-white’ are over-used and dull. It is better to invent your own metaphors and similes to add colour and imagination to your writing.

Avoid using long words where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out then cut it. You can often find words that can be cut without losing meaning. The word ‘that’ is the ideal example. Cutting adverbs and adjectives can also strengthen your writing.

The great thing about writing for children is that the jobs are always varied and interesting. You never know what varied work you will be asked to write. The idea is to keep your options open make yourself available, even if it means tight scheduling on your side to get it done. All the examples below are ideas for opportunities which you could also pursue to add that extra arrow to your quiver.

Over the years, I have written school text books and homework books, picture books, activity books, text for sticker books, graphic novels, photocopiable worksheets, science investigations, maths puzzles, a children’s booklet for a local wildlife park, book reviews, encyclopaedias, non-fiction books, comprehension and model non-fiction texts for online teacher resources, early readers for reading schemes, high-low readers and my poetry has been featured in teacher resource packs and poetry books.

A couple of years ago, I was commissioned to write 27 differentiated play scripts that can be used for guided reading or for performance on stage. They cover the themes of childhood experiences, traditional stories and stories from other cultures. Each play is accompanied by detailed teachers’ notes that provide suggestions for making costumes and props as well as performance ideas.

I have also been commissioned to write audio book texts, including six discs of classic fairy tales where I adapted twenty much-loved stories by Hans Christian Andersen, The Brothers Grimm and Carlo Collodi for young listeners.

These stories are read by Tamsin Greig (Green Wing, Episodes, Friday Night Dinner) and Stephen Mangan (Green Wing, Episodes, Dirk Gently).

Other writing jobs include writing story adventure books and online resources for toy companies.

A really fun and exciting project to work on was the Adventure Passport series designed to inspire ages 5+ with a love of our culturally diverse world. Each of the four mini suitcases represents a different continent and contains six letters from six different countries the main characters have visited, a passport, six stickers sheets (one for each country), twelve photos, two finger puppets, a regional map and six fun activity sheets for your children to complete. 

These suitcase would be an entertaining way to keep KS1 aged children happy and amused during long rainy days at home or during the lock down.

You can find out more about the books and writing I have done on my website: www.anitaloughrey.com