1. The Elements of Suspense

2. All Stories Contain Certain Elements
Plot
Character
Setting
Dialogue
Narrative

3. Suspense
a condition of uncertainty or excitement, as in awaiting a an outcome, usually accompanied by a degree of apprehension or anxiety.
Dictionary.com

4. In suspense there must be an unknown; a suspicion, a mystery, a danger we expect

5. Suspense (mystery, intrigue, tension) is built with:
Facts
Innuendo
Atmosphere
Action

6. Suspense
Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work.
Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead-up to a big event or dramatic moment, with tension being a primary emotion felt as part of the situation.

7. Suspense
In the kind of suspense described by film director Alfred Hitchcock, an audience experiences suspense when they expect something bad to happen and have (or believe they have) a superior perspective on events in the drama's hierarchy of knowledge, yet they are powerless to intervene to prevent it from happening.

8. Ways to deepen suspense…
Dreams
foreshadowing what may happen
showing the character’s deepest fears, his haunting past

9. Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is the author’s use of clues to hint at what might happen later in the story. Writers use foreshadowing to build their readers’ expectations and to create suspense. This is used to help readers prepare for what is to come.

10. Ways to deepen suspense…
Clues
journals / diaries / letters / notes / pictures, etc.
physical evidence that can be used to determine time of death, how, and where

11. Ways to deepen suspense…
The Weather
the season can match or contrast the characters’ emotional state

12. Ways to deepen suspense…
The Senses
the smell of blood, the stench of an alley
the taste of fear
reaction to finding a dead body
the feel of blood-soaked clothing

13. Ways to deepen suspense…
The Villain
his/her motivations or intentions
simple greed, jealousy, money
the complicated serial killer mind

14. Ways to deepen suspense…
Other characters
plant red herrings
shift suspicion onto them

15. The premiere writer / directors considered master of suspense…
Alfred Hitchcock

16. Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock August 13, 1899-April 29, 1980
Son of greengrocers William and Emma
Devout Catholic
Educated at Jesuit’s St. Ignatius College
Left school at 16 to study engineering and navigation at University of London

17. Themes Concerning People
Terror inflicted upon the often unknowing and innocent victim
Innocent people caught up in events they cannot control
The likeable criminal

18. Themes Concerning the Mind
Guilt (real or the appearance of it)
Redemption
Preferred to use suspense rather than surprise

19. Suspense vs. Surprise
Hitchcock preferred the use of suspense over the use of surprise in his films. In surprise, the director assaults the viewer with frightening things.
In suspense, the director tells or shows things to the audience which the characters in the film do not know, and then artfully builds tension around what will happen when the characters finally learn the truth.

20. Hitchcock was fond of illustrating this point with a short thought
– "There's two people having breakfast and there's a bomb under the table. If it explodes, that's a surprise. But if it doesn't..."