Five Mystery and Suspense Tools to Drive Your NaNoWriMo Novel Forward

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Today, Sisters in Crime—a community platform for mystery, thriller, and crime writers—shares some tips for writing suspenseful storylines (even for non-mystery novels!). Sisters in Crime is a NaNoWriMo 2020 sponsor.

In the crime fiction genre—including suspense novels, mysteries, and thrillers—there’s nothing better than the reader review that says “I stayed up all night to get to the end.” The propellant writers construct to push readers through to the final page is known as “narrative drive,” something our genre relies on to get readers hooked and turning pages. But it’s not only genre fiction that needs to suspend readers’ attention for the length of a story. Any story needs to catch fire in the reader’s mind to be successful.

And anyone writing 50K in 30 days needs a few ideas for generating tension in their story—without slowing down. As you #NaNoPrep this year, consider these five tools from Sisters in Crime, the international, inclusive organization for writers and readers of crime fiction, mysteries, thrillers, and suspense.

What’s in the mystery and suspense writer’s tool box for you?

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