But during moments of suspense, nothing happens. The plot comes to a dead stop. Once the moment of suspense is over, the plot resumes. It's a narrative trick all storytellers use. A magician uses tricks to amuse and entertain his audience.
Storytellers also use tricks.
Our storytellers use these story tricks deliberately and consciously, to an extent, but usually they have been too busy to think about how or why some of these work. Some years ago a psychic said he could bend spoons with just the power of his thoughts. A professional magician openly scoffed and said he could duplicate this entire experiment exactly. The psychic trades on faith to delude his audience. The psychic hides behind mysticism.