Hey writers and welcome to our 8 writing prompt. We spent the last few prompts focusing on character development and how we can define who our characters are and what situations we're going to put them in. And we spent the last writing prompt specifically focusing on what a character wants versus an obstacle that is standard in a way that's creating conflict. But what are some other ways that we can move the plot along besides just conflict? I mean outside of the world like that you kind of building as a writer there's all sorts of different things that you can put in there but the one I want to focus on today is suspense. Think about the last book that you read that you just simply couldn't put them because you're glued to the page and you just had to know what happens next. Lots of mischievous and detective stories are kind of based on that because throughout the entire story you're trying to figure out the mystery. I have tried to figure out what's the case, what's the secret, what's going to happen next. So when we're talking about suspense there are two of many ways that we can actually go about it. And the first way that I want to talk about today is bullshadowing. This idea that there's a secret that you're building into the story but you're not going to tell the reader at first. You're just going to slowly hint at it throughout the story until it becomes the big reveal at the end. Think about it being a little bit more subtle. Think that you would read throughout and think, ah that's kind of weird that they did that, that they knew that, whatever. But it doesn't quite add up to anything until finally at the end of the story you realize, oh so that's what they were building up to you. For example, let's say something fantastical like this character named Kim can read minds. So if you want to make that a big reveal with bullshadowing then you're not going to stage straight up at the beginning that Kim can read minds. You're going to work in a little entity that's something that's kind of a video like maybe you know they're playing a game with their friends like all the characters that play the game together. And the point of the game is you have to guess what an editor have launched the previous day and maybe Kim in this game gets an other character that's completely right without having any idea what he would have been eating. So how does she do that? How did that happen? That's something that a reader will be thinking about and then that's something that you're going to be using the head path for the later reveal. So bullshadowing this idea of working me a little subtle hands and then making a big reveal at the end. Another way that you can go about to spend is a printable called Shakao's Gun. And I sound a little bit dramatic but it was coined by this writer back in the day named Anton Shakao who had this printable that basically introduced a little gun into the first act of a story. It must go off by the third act. Now, at an awfully violent dramatic example about what he was trying to say but basically what he meant by that was if you want to introduce and highlight an element in the both act of the story towards the beginning it has to pay off at the end or why did you involve putting it in there in the first place. Think about a saying example if you say that Kim can read minds and you're going to with Shakao's gun Pipp is right at the beginning. You're going to tell the audience Kim can read minds. Now they're going to know theirs so it's not going to be such a secret anymore that they're trying to figure out throughout but they're going to be thinking about that in the back of their minds and wondering how that's going to come into play. Well, maybe how it comes into play is that nothing happened throughout the story in regards to that but then at the end of the story you find out that a character was keeping a secret from everybody else through the entire time and the only way that they were able to find out is because Kim read the character's mind and now they all know and now with the big damn and so thus to reveal isn't so much that Kim can read minds it's the secret that came out at the end but by saying that at the beginning you've highlighted a sort of element of suspense that you're going to be paying off at the very end just like with Shakao's example if you present a loaded gun to the story at the beginning of the story something that's you know presents immediate danger something that is like you know within the reach of any character and can dramatically change the outcome of the story then you want to use that and you want to have it go off by the end of the story or why did you bother mentioning that. So think about times when maybe suspense isn't used in the right way. Think about if something that a character would put the be able to do or a power that they would put the have never really came into play at the end or think about maybe a G-reader story and you've noticed that the writers were hinting at something throughout but nothing really ever came of it to me that's almost the failed element of suspense because you're not fully paying off what you're setting up and that in and of itself is the whole pentable of Shakao's gun is paying off what you set up just like you should do in both shatter and then the other story of suspense. So let's think about this on our own writing. How can we use this and our writing to set that well you suspense to again keep the reader meeting along using suspense to keep him glued to the page wondering what's happened next and so tying into our writing prompt this week I want to focus on that and I want you to write a story that focuses on using suspense as an element throughout the story. So there's two ways you can go about this. One you can do 4-shatter which is something that you're hinting at throughout the story but then become the big reveal at the end or you can use the Shakao's gun printable something that you're highlighting at the beginning of the story that seems important but you not really show why and you don't really find out why until the very end. So try that on your own writing. Try writing a story that focuses either on 4-shatter or Shakao's gun and really have fun with it really experiment with it. I'll be happy to come up with it. So with that have fun writing try either 4-shatter or Shakao's gun as an element to suspense this week and come up with some really interesting stuff. Experiment a little bit try coming up with some mysteries and the mystery if you feel like taking it that far. As always have been writing, have fun doing everything and I'll see you in the next one.