Ask a Real Live Author

Dear Real Live Author, So how do you build up tension in your mysteries? (I loved the Halloween cat one!)

Hannah Meyer Winkler, Age 13, Eighth Grade, Dover Sherborn Middle School, Massachusetts

Dear Hannah,

My first thought when I saw your question was: I have no idea! So I went back and looked at a suspenseful scene in "Who Stole Uncle Sam?" in which the detectives - Alex, Yasmeen, and Sophie - are sneaking into the garage of someone who might be a kidnapper.

Analyzing this scene, I'd say I use four techniques:

1) Get into the heads of the characters. They're scared, and my writing reflects that. Alex's voice squeaks. His imagination thinks of tigers and other threats. When the bad guy speaks, his voice is deep and the garage seems to echo with it.

2) Use dramatic phrases. For example, when the door closes, the garage is "plunged into darkness."

3) Use questions, like, "Had (the bad guy) been in the corner the whole time? Had he watched us? Was this a trap?"

4) Pause the action. In other words, just as things are getting exciting, change the subject for a second. Think of it as the straightaway you coast through on a race course. In this case, I used an ongoing joke, Yasmeen's insistence on defining words for Alex, to slow things down just at the moment that Sophie confronts the bad guy. The excitement of what comes before pushes you through the joke -- because you just have to find out how the confrontation is going to play out!

Thanks for writing!