How To Use Secrets To Create Suspense

Use secrets to build suspense, create conflict, raise questions, and keep readers guessing until the truth is revealed.

As Dr Gregory House used to say in the television series, House: ‘Everybody lies.’

He’s right. We all lie, from white lies to the biggest lies you can imagine. We all keep secrets — from other people, and even from ourselves.

But in fiction, we have to make the secret matter. Don’t include a secret simply to surprise your readers. It should be an important part of the story. It could change a relationship, explain a character’s behaviour, or force someone to make a difficult choice.

A well-thought-out secret creates tension between characters, defines characters’ motivations, adds layers to a plot, and intrigues readers.

One of the best side-effects of a secret in fiction is betrayal, and this creates incredible impetus in your story. In fact, a secret revealed could give you a motivation that starts a story or changes the course of a story or changes the ending of a story.

How To Use Secrets To Create Suspense

Here are seven ways to use secrets to create suspense.

1. Give Your Character Something To Lose

‘Love is understood, in a historical way, as one of the great human vocations – but its counterspell has always been infidelity. This terrible, terrible betrayal that can tear apart not only another person, not only oneself, but whole families.’ ~Junot Diaz, The Atlantic

A secret in fiction is only interesting if there is a good reason to keep it. Your character might be hiding an affair, a crime, another spouse, or a debt. If someone found out, your character could lose their marriage, their job, their reputation, their social status, or the trust of someone they love. The more your character has at stake, the harder they will try to keep the secret. [Click here to download 20 Common Secrets People Keep]

2. Let Readers Know Something Is Wrong

‘A man’s most open actions have a secret side to them.’ ~Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes

You don’t have to tell readers what the secret is. Use foreshadowing. Drop hints. Show behavioural contradictions and evasions early on. Use body language to show their discomfort. You could make your character change the subject whenever someone mentions a particular person. Maybe they become angry when asked a question, or go to great lengths to avoid a place. These details make readers suspicious and they will want to know what the character is hiding.

3. Decide Who Knows The Secret

‘Strange, how being left out of a secret always feels like a betrayal of trust.’ ~Robin Hobb, Golden Fool

Think about who knows what in your story. You can create different kinds of suspense depending on how much information you give your characters and readers.

1. The reader knows, but the other characters don’t. Readers wait for the secret to be discovered.
2. Another character knows, but the protagonist doesn’t. Readers watch as the protagonist gets closer to the truth.
3. The protagonist knows, but the reader doesn’t. Readers try to work out what the character is hiding.
4. Nobody knows the whole truth. Readers piece together the secret as the story unfolds.
5. An unreliable narrator knows, but deceives everyone and we believe them. Readers are shocked when this is revealed.

You can use more than one of these approaches in a story.

4. Drop Clues Along The Way

‘That was how dishonesty and betrayal started, not in big lies but in small secrets.’ ~Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter

Give readers a trail to follow. Reveal smaller secrets to make them curious. A character might contradict an earlier statement, hide an object, receive an unexplained phone call, or react strangely to an innocent remark. Don’t make every clue obvious — some should seem unimportant at first. When the secret is revealed, readers can look back and see how the pieces fit together.

5. Let The Secret Come Between Characters

‘First, there was trust. Then, there was betrayal. You cannot have one without the other.’ ~Sarah Penner, The Lost Apothecary

Secrets can cause trouble in even the closest relationships. A husband could hide something from his wife. A friend might protect someone else’s secret. A daughter could discover that her parents have been lying to her for years. Think about what happens when one character knows something another doesn’t. They change. They become distant, they start lying, and they begin to suspect everything. Use these changes to create tension.

6. Make It Harder To Keep The Secret

‘Nothing weighs so heavily as a secret.’ ~Jean de La Fontaine, Fables

Find ways to put pressure on the character who is keeping the secret. Perhaps someone starts asking questions. Maybe an old friend turns up unexpectedly, or a photograph goes missing. Another character could discover something that doesn’t add up. Every new problem should make it harder for your character to keep quiet. And if the reader knows the secret, they should begin to wonder how much longer they can get away with it.

7. Get The Timing Of The Revelation Right

‘If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.’ ~George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

You need to decide when readers will discover the truth. Reveal it too early and you lose suspense. Leave it too late and readers lose patience. You could reveal the secret at the climax, just before an important decision, or when your character thinks they have finally escaped the consequences. You could even reveal it mid-story. Which one do you need for the story you’re writing?

Examples Of How Secrets Create Suspense In Published Novels

Spoiler Alert!

© Amanda Patterson

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