: Re: Character development and suspense How does/can proper character development add to the suspense felt in the reader?

@Odierno164

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A character's personality and background can create suspense for the reader, if the reader knows them well and expects them to react a certain way to certain events. Plot twists, including suspenseful ones, interact with the characters' flaws and foibles. If you watched Back to the Future, imagine yourself as a viewer hearing someone say the word 'chicken', and knowing that Marty McFly is about to do something incredibly foolish in response.

Characterization can be the engine behind the plot, in that it drives characters to put themselves in dangerous situations, to create problems for themselves or for others, and it determines the way they approach problem-solving. A dangerous scene is scarier for the reader, if the reader knows that this danger is specifically of a kind that the protagonist has a bad track record with. Indiana Jones and 'Why did it have to be snakes?' is an operative example here.

There are lots of ways to make character development impact plot development. It's just a matter of identifying which parts of the characters are most important to the plot.

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