Creating Pacing and Suspense in Narratives

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Creating Pacing and Suspense in Narratives Focus: Narrative Writing ELAGSE8RL3: Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.

ELAGSE8RL4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

ELAGSE8RL6: Analyze how differences in the points of view of characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.

ELAGSE7W3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. a. Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically. b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. c. Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another. d. Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events. e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events.

Targets: I can understand pacing. I can analyze techniques for creating a suspenseful tone and determine which is most effective. I can write a suspenseful scene in a narrative using both slow and fast pacing. Part 1: Lesson Introduction Introduction: Suspense is a technique that is used to engage audiences by making them anxious to know what will happen next. Suspense can be found in short stories, novels, plays, poems, movies, and in everyday life. Writers use narrative techniques, such as description, dialogue, questioning, punctuation, dramatic irony, sentence structure, and pacing to create suspense.

1. View the following clips:

“How to Make Your Writing Suspenseful” - Victoria Smith, TED-ED, 2017. (Time: 4:35)

“What is Suspense?” - HelpTeaching.com, 2015. (Time: 2:15)

“In On a Secret? That’s Dramatic Irony” - Christopher Warner, TED-ED, 2013. (Time: 2:49)

2. Show students a “scary” image. (Free Pixabay images included at the end.) 3. Ask students to write a brief suspenseful paragraph about the image. Encourage students to use precise descriptive words, onomatopoeia, similes, and metaphors. 4. Discuss techniques the student writers have used to make their readers feel anxious. 5. Review the following lessons with students to improve their understanding of pacing/suspense.

Part 2: Pacing Mini-lesson/Teacher Modeling (Watership Down)

Pacing refers to how fast or how slow the events in a film or text are moving. Suspenseful scenes can be created using fast or slow pacing. Writers should focus on precise descriptions and specific details that will achieve their desired writing purpose.

View the following clip from the 1978 film Watership Down. Watership Down Fight Scene (3:34) As you watch, notice where suspenseful scenes are slow-paced and where they are fast-paced.

In the very beginning, the rabbit is trying to chew the sleeping dog’s rope in order to free him. This is a slowly paced scene as the rabbit works cautiously, trying not to awaken the dog.

When the rabbit signals to another rabbit that a cat is nearby, the dog awakes and dashes off to chase the second rabbit. This chase scene occurs throughout the clip. All of these scenes are fast paced.

View the following scenes in the film and label them as either FAST PACED or SLOW PACED:

(:36-:48) The cat is holding and talking to the first rabbit. Slow (1:04-1:24) The small rabbit is backing down the tunnel while the large bloody rabbit approaches him. Slow (1:36-1:45) The two rabbits fight. Fast (2:51-3:34) The dog catches some rabbits. Fast

In Richard Adams’ novel Watership Down, he uses description, dialogue, questioning, punctuation, dramatic irony, sentence structure, and pacing to create suspense.

Read aloud the following passage from Chapter 47 and review the questions and answers:

“Hurry up,” he sneered, as Vervain hesitated, uncertain whether the General was serious, “and come out as soon as you’ve finished.” Vervain advanced slowly across the floor. Even he could derive little satisfaction from the prospect of killing a tharn rabbit half his own size, in obedience to a contemptuous taunt. The small rabbit made no move whatsoever, either to retreat or to defend himself, but only stared at him from great eyes which, though troubled, were certainly not those of a beaten enemy or a victim. Before his gaze Vervain stopped in uncertainty and long moments the two faced each other in the dim light. Then, very quietly, and with no trace of fear, the strange rabbit said, “I am sorry for you with all my heart. But you cannot blame us, for you came to kill us if you could.” “Blame you?” answered Vervain. “Blame you for what?” “For your death. Believe me, I am sorry for your death.”

DRAMATIC IRONY: The reader already suspects that the dog will be used to help attack the enemy rabbits. When the strange rabbit (Fiver) apologizes to Vervain for his death, the reader knows a suspenseful scene involving a death will happen soon.

1. Identify words or phrases that are used to create a suspenseful tone. “killing”, “contemptuous”, “troubled”, “beaten enemy”, “victim”, “fear”, “kill”, “death”

2. Identify words or phrases that are used to create slow pacing.

“hesitated”, “uncertain”, “advanced slowly”, “no move”, “only stared”, “stopped”, “long moments”, “faced each other”, “very quietly”, “I am sorry for you with all my heart.”

3. Analyze how questioning creates suspense in this passage? Vervain, a strong captain for the enemy, is not afraid of a strange, tiny rabbit, so he is surprised when the small rabbit tells him, “I am sorry for you with all my heart. But you cannot blame us, for you came to kill us if you could.” Both the reader and the small rabbit know the dog is on its way; Vervain’s questions to the small rabbit indicate that he does not comprehend that he is the one in danger.

Read the following passage from Chapter 47:

“Run!” cried Campion, stamping. “Run for your lives!” He raced through them and was gone over the down. Not knowing what he meant or where to run, they turned one way and another. Five bolted down the opened run, and a few more into the wood. But almost before they had begun to scatter, into their midst bounded a great black dog, snapping, biting, and chasing hither and thither like a fox in a chicken run. Woundwort alone stood his ground. As the rest fled in all directions he remained where he was, bristling and snarling, bloody-fanged and bloody-clawed. The dog, coming suddenly upon him…

4. Identify words or phrases that are used to create a suspenseful tone. “Run for your lives!”, “gone”, “not knowing...where to run”, “snapping”, “biting”, “chasing”, “alone”, “bristling and snarling”, “bloody-fanged”, “bloody-clawed”

5. Identify words or phrases that are used to create fast pacing. “Run!”, “stamping”, “Run for your lives!”, “raced”, “run”, “bolted”, “scatter”, “bounded”, “chasing”, “hither and thither”, “fled”, “coming suddenly”

Comparing and Contrasting Pacing in These Passages:

6. How does the length of the dialogue differ in the fast pacing versus the slow pacing? Dialogue used in the slow-paced passage has long, complete sentences. Dialogue used in the fast- paced scene has short sentences that may be incomplete.

7. How does word choice differ in fast and slow pacing? Descriptive words help to create the pacing. Fast pacing will use words associated with quick movements. Slow pacing will use words that slow or stop time.

8. Explain how the author creates a suspenseful tone in both passages? The author uses descriptive words that relate to being captured, wounded, or killed by an enemy: “killing”, “snarling”, “bloody”. The author uses punctuation and short dialogues, such as “Run for your lives!” “Run!” The author uses questioning and dramatic irony: “Blame you?” answered Vervain. “Blame you for what?” “For your death. Believe me, I am sorry for your death.” The author uses both fast and slow pacing in this chapter to engage the reader: “Vervain advanced slowly across the floor.” “Five bolted down the opened run…” Part 3: Guided Practice (The Call of the Wild)

Students should read the following passage and answer the questions with a partner, while the teacher circulates among them to formatively assess understanding.

Read the passage from Chapter 3 of Jack London’s The Call of the Wild. As Buck and Spitz chase the same rabbit, these hungry, alpha sled dogs realize they will fight to the death in order to become the leader of the pack. The author relies on descriptive words and sentence structure to create fast and slow pacing in a suspenseful scene.

It was Spitz. The rabbit could not turn, and as the white teeth broke its back in mid air it shrieked as loudly as a stricken man may shriek. At the sound of this, the cry of Life plunging down from Life’s apex in the grip of Death, the fall pack at Buck’s heels raised a hell’s chorus of delight. Buck did not cry out. He did not check himself, but drove in upon Spitz, shoulder to shoulder, so hard that he missed the throat. They rolled over and over in the powdery snow. Spitz gained his feet almost as though he had not been overthrown, slashing Buck down the shoulder and leaping clear. Twice his teeth clipped together, like the steel jaws of a trap, as he backed away for better footing, with lean and lifting lips that writhed and snarled. In a flash Buck knew it. The time had come. It was to the death. As they circled about, snarling, ears laid back, keenly watchful for the advantage, the scene came to Buck with a sense of familiarity. He seemed to remember it all,—the white woods, and earth, and moonlight, and the thrill of battle. Over the whiteness and silence brooded a ghostly calm. There was not the faintest whisper of air—nothing moved, not a leaf quivered, the visible breaths of the dogs rising slowly and lingering in the frosty air. They had made short work of the snowshoe rabbit, these dogs that were ill-tamed wolves; and they were now drawn up in an expectant circle. They, too, were silent, their eyes only gleaming and their breaths drifting slowly upward.

Answer the following questions with a partner. If you need help, please ask your teacher. To get you started, the first question has been done for you.

1. How does Spitz’s encounter with the doomed rabbit create fast pacing in the first paragraph? The rabbit is cornered when Spitz attacks. Spitz slings him and breaks his “back in mid air” and the rabbit “shrieked”. When the life of the rabbit is “plunging down”, the hungry dog pack “raised a hell’s chorus of delight”. Through the author’s descriptions, the reader can imagine Spitz killing the rabbit and the other dogs’ excitement over the prospect of fresh food. 2. List descriptive words from the second paragraph that create a fast-paced scene. “drove in...so hard...he missed”, “rolled over and over”, “slashing Buck...and leaping clear”, “Twice his teeth clipped together” 3. Where does the pacing slow in the second paragraph? “as he backed away for better footing.” The reader can imagine the snarling dog taking a break to reassess the situation. 4. List descriptive words from the third paragraph that create a slow-paced scene. “circled about”, “silence”, “ghostly calm”, “not the faintest whisper of air”, “nothing moved”, “not a leaf quivered”, “rising slowly and lingering”, “silent”, “breaths drifting slowly upward” 5. Analyze how the author creates a suspenseful tone in this passage. The author creates suspense in this scene by using descriptive words. In the beginning the rabbit is quickly cornered, killed, and eaten by the hungry dogs. Examples of suspense are “The rabbit could not turn”, “the cry of Life plunging down”. When Buck is angry at Spitz for killing the rabbit he was chasing, he attacks “so hard that he missed the throat”. Spitz responds by “slashing Buck

down the shoulder and leaping clear”. These violent descriptions of a vicious dog fight cause the reader to want to know which dog will win. Many of the author’s sentences are compound or compound-complex, but he uses simple sentences to effectively create suspense in this passage. “It was Spitz.” This opening lets the reader know that Spitz reached the rabbit before Buck did, and Buck will not be happy. “In a flash Buck knew it. The time had come. It was to the death.” These three simple sentences create suspense because the reader knows that only one dog can be the leader of the pack, and Buck is ready for the fight. 6. Analyze how the author uses figurative language in his descriptions to create a suspenseful tone? The author uses simile, metaphor, and personification in his descriptions. Some examples: When Spitz bites the rabbit, it “shrieked as loudly as a stricken man may shriek”. This simile allows the reader to imagine with horror the sound the rabbit made. The rabbit plunges “down from Life’s apex in the grip of Death”. Personifying death as snatching life away from a living being may cause anxiousness in the reader, since death can occur unexpectedly and quickly. When the dog attempts to bite, it is “like the steel jaws of a trap”. This simile, describing powerful jaws clamping down on another living being, is a terrifying image for the reader. The metaphor, “these dogs that were ill-tamed wolves” reminds the reader that the pack seems to have forgotten their domesticated training. Unlike pet dogs, wolves and other wild animals are much more unpredictable in their actions. Once again, the reader wonders what they will do next. The author creates a suspenseful tone through these descriptions. Part 4: Independent Practice Three independent activities are included for student use. The first is a pacing practice that uses two passages from To Kill a Mockingbird. The second activity focuses on suspense and pacing using “The Tell-Tale Heart”. In the third practice, students create a fast-paced dialogue after reading a passage from Dracula. Then, students select one of two topics to create a suspenseful, slow-paced narrative. Part 5: Assessment and Closing Assessment: After teachers have formatively Closing: Many people have a fear of the assessed student understanding throughout the unknown. Writers can create this feeling of activities in this lesson, a summative assessment anxiousness in readers by using narrative may be given. (Assessment with Key Included) techniques. Simple sentences, descriptive verbs/adjectives/nouns, punctuation marks, and dramatic irony can transform a boring passage into an exciting passage. Switching from fast to slow pacing can be achieved in just a few words. So, grab your pen and get busy creating some mystery and suspense! Instead of “Whodunnit?”, you’ll be proud to say, “Youdunnit!”

Guided Practice (The Call of the Wild) Name ______

Answer the following questions with a partner. If you need help, please ask your teacher. To get you started, the first answer has been done for you. 1. How does Spitz’s encounter with the doomed rabbit create fast pacing in the first paragraph? The rabbit is cornered when Spitz attacks. Spitz slings him and breaks his “back in mid air” and the rabbit “shrieked”. When the life of the rabbit is “plunging down”, the hungry dog pack “raised a hell’s chorus of delight”. Through the author’s descriptions, the reader can imagine Spitz killing the rabbit and the other dogs’ excitement over the prospect of fresh food. 2. List descriptive words from the second paragraph that create a fast-paced scene.

3. Where does the pacing slow in the second paragraph?

4. List descriptive words from the third paragraph that create a slow-paced scene.

5. Analyze how the author creates a suspenseful tone in this passage.

6. Analyze how the author uses figurative language in his descriptions to create suspense?

Pacing Practice (To Kill a Mockingbird) Name ______

Pacing refers to how fast or slow the events in a text are moving. Suspenseful scenes can be created using fast or slow pacing. Authors may simply use dialogue, descriptions, and sentence structure to create their pacing. Writers should focus on the techniques that will help them to achieve their desired purposes.

1. Read this passage from Chapter 6 in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Then I saw the shadow. It was the shadow of a man with a hat on. At first I thought it was a tree, but there was no wind blowing, and tree-trunks never walked. The back porch was bathed in moonlight, and the shadow, crisp as toast, moved across the porch toward Jem. Dill saw it next. He put his hands to his face. When it crossed Jem, Jem saw it. He put his arms over his head and went rigid. The shadow stopped about a foot beyond Jem. Its arm came out from its side, dropped, and was still. Then it turned and moved back across Jem, walked along the porch and off the side of the house, returning as it had come. Jem leaped off the porch and galloped toward us. He flung open the gate, danced Dill and me through, and shooed us between two rows of swishing collards. Halfway through the collards I tripped; as I tripped the roar of a shotgun shattered the neighborhood.

2. The word “shadow” appears in the passage four times. Why does this word create suspense for the reader?

3. Explain how this line creates suspense: Dill saw it next. He put his hands to his face.

4. Explain how this passage creates suspense: When it crossed Jem, Jem saw it. He put his arms over his head and went rigid.

5. This passage from Chapter 6 begins with slow pacing and ends with fast pacing. How is the transition achieved?

6. Read this passage from Chapter 28 in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

“Hush a minute, Scout,” he said, pinching me. We walked along silently. “Minute’s up,” I said. “Whatcha thinkin ‘about?” I turned to look at him, but his outline was barely visible. “Thought I heard something,” he said. “Stop a minute.” We stopped. “Hear anything?” he asked. “No.” We had not gone five paces before he made me stop again. “Jem, are you tryin‘ to scare me? You know I’m too old—” “Be quiet,” he said, and I knew he was not joking.

7. How does the author create the passage of time?

8. Analyze how the dialogue creates suspense.

9. Create 2-4 similes or metaphors you could add to this passage to make it more descriptive and mysterious.

Pacing and Suspense Practice (“The Tell-Tale Heart”) Name ______

Pacing refers to how fast or slow the events in a text are moving. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Edgar Allan Poe uses both fast and slow pacing to build tension. Some techniques Poe uses to create suspense are repetition, descriptions, punctuation, and sentence structure.

Read the following passages and answer the questions for each passage.

Passage 1: Upon the eighth night I was more than usually cautious in opening the door. A watch's minute hand moves more quickly than did mine. Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers—of my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph. To think that there I was, opening the door, little by little, and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts. I fairly chuckled at the idea; and perhaps he heard me; for he moved on the bed suddenly, as if startled. Now you may think that I drew back—but no. His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness, (for the shutters were close fastened, through fear of robbers,) and so I knew that he could not see the opening of the door, and I kept pushing it on steadily, steadily.

1. Is the pacing fast or slow in Passage #1? ______

2. List words from the passage that are used to create the pacing.

3. What impact do these terms “night”, “black as pitch”, “thick darkness” have on the mood?

4. Why do these phrases “little by little”, “steadily, steadily” create suspense?

Passage 2: No doubt I now grew very pale;—but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound increased—and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound—much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I gasped for breath—and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly—more vehemently; but the noise steadily increased. I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations; but the noise steadily increased. Why would they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men—but the noise steadily increased. Oh God! what could I do? I foamed—I raved—I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder—louder—louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God!—no, no! They heard!—they suspected!—they knew!—they were making a mockery of my horror!

5. Is the pacing fast or slow in Passage #2? ______

6. Identify specific words or phrases that are used to create the pacing.

7. First Poe uses the term “sound” then changes it to “noise”. How do these two words play a role in the pacing?

8. Analyze the role punctuation plays in this passage. Include question marks, exclamation points, and dashes in your analysis.

9. How does Poe’s use of repetition near the end of this passage heighten the suspense?

10. Would adding dialogue among the characters increase or decrease the level of suspense in this passage? Justify your answer.

Narrative Writing Practice - Pacing and Suspense Name ______

Reminder: Writers use simple narrative techniques to create suspense, such as description, dialogue, questioning, punctuation, dramatic irony, and pacing.

1. Read this brief excerpt from Chapter 2 of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Notice the author’s use of description and mystery as Jonathan Harker, the narrator, explores Dracula’s castle.

The castle is on the very edge of a terrible precipice. A stone falling from the window would fall a thousand feet without touching anything! As far as the eye can reach is a sea of green tree tops, with occasionally a deep rift where there is a chasm. Here and there are silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorges through the forests. But I am not in heart to describe beauty, for when I had seen the view I explored further; doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and bolted. In no place save from the windows in the castle walls is there an available exit. The castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner!

2. Use fast pacing to write the next scene in which the narrator tries to convince Dracula to allow him to leave.

3. Select one of the following topics and create a slowly paced, suspenseful narrative.

● Having an encounter with a dangerous animal ● Being home alone and hearing a loud noise in another room

Narrative Assessment - Pacing and Suspense Name ______

Reminder: Writers use simple narrative techniques to create suspense, such as description, dialogue, questioning, punctuation, dramatic irony, and pacing.

Read the following excerpt from Chapter 1 of Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty.

She heard a faint slithering just ahead. The night was beginning quickly. She stopped. She listened. Two doors down, the scrabbling of tiny feet on bare floor. She crept forward along the wall. When the sound stopped, she stopped as well. When the sound resumed, she crept forward once more. It was a technique she’d taught herself by the age of seven: move when they’re moving, stay still when they’re still. Now she could hear the creatures breathing, the scratching of their toenails on the stone, and the dragging of their tails. She felt the familiar trembling in her fingers and the tightness in her legs.

Briefly answer the following questions:

1. What happens to the pacing in Lines 1 and 2 of this passage?

2. How do these descriptions affect the tone: “faint slithering” and “scrabbling of tiny feet”?

3. This passage includes “stopped” and “still” multiple times. Analyze their impact on tone.

4. What impact does this passage have on the tone? “familiar trembling in her fingers and the tightness in her legs”

5. Create a fast-paced, suspenseful narrative using one of the following topics: ● Receiving a severe weather alert on your device ● Riding a huge roller coaster for the first time ● Facing your parent after you’ve broken a rule

Refer to the Narrative Writer’s Checklist: • Write a narrative response that develops a real or imagined experience. • Establish a context for the experience and a point of view. • Introduce a narrator and/or characters. • Organize events in a natural and logical order. ○ Use a variety of transitions to sequence the events and to indicate shifts from one time frame or setting to another. • Use dialogue, description, and/or pacing to: ○ develop events. ○ develop characters. ○ develop experiences. • Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to communicate the action and to describe the events. • Include a conclusion that reflects on the experience in your narrative. • Use ideas and/or details from the passage(s). • Check your work for correct usage, grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.

Narrative Assessment KEY (possible answers) 1. The word “quickly” in the first line indicates that the pacing may be fast, but the next two short sentences slow the pacing and create suspense. 2. These descriptions suggest that Serafina hears noises in the dark hallway that are made by animals. They create a mysterious or fearful tone because the sounds in the house may be coming from snakes or rats. 3. “Stopped” and “still” are used to create a suspenseful tone. Serafina moves both quickly and slowly as the creatures move. These pauses between movements leave the reader anxious to learn what will happen if Serafina encounters the creatures that are creating the sounds. 4. The term “familiar” suggests that Serafina has felt this way many times before; however, the descriptions of trembling fingers and tight legs add a mysterious tone. The reader wants to learn why her fingers tremble and why her legs feel tight. 5. Narratives should use techniques to create fast pacing and suspense. The following rubric may be used for scoring: Item Specific GMAS Scoring Rubric - 7th