An unexpected encounter

A writing exercise to create mood, suspense and intrigue

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

One of the simplest but most effective tools used by authors to create stories with built-in tension and intrigue, is the unexpected encounter. Think Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find, or Elmore Leonard’s Three-Ten to Yuma, or Joyce Carol Oates Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been. Or any number of ghost stories, sci-fi stories, and crime stories.

It’s a gift that keeps on giving, the unexpected encounter. It creates instant suspense and surprise. It gives potential for a variety of strong moods – menacing, dangerous, loving, bittersweet. It provides the reader with intrigue, and questions they want answering: who are these characters, what do they want, what are they hiding, how will this unexpected encounter change that, what complications will arise, what decisions will need to be made?