Adding Suspense to Your Screenplays

ABOUT THE WEBINAR

Whether you’re writing a drama, thriller, action, horror, or even a romantic comedy, suspense is a key element to keep your audience engaged. In this OnDemand webinar, Christine Conradt offers specific techniques for adding suspense to your screenplay or novel through word choice, pacing, and misdirection. She shows you to build cliff-hangers into your story and how to create seemingly unsolvable dilemmas for your characters.

Designed for writers of all levels, Christine breaks down actual screenplay pages and written examples to show how to craft scenes and chapters to keep your reader wanting to know more.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

• How to create cliff-hangers at the end of scenes or chapters
• Techniques for increasing the pacing
• Ways to paint your protagonist into a corner
• Words and phrases that you can use in your own writing
• The difference between a thriller and a mystery
• How to add misdirection without “cheating” the audience

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

• Writers of all levels from novice to professional
• Writers of screenplays, short stories, and novels
• Writers who want to expand their repertoire of writing techniques
• Writers who feel suspense is lacking in their stories
• Writers who want to understand the differences between thrillers and mysteries
• Writers of all genres
• Writers who want to see suspense techniques used in actual screenplays and prose

Christine Conradt is a screenwriter/director/producer/author written more than 70 TV movies that have aired on Lifetime, LMN, Fox, Showtime, Hallmark, UPtv and USA. The primary writer behind some of Lifetime's most successful movies, Christine turned the “at 17" franchise into a thriller book series, published by HarperCollins in 2018. Based in L.A., she holds a BFA in Screenwriting from USC and a Master in Criminal Justice from Boston University. Twitter: @CConradt