Avoid ‘organ music’ to create story suspense

Sometimes when attempting to create tension and suspense in a story, writers can undercut their own efforts by adding “organ music.”

A term coined at the Cambridge Science Fiction Workshop, organ music us providing “details that countersink an emotional response before anything happens.” An example is crackling lightning before a character is murdered.

This not-so-subtle form of foreshadowing doesn’t create suspense, as some novice authors believe. Instead, it actually gives away what is about to happen. It’s akin to the villain telling the hero, “And now I will shoot you.” Just have the villain fire his atom blaster.

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