>>28497651Too late, it's been published on AO3 for a week. It's a significant enough line that people would remember, and technically it's not a mistake, so I gotta weasel my way around it for the plot. At least it's not going to interfere with the suffering, but I know one guy in /pmdg/ who's going to throw a real fit if I don't make my concepts and mysteries coherent and logical.
>>28497736Well first of all, to create suspense, the reader has to be interested at all in the plot which is meant to drag them along. The hooks you use are the very things that make suspense matter at all, as it would build upon those first and foremost so that the rising action has foundation to stand on. Once that's out of they way, one way I know of making something fictional important is by engaging in heated dialogue often along the rising action. Verbal or internal, it doesn't really matter so long as it engages the reader the same as the character who has to endure the suspense in the first place. Of course, that may be a tell and not a show, but discussions are usually points of plot to begin with, and a scrub like me tends to use the crutch that people think to themselves all the time.
