And Another Thing
Published August 11th, 2010 | 
Aside from the grotesque, another thing that makes for compelling storytelling is desperation. Yes, give me a character with everything to lose or nothing to lose and let’s compare life insurance. A Joe Average guy like the one Johnny Depp played in that movie where his daughter was kidnapped by Christopher Walken or maybe Humphrey Bogart in Dark Passage? Those are the kind of characters you want to take a journey with. And take a story like Angel Heart — a film that combines desperation with the grotesque. Good stuff. For budding suspense writers or other writers who want to add tension to a story: give your readers a characters either has something precious to lose if they don’t do everything possible to protect it or characters who’ve lost everything dear to them and have nothing to fear in commiting themselves to a hard and dangerous action.
