Whispering heightens fear. Sound draws the reader into the story

From my book, Deep South Gold, notice how the silence adds tension and suspense, but at the end of the quietness, Jane is perceived as stronger and not weaker. Although silence is used defensively, Jane is stronger for using it.

“Death was printed in italics under a picture of a spell going on near a table. The blood of a young girl gives more power, Jane thought.

                  “Oh my, Huerta is actually trying to kill me—not because I saw them performing the spell, but because of the power he’ll obtain if he does.” She shivered. “Why me? What am I going to do? To outsmart him, I must get him before he gets me.” The picture of the spell going on stuck in her mind.

                  Can I do it? She wondered.

                  Mrs. Sanford had exited, so it was just the three of them. She heard the vibrations of someone coming up the metal stairs. The footsteps sounded too heavy for a frail woman, she thought.

                  Jane slid across the floor and under a table behind a metal cabinet that help the library’s vertical files. Victoria followed. Sylvia had stayed downstairs near the circulation desk.

                  Maybe that Sylvia coming up here, she thought. She and Victoria left the books that they were looking at the floor where they had laid them.

                  The door squeaked as it opened. From their hiding place under the table, she saw a black pair of boots. She smelled the smoky and perfume smell again. Terror seized her. She froze in place, but she couldn’t silence the beating of her heart.

                  He will hear my heartbeat, she thought. Her feet would not move, and she couldn’t think about what to do. The confidence she had that she could get Huerta left. Anxiety took its place.

                  She watched Huerta walk to the place where she left the three books open. He reached to pick one up. She heard him roughly drop it on the table above her.

                  I hope he can’t hear my heart pounding, she thought.

                  “Voodoo,” she heard him say. “She’s got to be in here somewhere.” He is talking to himself.

                  Jane and Victoria stayed completely still under the table. Jane held her breath to help slow down her beat.”

The suspense is heightened because she did not scream but stayed quiet and still. So in moments of high emotions, let your characters remain silent and still. Don’t let your characters scream or shout during extreme suspense. Letting them remain silent communicates the chaos better than screaming.

                  Quietly drawing your readers in creates more drama that screaming and rash comments. Don’t have your characters shout, “There’s a rattlesnake.” Have them hear the tale tale rattle of the snake’s warning. There is more suspense from hearing the rattle.

                  Silence is rarely silent. While Jane hides under the table her heart is screaming and beating loudly, so loudly that she is afraid that Huerta will hear her heart beating. So the silence is only silent to Huerta and the suspense is heightened.

                  Sound or lack of it is one of the senses that draws the reader into the story.