Today’s column on suspense is the fifth of my six-part series on the “Six S” framework for hooking and keeping your listeners. Read the overview here.

The 6S Framework is a set of practices that work separately and in combination to ratchet up the wow factor of your podcast or radio show. Before we get into suspense, here’s a reminder of the framework:

1. Sound Vision — Can you hear the story in your head? (read about Sound Vision)

2. Structure — Take listeners on a journey. (read about Structure)

3. Scenes — The engagement backbone. (read about Scenes)

4. Surprise! — Even the most straightforward of episodes should contain surprises. Look for them. (read about Surprise)

5. Suspense — Intrigue creates forward momentum. (continue reading below)

6. Specifics — Details create driveway moments. (read about Specifics)

Intrigue creates forward momentum

Unless you make a true crime podcast, the word “suspense” might feel overblown to you, or irrelevant. Do me a favor: suspend judgment for a moment.

The longer I make this show, the more I learn about the importance of keeping listeners in suspense. It’s just that I used to get at this concept differently: I used to talk only about how critical it is to have a driving question to govern your show and every episode within it.

Any popular podcast poses a question and a promise, explicitly or implicitly. A driving question hooks us — say, “What makes a good life?” (The Good Life Project) or “How did this entrepreneur build this?” (How I Built This) or “Who killed Leo Schofield’s wife?” (Bone Valley). The creator’s promise is this: You will learn the answers. 

But not yet. And in the case of serialized narratives, not until the end of the entire series.

When I was a kid, I read every Grimm’s Fairy Tale I could find in the library. “Once upon a time” set me on a journey packed with dangerous, seemingly impossible obstacles. One question every fairy tale asked, of course, was “will the hero succeed, or be doomed?” (And, implicitly, “in what way will our hero need to change to avoid a horrific fate?”)

The answer never came in the first paragraph. The joy was in taking the journey, with the hero, feeling compelled to turn page after page. 

Depending on your genre and format, the lede can pose a question or throw us directly into the middle of the action — as Wes Kao writes, “Start right before you get eaten by the bear.”

One obstacle isn’t enough

Also, the curiosity we generate in the lede can’t stop there. We overcome one obstacle — only to encounter another, which raises the stakes again, and over and over again.

So we have to stick around to learn what happens.

Moreover, in none of these cases will you, as a listener, learn the answer. Julia Barton is vp and executive editor of Pushkin Industries, home of Revisionist History. “You have to leave a hole for the listener to do some work,” she says.  “The more we try to button [a story] up to our satisfaction, the less that gives listeners something to do with the mystery and curiosity and intrigue that we want them to feel.” (Listen to Julia Barton’s episode on Sound Judgment)

We may offer what something means to us or to a character. But we leave room for you to interpret the meaning of a scene or a story for yourself. Or, as Glynn Washington says, “If I tell you what [a story] means, your brain stops. If I don't tell you what it means, your brain keeps that thing going… Your experience is going to collide against the experiences here.” Reprimanding me for asking what a particular Snap Judgment story meant, he laughed. “I might lead you there,” he said. “But I'm not gonna make you drink.” (Listen to Glynn Washington on Sound Judgment)

If you start your story by stating your conclusion, I have no reason to listen.

If you start by showing me you're wondering something and are taking a journey to learn what that mystery is, I'll follow you anywhere.

I want to learn with you. And I want to experience your unfolding transformation.

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