Welcome to my writing pages! The main focus of this website is to offer writing tips, prompts, and inspiration to writers, no matter what their genre or skill level. You’ll also find information on my published works and the ones in progress. My schedule for posting is:

Monday Sparks: Writing prompts to fan your creative flame.

Thursdays – Writing tips based on a monthly theme

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How to Write Suspense Scenes in a Novel: a Step-by-Step Guide

A step-by-step guide on writing suspense

Last week, I posted advice on how to write an action scene for a novel. Now I’m back with how to write suspense scenes in a novel: a step-by-step guide. In one way, suspense scenes are the flip side of actions scenes. Action scenes build tension through actions that pile up on one another, quickening the pace of the story. Suspense scenes build tension by slowing the pace, forcing readers to think about what the protagonist may face when the suspense is resolved.

Below is a scene from my short story, “Bovine.” A snobby New York novelist, Harrison Sharpe, has planned what he thinks is the perfect murder of his supermodel wife, Ari. The point of this scene is to make readers worry if he’ll succeed.

*****

The cabin peeped through the trees, a light in the window of the living room the only visible illumination. I made a wide circle around the hovel, the damp seeping through the ill-made soles of my shoes. The rest of the house was dark.

I’m setting the mood in these lines–it’s dark and the cabin is isolated. I don’t have to describe the setting much because this scene is part of the climax, so readers are already familiar with the cabin and the landscape around it.

Slipping off my mask, I walked to the back door, unlocked it, entered, and lifted the shield to the control panel for the alarm.

I’m taking the time to add details that heighten the tension. Not only does this help readers imagine what Harrison is doing, it’s delaying the revelation of his wife’s fate.

Strange. The warning beep hadn’t blared to life.

I peered at the control screen. It indicated Ari hadn’t bothered to set the alarm.

Very thoughtful.

These lines reveal plot points that will be explained later.

Lowering the shield, I waited for Ari to greet me.

But the house was still, the hum of the refrigerator the only noise.

She must have gone to bed.

The light from a single lamp in the living room touched the kitchen. I found the drawer for utensils and withdrew the chef’s knife. Tugging my mask into place, I passed through the living room and into the hall, my heart gathering speed.

I reinforce the loneliness of the setting while giving details of Harrison’s progress through the house. The details should also make readers’ hearts gather speed.

The door to the master bedroom stood half open.

I pushed it aside and slipped into the room.

“Ari,” I called softly to a mound of comforters and quilts on the queen-sized bed.

No sound, no movement.

“Ari.”

No response.

Each time his wife doesn’t react, the suspense mounts.

I clenched the knife and my teeth. Had she taken a sedative instead of her migraine medicine? Her insensibility would drain all the enjoyment from my plan. She had to know she couldn’t humiliate me in front of the whole world and steal my money. She had to know before she died.

His action and internal monologue makes Harrison’s motives crystal clear and raises the stakes, creating suspense.

I rounded the chest situated at the foot of the bed.

Silence.

As my heart rocketed into high velocity, I switched on the flashlight.

The mound was so high that I couldn’t detect Ari’s head. The bracelet twinkled on the nightstand. I’d pocket that when I was finished.

*****

I’m not revealing how I resolve the suspense because few things are worse than a spoiled mystery. If you’d like to read all of “Bovine”, you can buy the anthology it belongs to here.

Here are more tips on writing scenes for novels.

Which authors do you think are especially talented at writing suspense?

September 10, 2026 0

Recommend Books with the Best Action Scenes

My theme this month is about how to write different kinds of scenes, so my prompt is a bookish question: recommend books with the best action scenes. Of course, everyone will interpret “best” in their own way. For me, the best action scenes let me feel what the POV character is experiencing during the action while also being perfectly oriented in the story world. Even if the action gets chaotic, I understand which characters are involved and what setting they’re in.

The fantasy “Watershed Down” by Richard Adams has some exceptional action that meet the above qualifications. The remarkable thing about these action scenes is that the POV characters are rabbits. And yet Mr. Adams has created such vivid characters that I’m carried along with the emotions of the action scenes.

So put your recommendations for books with the best action scenes below.

Here are writing prompts for scenes for novels.

September 7, 2026 0

A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Fast-Paced Action Scenes in Your Novel

This year, all my posts for JPC Allen Writes have been concerned with how to write a novel. I realized last month I should do a deeper dive into scenes–the building blocks of a novel. The first kind of scene I’ll cover is action scenes. I find writing action scenes one of the most difficult and rewarding scenes to write. They’re difficult because all the elements of a story–character, setting, and plot–have to be in correct balance so readers can be carried away with the action, living the scene with the POV character. It ruins the scene if the reader is racing through this exciting passage and trips over something that doesn’t work. So here is a repost of a step-by-step guide to writing fast-paced action scenes in your novel.

Analysis of an Action Scene

When I write an action scene, I want to plant my readers firmly in the head of my protagonist, Rae Riley. Here’s how I wrote the beginning of an action scene from my first YA mystery A Shadow on the Snow:

At the sidewalk, I glanced up the hill. And dropped the bags.

Rae commits an action that immediately tells readers something surprising or shocking has occurred.

A figure, backlit by the streetlamp, stood at the corner.

Readers learn what has shocked Rae. Explanation is short because action scenes should read fast to build excitement.

Spinning, I fell to my knees. I snagged the bags and, stumbling across the lot, reached the guardrail at the opposite side.

I use specific verbs and nouns so readers can imagine what Rae is doing and where she is.

I scrambled over it and fell five feet down the retaining wall into the little yard behind an empty building. Panting, I raised myself into hunched stance and ran, scrambling over snow-encrusted chunks of crumbling asphalt.More specific verbs and nouns to make scene vivid.

More specific verbs and nouns to make scene vivid.

Please, Father. It can’t end like this.

Now readers are inside Rae’s head to know exactly how she is feeling and thinking.

Behind the deli, I slipped, and the urn rolled out of its bag. I squinted against the flakes. No silhouette. Nobody.

Scene description to orient readers in the setting. Also show what Rae is doing–looking for her pursuer.

I needed to get out on Main Street and head for Mal’s office. I slapped piles of snow until my palm smacked the urn. I shoved it into a bag and ran into the alley beside the deli. A streetlight illuminated the end that came out on Main Street, welcoming me like a lighthouse.

The first sentence is a thought. Then action and description to keep the scene moving and readers grounded in it.

Bent under the weight of my backpack, I struggled toward Main Street, gripping and regripping the sagging bags.

“Bent”, “struggled”, and “regripping” convey Rae’s perception of scene.

A figure ran across the entrance to the alley.

Report of what Rae sees, which orients readers to where MC and pursuer are in the setting.

My throat closed as my feet froze to the icy pavement.

Reaction that reveals Rae’s feelings.

What … what do I do?

Rae’s thought, so readers are living the scene with Rae.

Wheeling, I fell against the deli’s rough brick wall and glanced back.

More action, keeping it short and to the point.

Here are more tips on writing scenes for novels.

What are the best actions scenes you’ve read? What advice do you have for writing action scenes?

September 3, 2026 1

Write a Poem for the Summer of 2026

Although fall doesn’t officially start until the equinox in September, the last day of August seems like a suitable day for a prompt to write a poem for the summer of 2026. Here’s mine.

An unexpected extra summer with my son home from college.

An unexpected vacation to Maine.

An unexpected opportunity for my next novel.

Maybe I should expect the unexpected?

Here are more writing prompts for poems.

August 31, 2026 0

5 Things Every Author Should Know Before Adding Graphics to a Novel

All of my novels have graphics, whether it’s a flowchart, a family tree or a map. My publisher had been generous and patient enough to let me add these images. If you’re considering putting similar elements, here are 5 things every author should know before adding graphics to a novel.

Graphics should be an aid.

My mysteries are complicated for a couple of reasons. First, my amateur sleuth Rae Riley belongs to an extensive family on her dad’s side. Her great-grandfather’s five marriages to three women make up a family with as many branches as the Mississippi. And those relationships come into play in some of my novels. So at the front of every novel, I insert family trees so readers can flip to them if they are uncertain of a relationship.

Second, my mysteries throw a lot of clues and red herrings at readers. So it helps if Rae organizes the information she uncovers in tables or flowcharts or Venn diagrams. Those provide a quick reference if readers need a reminder as they follow the clues with Rae.

Graphics can add realism.

Rae Riley Mysteries are told from the first-person point of view of–you guessed it–Rae Riley. To make the reading experience as real for readers as possible, I want them to be so thoroughly in Rae’s head that they feel like they are experiencing the story with her. One way I do that is through graphics.

Rae is an amateur photographer. So it makes sense for her to draw tables or maps to help her understand the clues better. And by reproducing Rae’s work in graphics, it gives readers as sense that they are evaluating the evidence just as Rae would.

In The Riddle in the Lonesome October, the key to a lost inheritance is an Edgar Allan Poe poem. I used a different font when Rae reads the poem. I used another font for sections of a memoir written by a pastor’s wife and that hold clues to the inheritance. In both cases, the different fonts convey the sense that these passages are reproduced from actual books, lending to the fun of the treasure hunt.

Graphics should be crystal clear.

If you decide to insert graphics in your novel, make sure they appear sharp in both the ebook and paperback. A fuzzy graphic looks cheap.

Graphics should be uncluttered.

Don’t add more information or detail than you need. Readers will find graphics more useful if they can glance at them and don’t have to give themselves headaches picking out every detail.

Above all else …

Don’t use graphics as a substitute for storytelling. The information in the map Rae draws is always discussed by the characters. I don’t put anything in a graphic the characters haven’t talked about or Rae hasn’t thought about. The graphics are meant to enhance the story, not take its place.

What do you think of graphics in novels? What are your favorites? Maps, family trees, or something else?

Here are all my writing tips and prompts for the month.

August 27, 2026 0

JPC Allen Writes