By Jenn Windrow

It’s spooky season and I was given the chance to post on Halloween and what better topic to talk about than adding suspense in your writing. As a developmental editor, it is something I look for in every manuscript, not just thrillers or mysteries. Even romance needs a certain amount of suspense on the page. It might not include creaky doors or people lurking in the corners, but even a first kiss can be suspenseful. The moment before lips meet, the held breath, the fear that the other person might pull away, those are emotional jump scares, and they keep readers hooked as much as any ghost story.

Suspense is the writer’s version of creaking floorboards and flickering lights. It’s not about jump scares or gore; it’s about making your reader lean forward, clutch the book tighter, and whisper, don’t go in there.

And a haunted house is the perfect blueprint for how to build it.

1. The Front Door: Hook Them Immediately

When you step up to a haunted house, you already feel the unease. The same goes for your story’s opening. Suspense begins with atmosphere. A strange smell, an offhand comment, a door left ajar. Any detail that tells the reader something’s wrong here.

In romance, this might be the first meeting. Something is off, too electric, too intense. One glance across the room and the reader already knows: this isn’t going to be simple.

Writing tactic: Start with a detail that doesn’t fit. If everything looks normal, give it a crack in the veneer. Surprise your reader with something odd, abnormal, even a bit unsettling, and you will hook them from the start.

2. The Flickering Lights: Raise Doubt

In haunted houses, the lights never work quite right. They tease you with glimpses, then plunge you back into the dark. Suspense thrives on partial information. Show readers just enough to keep them curious but deny them certainty.

In romantic suspense, this means secrets. One character holds something back. Trust wavers. Every smile could hide betrayal, every touch could mean danger.

Writing tactic: Reveal in pieces. A noise without a source. A figure glimpsed, then gone. A hesitation in a lover’s eyes. Let the reader fill in the blanks with their own worst fears

3. The Creaking Floorboards: Layer the Tension

Every step deeper into a haunted house adds weight. The sound grows louder, the air grows colder, and the reader knows something is coming. Suspense builds in layers. Each unsettling moment stacks on the one before it.

In romance, tension layers too. Emotional stakes climb with every misunderstanding, every almost-confession. The fear of heartbreak is its own kind of haunting.

Writing tactic: Escalate gradually. Add small, unsettling beats that pile up until the reader feels trapped in the best way. Early glimpses of the unknown are scarier, and more engaging, than a sudden reveal.

4. The Locked Room: Delay the Reveal

Every haunted house has a door you shouldn’t open. Readers want to know what’s inside, but the moment you reveal it, the suspense collapses. The trick is to delay. Tease, hint, and make the anticipation unbearable before you finally turn the knob.

In a romance, this might be the secret that changes everything or the confession that risks breaking them apart. The longer you wait, the more the emotional payoff matters.

Writing tactic: Hold back the answer. Stretch the reader’s patience until they’re begging for release. When that final reveal lands, whether it’s a kiss or a ghost, it hits twice as hard.

5. The Ghost in the Mirror: Pay Off the Build-Up

The payoff must justify the dread. Suspense that fizzles out is worse than no suspense at all. Whether it’s a shocking twist, a terrifying confrontation, or an emotional confession that shatters both hearts, the reveal needs to deliver on the promise you’ve been making since page one.

Writing tactic: Don’t always explain. Sometimes the scariest, or most romantic, thing is what the reader never fully understands. Leave a trace of mystery lingering in the reflection.

Final Thought: Keep Them in the House

Suspense is about control. You build the house, lead your reader inside, and shut the door behind them. Every creak, shadow, and silence keeps them moving deeper, even when they desperately want to leave. That’s the haunted magic of a well-built story, whether it ends with a scream or a kiss.

Because in the end, love and fear live in the same dark hallway. Both make your pulse quicken, your breath catch, and your imagination race ahead to what might be waiting just around the corner. Romantic suspense isn’t just about who’s behind the door, it’s about whether your heart can survive opening it. Keep your readers chasing that thrill, and they’ll follow you into any haunted house you build.

About Jenn Windrow

Jenn Windrow once attempted to write a “normal” book—and promptly bored herself into a coma. So now she sticks to what she does best: writing snarky, kickass heroines, broody supernatural men, and more sexual tension than a vampire in a blood bank.

She’s the award-winning author of the Alexis Black novels and the Redeeming Cupid series, where the undead never sparkle and the drama is always delicious. Jenn moonlights as a developmental editor, helping other writers wrangle their wild plots and tangle-free prose.

When not arguing with her characters or muttering about Oxford commas, she can be found binge-watching trash TV, wrangling the slew of animals that live in her house (husband and teenagers included), or telling herself she’ll only have one more cookie.

You can find her at jennwindrow.com or lurking on social media where she pretends to be an extrovert.

Header image by Ján Jakub Naništa - Unsplash