From Setting and Tension we are on to Dialogue and the Three Act Structure of building suspense over the period of the novel.
Dialogue is, of course, that which the characters use to communicate amongst themselves. “The progressive era was neither progressive, nor an era, discuss.” Dialogue should add to the story by building tension, whether that is between the characters or not. It should also be different for each character. This can be challenging as the writer has to change hats every time a different character speaks. Body language, tone, accents, etc should all change from character to character. Dialogue is also broken into three types: 1) Direct, or all spoken dialogue 2) Indirect, which gives you the ‘flavor’ of the dialogue but without quotes and 3) Summarized dialogue, which does as the name suggests and summarizes what is said instead of spelling it all out. All three can, and probably should, be used throughout a novel, but my preference is Direct dialogue.
The Three Act Structure breaks your story up so that it is easier to track the suspense and tension that is building throughout your work. Act one should be roughly 25%, Act two 50%, and Act three 25% of your novel. Act one gives the reader the ‘tipping point’ into the story and introduces the cadre of characters. A reminder that it is important to minimize back-story in this Act; as it will likely take away from story points that could just as easily be developed through showing, instead of telling. This Act is for setting the foundation that the suspense and tension of your story will grow on. Act 2 then covers the bulk of the piece, as the protagonist battles towards his primary goal. This Act sees the greatest rise of suspense and tension in the storyline. Act 3 then will logically be where the protagonist is faced with his primary goal, and either succeeds or fails in his endeavor.