I know! It doesn’t make sense. I write suspense and mystery novels and yet I hate blood and guts type things, especially in movies and TV. I’ll cover my eyes during really gory parts. My husband laughs and asks how can I write suspense stories and still hide my eyes.
I often respond with “If I liked blood, I would have become a doctor!”
Now, I’m not a fainting type person when I see blood, but I’ve been known to gag a time or two during especially gory scenes.
Being squeamish doesn’t stop me from putting a little blood and guts in my scene if it’s necessary. But it’s not always necessary.
I think good suspense writing comes from putting the reader on the edge of their seat. My goal is to make them turn the page to see what’s going to happen next instead of turning off the light to go to sleep. The way to do that is to create a story that makes them want to find out the ending rather than describing every horrific scene in graphic detail.
What’s your thoughts? Should suspense writers go for the shock value of blood and guts? Does a good suspense story have to be gory?
UNTIL NEXT TIME…God Bless & Good Reading!
Tiaras & Tennis Shoes 
I don’t think that you have to put blood and gore into a story to make it suspenseful and scary it is all in the way you write it! I will not read it most likely if there is blood and gore!
I agree with you.
Suspense is harder, I think, that blood and guts both to see and to write. Guts takes…descriptors. Suspense takes planning.
That being said, I do a good evisceration, myself. 😉
I never really thought much about it until I wrote this post, but I think I tend to put my characters in really bad situations rather than such specific descriptions.