The Magic of Three

                           

This technique involves the convention in which series of three sensory hits (involving any of the three senses) are provided in a way the builds tension-the third hint leading directly to a revelation.

1. You hear a sound.You look nothing. You dismiss it.
2. You see a fleeting shadow. Again you try to figure it out what it was, but you don’t notice anything unusual. Still you start to worry.
3. You feel something brush past you. You turn. There it is! (revelation)

       

When using the magic of three, authors use red flag words or phrases to grab the reader’s attention, to build suspense and to let the reader know that something important will happen. For example, All of a sudden.

Here is my example:

In the blink of an eye I heard something on the side of the boat. I had a look but I still had no idea what it was so I decided I must have been imagining things and went back to bed.

Just then I could feel something scraping the side of the boat so I went over to the side of the boat again but I still didn’t know what it was. So I went back to bed again but I couldn’t go back to sleep because I was too anxious.

To my surprise I saw a shadow so I got up again and realised that we had broken away from our anchor and were up against the rocks. The scratching was the boat crashing into the rocks.