Developing story telling

When trying to develop my ideas and develop my skills in keeping the viewer guessing and interested in the story, a small difference can make a huge difference in terms of how exciting a scene is, and when researching this I came across a book that represents this perfectly. The name of the book is The Far Side by Gary Larson. There are many illustrations showing how perspectives and little differences can have a large influence on the viewer and how the viewer feels when looking at the illustrations.

For example, look at the difference in these two illustrations:-

The difference is very small, but there is a significant difference on how the viewer interprets what's about to happen. On the picture on the left there seems to be a large cat or dangerous animal and a crowded elevator. If you look clearly you can see that the man's arm is on the animal, showing that the animal is in a calm state and is relaxed in its surroundings. There is no tension created or problem to be expected by the audience. But then if you look at the picture on the right there is already a significant difference as the large animals tail isn't completely in the elevator and the viewer can predict that that when the door closes it won't end well. Larson does this very well in all of his drawings and I highly recommend buying his book. The same effect wouldn't happen if the situation was set in a different location, angle or even if it was just the large cat in the elevator and not a crowded elevator, here are some examples to demonstrate this effect:-