How To Create Tension

How to Create Tension in Your Story.  

      

We all know that tension is a major ingredient for a good story recipe.  Unfortunately, so often, you see it executed in the wrong way.   The Tension is un-relatable, hard to distinguish, strained.  Believe it or not, your tension can have tension, which isn't necessarily a good thing.  Conflict is what pushes the story forward, what reveals character, what draws the reader in.  Here are some tips when trying to create the perfect tension.  

• Believable characters: With out believable characters, the tension almost always falls flat.  You want the reader to care that the character is in trouble, or relish in it.  Either way they have to feel something towards your character for it to work.  

• Give your characters a chance to fail.  If they succeed all the time, the reader will feel the tension is false, and therefore not care.  
• Give your characters unattainable goals.  If the reader knows that the character can't succeed, but they are going to try, there will be buckets of tension you can bask in.  
• Conflicting morals is a good way to add tension that otherwise might not be there.  Maybe character wants to do something, but his moral compass says no.  Disclaimer, however, make sure this fits the character.  If you have a sociopath that all of a sudden discovers Jiminy Cricket, that won't settle well with your readers .

• Constant Change is another way to add tension.  If the story becomes stagnant for too long, the reader might lose interest in why the characters are doing what they do.  

• Add in different types of conflicts.  If you are dealing with a main antagonist that wants to blow up a city, maybe the character is also having trouble dealing with a certain partner.  You want to add small story archs inside your big one.  If the one conflict is the only one to arise, they your readers will lose interest fast.  
• Evolving relationships is another way to keep the tension.  Throughout the story, if the relationships always remain the same between to characters, the reader will feel there is no importance in the relationship.  The shift can be positive or negative, and doesn't have to be long lasting.  Maybe they are pissed at each other for only a paragraph, maybe they never speak to each other again. The movie 'The Exam' takes place in one room, with not external conflict.  The only driver for tension is the changing relationships of the characters as they try to answer a question.   
• Changing the scenery also mounts to tensions.  Never ever forget the power of setting on adding stress to your reader.  A lady walks from her well lit house, into the hot rainy night.  Disclaimer: Don't rely on the setting to fully create the mood.  It will fall flat.  Use it as a toll to further the tension mounting.  
• Alternate between moral conflict and physical conflict.  If every problem the characters encounter is a fist fight, the tension won't be as effective.  They won the last fight with twenty guys, why should I worry if they have to fight five.  But instead, throw in an internal conflict to mess with the flow.  

• Mystery is one of the biggest components of tension.  If the reader has a complete understanding of what is going on, they will not care.  

• Don't solve all the conflicts at once.  If everything resolves, what is stopping the reader from putting it down, and not finishing the last 20 pages.  
• Don't solve all the conflicts.  Some of the best examples of tension come from unsolved conflict.  Not every argument needs to result in a blown up fight.  Let things simmer, or remain in the grey areas.  In reality you don't always get all the answers.  
• Foreshadowing is a great tool.  Leave little hints for you reader that something might just be important about this.  
• Don't overuse foreshadowing.  don't get me wrong, I love foreshadowing.  But too much kills tension.  The best foreshadowing is felt and not known.  If your reader can predict what is going to happen the tension will die a sad death.   Use foreshadowing well, but not often. 
• Be unpredictable but logical.  Tension works best when the reader doesn't know what is going to happen. But, a word of caution, don't mistake unpredictability for a chance to throw random crap at your readers.  they won't like it.  I won't like it, and we all cry.  It has to make sense in your story, and make the story go forward.  

Now, I am not saying through all of these in a box, shake it up, and a tension filled story comes out.  Everything must be tailored to fit your specific needs.  If you have one character in you short story, you can't have evolving relationships, unless he talks to himself.    Always take writing advice with a grain of salt.  But, double check your tension.  Does it need more to make it interesting, or less to make it more important?  Also, different genres use different kinds of tension.  The best advice would be to read like what you want to write and see what is working and what needs more work.  

5 Mistakes Writer Make

1.  Stop Reading: 

             A piece of advice given that was given to me, when I started to dream of becoming a writer was to stop reading so much.  If given in the hopes of helping time management, it would have been valid advice, but it wasn't.  People say stop reading to avoid plagiarism and making you piece too much like all the others.  This is not advice you want to follow.  In fact, read everything.  Read whats in your genre, read whats outside of your genre.  The only way to become a truly outstanding author is to know what works, and sadly what doesn't.  Don't be afraid of plagiarism, unless you take the Hunger games, change the names and put your name as the author.  (Don't do that).  If you have ever heard, there is no idea under the sun, well, it applies here.  Find out what is working in the published books, then change it, mold it, and utilize it for your own purposes.

2.  Trying to be Completely Original: 

            There is no new idea under the sun.  Like seriously.  If you try to hard to make a story like nothing ever printed before, it probably will not be printed.  There is a reason those books were published.  Now, I am not saying write only towards the audience.  Write what you want, and how you want.  But, if your sole purpose is to make something completely original, then you are going to be hard pressed to find any material for you work.

3.  Never Using Said: 

              But every where, people say that 'Said' is an over used word.  Well, there is a reason for that; people say a lot of things.   When reading, conversation should be fluid and constant.  You want the reader to be lost in the story.  If the dialogue is constantly broken up with "she exclaimed," "He shouted," "He whimpered," ect. Then the flow will be broken.  People don't even register the said, because it is used so often.  Now don't take this to mean that you ALWAYS have to use said.  Those other words are great, but if you used them for every dialogue tag, they will lose their power.

4.  Not Planning: 

             I like 'winging it' as much as the next writer, but you can never lose the benefits of good planning.  An outline can save your life, and the life of your story.  At least have a general knowledge of what is going to happen and how.  Often stories lose steam because the author has no idea where to take them.

5.  Focusing too Much on Planning:

               But you just said..... Yes, plan!  But, if your story no longer fits you plan, don't be afraid to change it.  Sometimes short stories need to be novels, and a character needs to live, even after you have already written the death scene.  One of the worst mistakes a writer can make is thinking they control the story.  Stories are living breathing creatures, we are just slowly and surly drawing them out of the shadows.