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.

10 Tips when writing with Love Interest

One of the biggest things that annoys me when I read is the awkward after effects of an author forcing their characters to either love, or not love someone.  Trust me, readers can tell when something isn't right.  So, when writing a novel, here are 10 things to avoid when dealing with lover interest.

1.  Don't Force It.  

     Alright, there is absolutely nothing more annoying than a story that can stand perfectly fine on its own, having a crazy pointless love interest forced upon it.  A common misconception found greatly in YA books is that there ALWAYS needs to be some sort of love interest.  So writers, thinking this is a rule of thumb, force feed it to their already stuffed books.  Don't Do this! I will say it again.  For the love of all things covered in cheese, Do. Not. Do. This.  It will completely botch your story.  Take a good look at your storyline.  If your characters can get along perfectly fine without falling head over heels for eachother, then don't do it.  The story line is a solid rock on which every great story stands.  Each part must be essential.  If it has no purpose, take it out.  

2.  Avoid Love Triangles

So, you've heard this one before.  Probably multiple times.  The thing about love triangles is that they are highly dramatized.  Rarely in real life do we come across one.  The obscene amount we find buttered up in books is a little crazy, and readers are calling it quites.  If you think it is a must, then at least do not make it the center of your story.  Put a dragon in there instead.  But if the whole story is about these two guys fighting over a girl or vice versa, then it is going to get old, real fast.  

3. Listen to your Characters 

One of the most common mistakes among young writers is trying to stick too closely to their storyline, and thus destroying their characters autonomy.  I hate to break it to y'all, but once you create a character, it has a mind of its own.  IT is going to do what it wants, or die.  This might sound dramatic, but there is no easier way of effectively killing a good character than forcing it to do something it wouldn't.  If you planned for Betty and Sam to get together, but Sam totally has the personality of a person who is happy to be single for life, don't ruin that by forcing it.  It never really works bro.  

4.  Really Listen to your Characters.  

So, yes, I know what point three was , but I feel like I need to touch base.  Just as much as you don't want to force your characters to love someone, you don't want to ruin then by not letting them fall in love with someone.  You just really got to know your characters.  Maybe Betty really actually would like the bad boys.  Don't hold them back just because you are married to your original story plot.  

5.  Don't Make Them Perfect 

Nobody is perfect, Selena Gomez says so.  In stories when you have the perfect girlfriend, who never gets mad or moody and lets you eat all the taco bell you want, and always manages to wake up with perfect hair and no morning breath.  That always make the readers annoyed.  We are human, after we sleep for 8 hours we gotta pee, brush our teeth, take a shower.  Nobody wakes up like a Victoria Secret Model.  

6.  Not Every Love Story Has to Be Dramatic 

Not every person is going to have a tragic past and was hurt so bad that it is hard to love again.  Sometimes people just fall in love.  Or want to date.  Putting drama into every corner of your book would be overdoing it.  Take a step back and tone down that drama.  

7.  Don't make it all about ' The Kiss' 

It is so frustrating when a book spends six pages on one make-out scene.  Generally what this means is that the book is lacking in actual storyline and needs to make up for it in long descriptive 'kisses.' Before you focus hours of you time on smooching, make sure your story line is solid.  If you take out the make-out scenes, will you still have a story?  If not, you might want to rethink a couple of things.  

8.  Avoid 'Love at First Sight' 

Okay, this only works in very few instances and the amount it is used far overweighs that.  Check it out, you might walk past someone and think 'oh he was cute" but you don't spend days pining over a guy you saw in the hallway once.  Focus instead on your story and what might possibly bring them together, or what naught.  It is really easy to make them fall in love without ever having to say a word to each other.  Sometimes the easy route isn't always the best.  

9.  Avoid Power Couples 

Not ever star quarterback is going to date the head cheerleader.  Your Hero and Heroine don't always need to 'hook up'.  This especially becomes a problem in thrillers.  Just because everyone thinks they should be together doesn't mean they should.  

10.  Create Solid Characters 

Over All you need to have characters that can stand alone, without their 'partner'.  If you couldn't write about them apart from their love interest, then you might want to build a better character.  Your story will be lacking a lot.  If you are in doubt, test it.  Try writing s section where your character doesn't even think about their Love Interest.  If you cannot do this well, try adding back story, or backbone to you character.  They should not just exist to be a partner to another character.  

Understanding these points might move your story to the next level.  But always understand there are exceptions to the rules.  The best thing about writing is that nothing is absolute.  

I Don't Just Want to Write

I don’t just want to write.  I don’t just want words to fill a page.  Everything must mean something.  If it doesn’t mean anything, why should anyone need to read it.  There are enough empty books out there.  There are enough useless words.  I must mean something.

I don’t just want to write.  I want to capture.  I want to grasp a hold of.  I want to understand.  People think that writers write for the reader.  No good writer does.  They write for themselves.  

I just don’t want to write. I don’t want another escape where people put it down, smile for a moment and walk back to the place they so desperately want to leave.  I want people to pick it up, read it again.  Frown, think.  People don’t need an escape, they may want one, but people need to change.  

I don’t just want to write, I want to make people think.  Think about there lives, about others lives, about purpose, about stars, about rabbit holes, about Doug mowing the lawn three houses down.  If a book doesn’t make people think then what good is it?  Just empty space for an empty head.  

I don’t just want to write.  I want to change the world.  Life in a bottle.  So many try to fictionalize life.  Book have become a safe haven.  But this is where we live.  This is how we live.  No one is doing anyone justice by pretending it is not.  People need to see life.  for how can one begin to comprehend something they avoid?  

I don’t want to just write.  I don’t just want words, I want pictures Lives to come out of these pages.  I want the truth.  People as the world sees them, flaws, points, shards, loves, faults, hates.  This is where we live.  I want to write that.