Let's talk about tension.

[bdcharles]

I suppose conflict might pique questions but it might also introduce tension of its own - I don't know what's going to happen; argh, this is going to be awkward. It depends how readers respond to tension. Some are curious about it and ask questions, others want to run and hide, yet more freeze.

I know what you mean about ramping up the action and just bombing in more explosions and karate. I've been guilty of that before (I blame Raymond Chandler and his "man with a gun" plot coupon) but I try and make it more subtle sometimes, like when you know an argument is brewing. It's an ongoing challenge, let's say.

I'm reading World Without End by Ken Follett at the moment. It's 1,200 pages about a bridge. Oh, and some villages. But I am reluctant to put it down just because there is so much unresolved stuff. So it seems to me that the clue to tension is to present stuff that is unresolved.

 

[pmmg]

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?

But...what happened to brown bear? What did he see? You cant just leave me like this!

Its hard to have a good thread when no one disagrees, and...I fear I don’t disagree with Helio on this. (Maybe this should be an article instead?)

Having said that, I understand what you guys are going to say--tension doesn't necessarily mean the thriller approach, it can be more subtle than that. The problem is, I do believe that my stories lack scene-to-scene tension. I keep catching myself trying to resolve tension early, having characters reassure each other, all of that. But when I go looking for advice about building tension, it seems so extreme--what's the worst thing that could happen to your character right now, throw in some random awfulness, never let them accomplish anything without throwing a wrench in their face first. I've tried to read Maass and just could not get through it. I go looking for tips on how to structure scenes and pitfalls to avoid and it feels like I'm being told to bend my story into a wildly different shape. Maybe I need to find a Regency Romance guide to tension, I don't know.

Optimistically, I'd like to think that part of that reaction is because there is inherent tension in the stories already--what's the worst thing that could happen to your character right now? Oh, I don't know, her situation staying the same for the rest of her life would be pretty damn awful, things suck for her right now. I've never been shy about having my characters suffer, but I'm just not sure it feels compelling.

I just...don't want to hear "make it worse". I want to hear how I can convey to the reader that things are already bad. How I can keep that at the forefront of their mind without throwing "more" into my plot.

At the moment I have a friend who keeps talking to me about this without being aware, saying he likes stories where things keep going from bad to worse, and worse to worser, and worser to worser still. I've been filing that away thinking how I might choose to make use of it, but ultimately, I think that is not very helpful, or really insightful. It works in some aspects, an action film that is meant to be a roller coaster ride perhaps, but I am not sure its a clear template I could just apply and whamo! have a wonderful story. (It strikes me that this might be the current trendy thing to say on the subject--I don't know.)

I think part of the success of a story does come from a type of surface tension, that is always present. I am always wondering how this will play out over the length of the story, always wondering how the MC survives this mess, always following with some type of hope (maybe dreadful hope) that even as the pot gets hotter, somehow they will pull through, and it will be a worthwhile journey after all.

This tension does not have to be something like the dark lord getting his ring back, or the hobbit breaking his leg just as four more orcs appear, it only needs to be that I care about what is happening and/or the people in it, and I want to see what happens with it all. It can be as simple as, I just want to see things turn out okay for young struggling hero. Like Mr. Brown bear? What did he see?

In my current story, if you are not into my heroine, and with them for the journey of how they take personal tragedy and unlikely circumstances, overcome their own grief and anger, and become again a whole person in spite of the dark things going on around them, then you wont really stick with it, even if I throw in a few more explosions and 'Oh, Shit!' moments. (Can I say that? Sorry if that was against the rules.) Window dressings will not an engaging story make, least not this time around.

 

[Heliotrope]

even if I throw in a few more explosions and 'Oh, Shit!' moments

Ha! I call them "big set pieces." I think a lot of the time when we start out we think about the cool factor, or the big set pieces. The brave hero jumping from the flaming tower onto the flying dragon with magic arrows shooting at him! We think if we making it bigger and scarier and "cooler" with the most impressive set pieces than readers HAVE to love it. You summed up why that doesn't work perfectly!

 

[pmmg]

I do liken the way I tackle stories as, the enthusiasm that gets me started, the long slog in the middle, and all the cool stuff that happens at the end. Its that long slog in the middle that's the hard part. If there is no surface tension, no one will stick with it, perhaps, not even me. The cool stuff at the end though, may have explosions and fiery swords cutting into dragons, but really its cool cause all of a sudden all that stuff the reader did not know was building starts to come to light.

 

[Heliotrope]

Ha! I was on the other thread and I caught that. Good save pmmg.

 

[pmmg]

Heheh, I knew people would notice

I may have been momentarily confused by the titles of some of these threads. I will try to return to my more permanent state of confusion.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

On the murky middles... Read how James Scott Bell views the midpoint. He teaches at conferences about how you can write from the middle & that if you know your midpoint is a gut check moment, what it looks like and means to your character, it helps everything fall into place. It’s the point you move toward at the beginning & from toward the end.

James Scott Bell: The "Write From The Middle" Method ~ WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

 

[pmmg]

Well...I found it interesting enough to read the article, I may even buy his book. The wheels in my head are already turning on the middle. But...that might be a topic for another thread.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Well...I found it interesting enough to read the article, I may even buy his book. The wheels in my head are already turning on the middle. But...that might be a topic for another thread.

I attended a conference where he spoke on this subject. I can’t think of middles any other way now. They’re fully realized (or close to) before I start drafting now.

 

[Chessie2]

Nimue: I can't get past Maas either. I've tried numerous times but his books are so stuffy I can hardly breathe. No offense. Just not for me. Regarding tension, the make it worse advice is the worst I've heard. Tension comes from page 1--the story--and it's not about adding things in to cause problems. It needs to be a deeply rooted problem that is big enough to last an entire book.

Look, right now my husband is on the Tool webpage hogging the desktop. When he's done I'm going to post something I hope will be helpful. What I'm saying Nimue is stay tuned.

 

[pmmg]

Look, right now my husband is on the Tool webpage hogging the desktop.

Sounds like tension building to me.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Sounds like tension building to me.

What will happen next?

 

[Nimue]

I'm not sure you can look at plot and make it worse. I think you can look at themes, and find ways to showcase those themes. To really showcase relationships and character change in different ways. To offer opportunities for inner conflict and growth that don't always have to be negative experiences.

Hum. I’m not sure this distinction came up in previous discussions, but it has a whiff of promise to it. Though making decisions based on theme has always felt tenuous to me, perhaps because for me theme appears after I’ve painted in characters and big story moments, not during brainstorming. So it always feels like retroactive justification. I mean, theme doesn’t move a plot—characters do, the world does.

But using it to decide what moments should be heightened by conflict (if we must, “made worse”)...that does make sense. I guess if I were to apply this to the example I was thinking about... One of the big themes of this story, if not the theme, is isolation vs reaching out to others. At the beginning of her arc, my MC is completely withdrawn, distrusting, and I don’t believe having other characters shun and threaten her, as tension-filled as that might be, makes sense. They reach out to her and that begins her character arc (and then I can use breaking those relationships as leverage for tension later).

...Or is that just bullshit? Because you could easily swing in the other direction and say that she needs to be more isolated at the beginning of the story to emphasize that arc, and I’m just coddling the characters. This is my problem with the rule of “increase tension”: the “how” is obvious. The “when” and “why” are much more elusive. And whenever these conversations come up we get a lot of examples of “I did x and it made everything great!” But why did you choose to do x? Why did you not do x in three other places? Is “make it worse” an actionable premise, or is it just something you identify as happening when an idea clicks? Oh, I added this new moment and it bounces off characters this way and that way... That’s great, but did you really go in thinking vaguely that “things need to GET WORSE” or did you go in following a story thread into its own particular tangle? Or both?

You have to know where a tool like this could be valuable and where it would be junk. Where it is not necessary.

That is the problem—I don’t, and I can’t find a resource that adequately explains it. Maass is too involved in pushing it as the solution to everything to explain when you do and don’t want to use it. I entirely understand that this is just hitting me at the wrong point, that in a couple years maybe I’ll have a handle on it and think tension is easy beans. I’ve turned over on a bunch of issues this way. But damn if this doesn’t hit me in my sore, low-confidence point. I’m sitting here with a massive outline, a chunk of first draft and a chunk of second-attempt-at-first-draft and absolutely no faith that this story will hang together and not be a collection of tonally-dissonant, slack-tension scenes. When I’m struggling to make heads or tails of the big picture, I can’t get any purchase with “add tension” or “make things worse” or “more conflict”. As catchphrases, they can encompass any story point that worked and claim panacea for anything that’s boring—if only there weren’t a million ways to do it and do it wrong.

 

[Nimue]

Just to be clear, I don't expect anybody to be able to fix my story issues for me... I understand that the answer is mostly common sense and following your instincts, I just...cannot trust mine. I've wandered around in story swamps for years believing I was going somewhere. And if I could conjure up that perfect blend of tension, that'd fix things, wouldn't it? It's silly, I know, but I save all my bad attitudes for writing. This turned into far too much venting, but I hope it stands as something of an explanation of where I'm coming from with a knee-jerk negative reaction to this advice. I can't remember how much I posted in that big "Make it Worse" thread a while back, but I do remember being just irrationally irritated by it. And I know it's irrational, because it's something I've always struggled with. And to be sure, Helio isn't the only person to espouse this advice and probably get snapped at..it's not personal. It's all between me and my goddamned story.

 

[Chessie2]

Nimue, would you be willing to let someone take a look at your outline? Or can you share what your main character's story conflict is? You might just not know what it is yet (and it's probably there already).

I wanted to address the "make it worse" point because it's something that had annoyed me as well. I get what he's saying. However, story needs to come from within (like Helio always refers to themes). Story is a statement. It's an experience the writer wants to share with the reader. It cannot be forced. I believe the "make it worse" forces story like squeezing the last bit of goop out of the toothpaste tube.

Okay...so tension is an important part of story but it's just one more tool. Another layer of the story cakes. Many scenes contain tension in a book. Some don't. These are what I call respite scenes, allowing the reader a chance to breathe and marinate on what came before. It's important to know when readers need these breaks. A story with constant tension and explosive drama will only irritate and wear out readers. They need a chance to breathe, too. So that said, tension begins on page 1, preferably paragraph 1. How to do this? We don't need explosions or a character being chased by a monster through a forest. It just needs to be real.

Tension= conflict. And conflict can be anything. I'll use an example from one of my stories because it's easier for me to explain things using what I know. The opening scene of my last book was the heroine preparing to go on stage for an audition. She's very nervous because she hasn't been on stage in well over a year. She really, really wants to catch the lead role in this musical. Acting is her passion, her life's work, and she's back from a long break. This is important to her. Tension shows in her mannerisms, when she talks too much to fake that she's actually super nervous, how she brags about having been on Broadway but is so annoying about it she irritates the director. This is how I played on that opening tension throughout her half of the first chapter:

layer 1: nervous about play, does and says stupid things (shows where the character is emotionally and mature-wise, used to give the reader an idea of who this person is).

layer 2: her ex-boyfriend, who she still carries a torch for in her heart, enters the auditorium and throws her off. She misses her cue twice and her body betrays her (tension here used to bring in the reason for the plot trope, which leads into the main conflict).

layer 3: she runs into her ex-boyfriend again in the hallway but this time he's with the hero. The interaction doesn't go well. Tension here is used to show the hero's interest in the heroine and bring them together into conversation, introduces the reader to the heroes together in the same room and talking.

-a respite scene comes next where the heroine flirts her way to a favor from the hero, used to give the readers a chance to see the heroes interact further.

Chapter 2:

layer 1 tension: heroine's roommate comes home with her new boyfriend and reminds the heroine how she lonely she feels. Inner conflict here used to show her emotional state to the reader. Story/plot trope introduced as her idea (to use the hero as her fake boyfriend to make the other dude jealous).

layer 2: hero runs into the heroine at a breakfast joint. She invites him to sit with her and her friends. The friends leave and the heroes end up having breakfast together. Heroine asks the hero for his help: major tension here. He already likes her and is somewhat insulted that she wants to use him to get back at his best friend. Oh, which reminds me, there is tension between the hero and the ex-boyfriend because they are best friends and the ex was once engaged to the heroine.

layer 3: they have a fight. She feels like a jerk in the end and he's like...whaa???

But I need to be able to carry this seemingly petty conflict through 55k words. How? By using conflict between the cast of characters in order to carry my scenes and plot:

hero: conflict with the heroine and his friend

heroine: conflict with the hero, the ex, and the ex's fiancee, also conflict with several of her co-workers for various reasons relating to the plot.

ex: conflict with the heroine and his friend, further complicates several scenes

Other characters with viewpoints throughout the story: they all have conflict with the heroes, but the main one is Opal, who has a crush on the hero and is trying to get in on that but the situation between him and the heroine is confusing. Opal helps the heroine grow emotionally in one scene, too...and it's huge.

*So, this is just a detailed example of how I do it. I use the characters, their relationships with one another, their desires goals and fears, use it all to fuel me to the end. If I used "make it worse"...how the heck would all this have happened? I would have tried adding in a bunch of things that didn't make sense with the characters and plot. To me, "make it worse" is external things happening to the characters. Conflict and tension (to me) means the problems must be caused from what the characters do, say and feel. The fuck ups need to be caused by their internal struggles. How humans act. Saying "make it worse", imo, does not allow for a human to intuitively write a story about other humans in their human nature struggles.

 

[Heliotrope]

Hum. I’m not sure this distinction came up in previous discussions, but it has a whiff of promise to it. Though making decisions based on theme has always felt tenuous to me, perhaps because for me theme appears after I’ve painted in characters and big story moments, not during brainstorming. So it always feels like retroactive justification. I mean, theme doesn’t move a plot—characters do, the world does.

So don't even think about any of this until after your draft is finished. I'm on draft 3. I'm still thinking up random "make it worse's" after deleting other "make it worse's" that didn't fit.

For me, as I said to Skip in the structure thread, theme is what comes to me first. I get a glimpse of a character after the lesson. It is a bit like seeing Ebenezer Scrooge holding Tiny Tim on his shoulders. I know in my heart he used to be a bad guy, but now he is a good guy. How did that happen? It's like I have to reverse plan my stories. I see an image of a girl and her dad, singing old sailor Shanty's on a deck of a boat. They are going off on a quest together, and I know, somewhere, they used to not get along. They managed to understand each other. How did that happen? That is how my stories emerge in my brain. Not everyone is like that. Theme might come way later, in which case you may not know what your story is about until you are finished it.

So how could you make it worse when you don't even know what it is about yet? Don't.

Don't worry about it. Forget about it. Disregard this entire thread.

Do a draft.

Do two drafts.

As you start to compost all that material you wrote down to your little nugget of a theme you will know what needs to be heightened, and what needs to be taken out. You will know where to illuminate a moment and "make it worse", and where you maybe need to give the reader a breather.

But until you are finished your draft, seriously, don't think about it.

And please, don't base it on plot.

So it always feels like retroactive justification. I mean, theme doesn’t move a plot—characters do, the world does.

For me, theme does move plot forward. It is my character's decisions and emotions and choices that move the plot forward. Plot is not the world happening to her, plot is the world happening because of her. All the plot moments happen because she is faced with new obstacles, and makes new choices, based on what she feels is the right thing to do. This causes her to have to confront new obstacles, which forces her to have to make new choices. It keeps going and going until she is forced to figure out, "Oh, the way I have be doing things isn't working." And then she changes. She sees the world a new way. Eureka! Climax and Success. She is a new person. The theme is complete.

So absolutely, 100%, for me theme moves plot. Theme is the plot. The plot is the theme.

This turned into far too much venting, but I hope it stands as something of an explanation of where I'm coming from with a knee-jerk negative reaction to this advice.

I love venting. Venting is the best.

 

[Heliotrope]

One of the big themes of this story, if not the theme, is isolation vs reaching out to others. At the beginning of her arc, my MC is completely withdrawn, distrusting, and I don’t believe having other characters shun and threaten her, as tension-filled as that might be, makes sense. They reach out to her and that begins her character arc (and then I can use breaking those relationships as leverage for tension later).

This is great. So you have a nugget of a theme. It may be underdeveloped and sort of abstract in your brain right now, but that is okay. So she is withdrawn and isolated. Awesome. No, you don't have to make it crazy intense. And no, having other character's shun her and threaten her is not necessary. I love how you have other character's reach out to her. That is lovely.

But, but I'm all about theme, I would have her make a choice.

Trust them, or not?

Because the theme is about isolation vs. trusting others, I would make her choose not to trust them. She isn't ready yet. So she refuses, or she is skeptical of them.

The repercussion of this choice lead to ---- next plot point.

She is faced, again, with a choice. Trust, or not?

Nope. Still not ready. Still going to go off on her own and do it her own way.

Crap. Now facing repercussions of that choice. Dang. Why is nothing ever working out for me?

New choice. Trust, or not?

Hmmmmmm..... well, not trusting hasn't worked out so good for me. Maybe I will allow someone to help me. Just this once.

Result of that choice is.... positive. Oh. This is maybe a good thing! Maybe I like people!

Ooops, nope. That person sucked. They were just using me. I hate people after all.

Now I'm in a pretty bad situation and I have no friends. Hmmmmm. What to do?

New choice.....

Etc.... until finally, by the end, she had found true friends.....

So in that way, Plot = theme.

 

[Heliotrope]

*So, this is just a detailed example of how I do it. I use the characters, their relationships with one another, their desires goals and fears, use it all to fuel me to the end. If I used "make it worse"...how the heck would all this have happened? I would have tried adding in a bunch of things that didn't make sense with the characters and plot. To me, "make it worse" is external things happening to the characters. Conflict and tension (to me) means the problems must be caused from what the characters do, say and feel. The fuck ups need to be caused by their internal struggles. How humans act. Saying "make it worse", imo, does not allow for a human to intuitively write a story about other humans in their human nature struggles.

Oddly enough, I totally agree with Chessie on this. But I think "make it worse" can, and should, work this way. "Make it worse" should never, EVER be external plot stuff that is added for the sake of "tension" but doesn't make sense to the plot. That makes seriously zero sense. It should ALWAYS happen from within the characters, to showcase the theme, the growth, the internal struggles.

Having Andy's dad plan a celebration party for her really highlighted the theme. It came from inside the characters. It highlighted his love and pride in her, which created some crazy bad inner conflict for her when she really just wanted to be angry at him.

So I think Chessie hit on something super important. "Make it worse" is about really thinking of finding ways to make it internal. Don't think of it like adding external conflicts.....More guys with guns! Now it is raining fire bombs! Gah!

No, ewwww. Gross. Please don't think I would ever suggest something so stupid. Think of it as seeking out little ways in your manuscript to provide that inner conflict. The choices. The inner debates.

heroine's roommate comes home with her new boyfriend and reminds the heroine how she lonely she feels. Inner conflict here used to show her emotional state to the reader. Story/plot trope introduced as her idea (to use the hero as her fake boyfriend to make the other dude jealous).

It was this sentence that nailed it for me. The roommate. Strutting into the apartment, man on her arm.... really turns the screw and shows the intensity of how the heroine feels.

Chessie didn't need to think "make it worse". This came naturally to her as she was writing because Chessie is amazing. But sometimes, little moments like these come to us later, when we think "Oh man! What if she had a roommate with a new boyfriend! And she was sort of showing him off and the MC could really show some real emotions there!" So you add it in, because, fun! Or, you are going through your manuscript and an emotional moment is falling flat. It is too "on the nose"... it just doesn't have the nuance necessary to make it feel truly human. So you might think... hmmmm, this is a lovely scene, but it is missing something. It feels a bit flat. The emotions are coming off a bit cardboard. How can I make them shine? How can I make this feel more nuanced? More conflicted?

Chessie writes romance, so she can attest to this more than me... but I like to read romance novels (the really trashy kind with the shirtless man on the cover and ripped open ballgown all over the place and racy sex scenes on exactly page 72.) Often times in these novels the woman has a "ward" or a child she is caring for. It is either a nephew, the son of an estranged or dead brother, or something significant like that. The ward is often times a minor character, relatively insignificant as far as dialogue goes... but super significant for story because it gives the heroin external stakes. The ward gives her something else to care about besides herself. It's these small little details that can sometimes make a massive impact in how a story works. That is just another example of how a little thing can "make it worse." It's not necessarily something the writer was cognitive of. She didn't think "Oh, I need to make it worse. I'll add a small boy who is crippled.".... But sometimes you can do that if you find your manuscript is missing a little something...

 

[Heliotrope]

But...what happened to brown bear? What did he see? You cant just leave me like this!

Okay, okay.... he sees a yellow duck looking at him.

But wait... it gets better. The next line is Yellow duck, Yellow duck, what do you see?

And you have to turn the page to find out.

For my four year old daughter with autism, the tension/ resolution sequence of this book blows her mind. She giggles hysterically every time and has me read it a thousand times/day.

Oh, and the vibrant pictures. That helps.

 

[evolution_rex]

Hadn’t thought about how complicated the definition of tension is in writing. But lets not forget the literal definition in the dictionary; the state of being stretched tight.

To me, that’s what it’s about. You’re stretching the enivitable to engage the reader (or at least what you’ve led them to believe is going to happen). When you stretch it out, you allow it the audience to prepare for what they expect, and the longer you go the more they anticipate it. It’s easy to go not long enough or for too long, and it’s about finding the right balance. You can also subvert the expection and bring relief or irritation, depending on the context of the attempt.