How to create natural tension and conflict in your narrative

Tension and suspense are key to gripping your reader. Conflict is what makes a story interesting but there is boring conflict and then there is natural and tense conflict! You want the latter if you can! I will be talking today about natural conflict and tension using the latest Planet of the Apes franchise to help me explain.

Miscommunication

Miscommunication is a great way to cause issues naturally between characters. Maybe one character sees something and assumes something else through their own beliefs. Or they only hear half a conversation and come to their own conclusions. You the reader or audience will be like “nooooo, they didn’t mean what you think they mean!” This is also dramatic irony. But a character hasn’t understood something and is taking action based on something that’s not true, which is heavy stuff and natural tension!

Character foils

Character foils basically means character opposites. This is a method of helping your reader understand something about a character by having an opposite character highlight key characteristics about them. Like a nerdy, studious person with a kid in their class who is laidback and hates school, for example.

In Planet of the Apes, we can have this with Koba and Caesar. Or in number one, James Franco’s character and his boss. We see their morals and beliefs contrasted, which for me is more powerful than anything else. We know what choices Caesar or James Franco would make versus their character foils.

This also creates natural tension because you the reader knows that there will come a time of conflict, where the characters will make different choices and have to come at odds with their opposite.

Secrets

It should be obvious but in case it’s not, secrets are a great way to cause conflict and tension. Whether the audience knows about the secret or not, having one character keep something from another tells us that later on there will be an issue when the secret comes to light. We anxiously wait like knowing a bomb will explode or a gun will be shot later.

Desire versus fear

It’s interesting to explore desire versus fear conflict between characters. Have one character desire political upheaval but their sister or parents or best friend fear change in society and want things to stay the same. Or you have a trio of friends with one who desires the night life of clubs, one who fears socialising, and one who believes people are rude and wants to be independent. That causes natural tension in their group.

You can (and usually should) have a main character who has a conflict between their own desires and fears or beliefs. They want to be an author but fear sharing their work and believe their writing isn’t good enough. This causes natural inner conflict and tension. We know they’ll have to face their fear and that causes tension.

Caesar desires a home and a place of belonging, but James Franco’s character desires Caesar to stay with him and fears Caesar getting hurt in a world he doesn’t know. Caesar and Rocket both desire to lead, this is a more obvious conflict.

Everyone is right

When both POVs are right (no obvious villain/ each other’s villain), there’s natural tension and conflict. I love these situations so much! You end up rooting for both sides and it’s a complex situation with no easy answer.

Planet of the Apes does this so well. James Franco wants to help his dad who has Alzheimer’s, which we can understand, but the testing on the apes is wrong. He’s “right” and he’s “wrong”. He’s the protagonist and the antagonist in this way.

In number two, it’s the apes versus the humans. The apes just want their home to be safe and protected. But so do the humans. They need power to survive. Caesar wants to avoid war but is perhaps ignorant to the consequences of this. Koba is more aware of the reality of the situation and the destructive tendencies of the humans, but he makes a poor decision and ends up harming his people while trying to protect them.

It’s a beautifully complex situation and is fascinating to watch. It’s natural conflict and tension that grips the audience.

Lose lose situations

Lose lose situations are perfect for natural conflict and tension. Because you the reader knows that no one can win and that’s frustrating! Instead, as a writer you let your characters lose and that’s a great place for growth. They accept a new outcome. They try again another day. They maybe have a dark, negative character arc instead. All these things are fascinating and engaging.

War is a lose lose situation. People will get hurt and homes destroyed. Lives changed forever. This is the case in the second Planet of the Apes. We understand why the war starts, but know it’s a lose lose situation.

If Caesar listened to Koba, a war would have been started sooner. Yes there would be no divide between the apes, but there would be a violent battle between the apes and the humans still. Apes would die. If he didn’t listen, Koba would betray him and cause a war anyway. Lose lose.

Dramatic irony

This is when characters don’t know the full story but the audience does. This is similar to miscommunication but goes further. In multiple point of view stories, we can see different sides to the same wider story. And we will know things that another character knows, which could be in conflict with a different POV character.

The audience knows that Koba is going behind Caesar’s back. We know that he’s going to do something awful against him. But Caesar doesn’t know. This is dramatic irony. We the audience are anxious and tense waiting for Koba’s actions to unfold. We wish we could tell Caesar! This is perfect tension and conflict where the reader is gripped and invested in the story.

There are other ways to create tension and conflict in your story, but these are some I’ve identified while re-watching the Planet of the Apes films. Use these in your writing and you’re on to a winner!

Happy writing

Sincerely,

S. xx