It’s Getting a Little Tense In Here… #writing tips #conflict #tension

What’s a story without tension? Hell, life’s all about tension, right? Do you do this? Or this? Should you take this path? Or that one? What if that path takes you straight into the mouth of danger? What if it doesn’t?

Conflict is the heart of the story, and tension is what conflict creates. As a writer, your job is to take believable characters, throw them into impossible situations and watch what happens.

This can’t be done, if you, as the almighty author, try to set things up. Which you’re bound to do, if your characters aren’t real.

Here’s what I mean:

John P and Suzy Q use to be friends, then Suzy found out John slept with her sister. Friendship went the way of the do-do. Suddenly Suzy’s sister, Floozy, turns up dead in a ditch after sneaking out to go to a party.  Fingers are pointed and John P is on the other end. Suspicions abound, but Suzy knows Floozy wasn’t all that picky when it came to hook-ups and John has never seemed the type.

That’s your plot. Go you, it’s great, filled with all sorts of branching paths of tension.

John and Suzy’s relationship

Suzy and Floozy’s relationship

Floozy’s murder

Now, if your characters are fleshed out enough to walk off the pages, you’re going to find a whole ‘nother mess under that level.  If they aren’t, you’re going to start throwing in your own contrived tension makers.

If you can’t get below this level, go back and delve a bit more into John, Suzy and Floozy. You know, all that info you didn’t share with your readers at the get-go. It’s that information you reveal in bits and pieces through the pages that bring it all together. Because, from here you should be able to drill down to this:

Suzy’s always been in love with John, and just when she was going to bare more than her heart, she finds him in bed with sister. Heartbroken, Suzy cuts John out of her life and give her sister the cold shoulder. If she’s insecure enough, she’ll never tell John why she’s so hurt, but she will continually cut her sister down as it’s her passive/aggressive way in dealing with the anger of Floozy taking yet another man from her.

John made the mistake of mixing cold meds with allergy meds, and he heads over to Suzy’s place because they were going to do some studying. He’s been trying not make any aggressive moves on the lovely Suzy because he doesn’t want to scare her off. But when he arrives, dizzy and sick, it’s Floozy who answers the door. But things get hazing and suddenly Floozy is Suzy. She coaxes him into lying down and the next thing he know, a feverish daydream of Suzy is taking on a decidedly erotic twist.

Floozy’s always resented her goody-two shoe sister, Suzy. No matter what, everything Suzy touches comes up roses. While Floozy is stuck with the loser. Like the last boyfriend, who just won’t take no for an answer. When John knocks on the door, acting a little buzzed, Floozy perks up. She’s always like John, and even though that tiny voice in her head is warning her off, she’s going to show Suzy how not everything is perfect in this life.

If you let your characters off their chain here, you got yourself an incredibly tension filled story spilling across the pages.

Now you can dive into:

Can Suzy look beyond her guilt and prejudices to see the truth before she loses her chance at something precious?

Can John get over his anger and resentment at Floozy and Suzy to discover who the real killer is before it’s too late?

And the psychological games are off. This depth of character motivation is key to creating tension, and tension is conflict and conflict is story.

Other than withholding information, what other writing tools create great tension?