A Very Typical Family

by Sierra Godfrey

Tension is so much fun! Tension makes the payoff of a conflict that much more exquisite. Everyone lives off tension, in good and bad ways. It frustrates me when I’m reading a story that gives me the resolution too soon. I want to see characters yearning for what it is they want, even if they make poor choices along the way. If we all got what we wanted right away, it wouldn’t be as fun. Tension is universal in stories too. It can make a horror story incredibly scary by drawing out the dread, and it can make romantic elements sing when characters yearn for each other without getting the payoff of each other for a while. A good writer, I think, pulls that string of tension taut or loose depending on the scene, playing the reader like a musician. My advice to writers struggling with tension is to throw as many obstacles in the way of their characters as possible. Never let them get what they want; don’t let them be safe, don’t let them be loved, and don’t let them have the final say. Until they do, of course.