Writing Blog Number 2 (continued)

20251029 Killing Tension

Killing Tension

When writing, tension is a very important aspect to keep the reader going. It does not matter the genre, without tension, the story does not grip a reader. It is as important as conflict in giving a story meat. In romance – the tension of the two leads not getting together … when will they get together? In war – the tension of if one of the leads will be killed, or will the bad guys capture them? And so on. Tension makes it exciting to read.
         Too often, writers forget this, and even some well-selling trad published books just lack any sense of tension. (*cough*Lightlark*cough*)

So, borrowing the ideas from Oren Ashkenazi (whose bugbear book is Fourth Wing), here’s 5 ways tension can be killed.

1) Summarising
Sometimes we need to summarise when writing or else we are going to have a book with us being shown the minutiae of daily living. But to summarise the plan that leads to the climax? Okay, sure, the MC can tell someone the plan… but then things should go wrong. But to summarise the plan, then it work fine, and we can see it is working fine, the tension just collapses.

2) Stretching
There’s a bad guy. He’s in the shadows. He’s getting closer. He’s still in the shadows. He’s still getting closer. Oh, look, he’s in the shadows. Hey, what do you know, he’s getting closer… This happens a lot in TV series or books where the bad guy won’t be doing anything until volume 5. But the tension is so drawn out that the bad guy feels more like a paper threat. Do something!

3) Poor Stakes
The bad guys have kidnapped the hero’s girlfriend and unless he does what they ask… they are going to shave her bald! A whole novella – a serious novella – was based around this. Oh, the writer managed to up the stakes when the bad guys cut off her - *gasp!* - ponytail. Or it’s when the bad guys are doing something that it is hard to see as evil, like trying to prevent catastrophic climate change (a few 1960s films). If the stakes don’t matter, how can the reader care?

4) The Wrong Hero
This is when the person who is portrayed as the hero of a story and is who the reader is following is not… actually… doing… anything… Harry Potter in Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone is the classic example. The kids do nothing of note that affects anything (which is actually good to me because, well, they’re know-nothing kids!). Oh, sure, they are fighting and gallivanting, but other minor characters or off-screen characters are defeating the big bad. Or, worse, we follow our band of outmatched would-be heroes, only to see them joined in the third act by a mega-hero who saves the day… see the Josh Whedon cut of Justice League and the introduction of Superman against Darkseid.

5) Follow Through
There is tension in the air. We hear about the bad guys. They are the things of nightmares. They are truly evil and have the world in their thrall! And then… we see them attack a village and they might as well be any other generic barbarian horde (and, yes, I am looking at you, the film Sorceress). The presentation has to live up to the hype or else all you are doing is making the audience go… “Meh.”

So there are 5 great ways to kill the tension in your story. Try them! I’m sure you’ll be amazed at the results!