Tension on every page

Tension doesn't have to be blatent to be present. Let me give you an example that I worked with someone else on, situation changed to save her idea. This is a scene summary, not a scene in of itself, but I think you'll get the idea.

*****************
A passionate, high profile Washington D.C. politician is courting a newly widowed woman with two kids. She recently lost the love of her life to a bomb in Iraq. They've been having a fling, but he wants more. She's still grieving and is worried about publicity.

Where the scene starts is them going to a private club out in Maryland, an exclusive place where politicians, actors, and other people of public interest go in order to get away from the prying eyes of the media. She's reluctant to go because she doesn't want anyone to know they're seeing each other; all other meetings have been clandestine, and she feels that even going to this club is too public. However, he feels the only way to convince her that he loves her is to show her they can be normal even given his status.

This situation makes the entire meal fraught with tension. He's going to be entirely focused on her, making sure she has everything of highest quality, asking her what she wants, suggesting she go out of her comfort zone and try the venison, and ordering expensive wines to go with the meal. He's trying to be normal, and for his life style, this is.

She's a war widow, used to struggling with food stamps and arguing with the military for benefits, not to mention the truth about how her husband died. The lodge isn't a comfortable place for her. Everything is too rich, the food, the wine, the decorations. The waiter being right there to help with all her needs is definitely nerve wracking. She's used to screaming kids at a pizza and party joint or a fast food joint. This place is quiet. She can hear every clank and every murmur; not even the non-descript classical music being played at low volume can mute those sounds to her overtrained ears.

He's trying very hard to keep things casual, asking about the kids, about her day, mentioning politics occasionally, and then he goes off on his obsession with the topic of the day because it's his passion. He's dropping names, and she's twitching. These are powerful people that she only knows from the media, and they have a lot of political power. His casual name dropping only reinforces the gap between them.

Finally, she reacts by flinching, and he realized what he's done. Flash of insight, and he tosses in the napkin and says "Look, I'm done pretending. I'm not a war veteran or a laborer. I'm a politician. I care about this topic. But I also care about you." Pause as she almost bursts into tears. "And I'm pretty sure I love you, too." Now she does burst into tears.

He grabs her hand, and she tries to keep things as quiet as possible so that no one else in the lodge looks, but some of them do, and that's very uncomfortable for her as she cries. She's just hyper-aware, far more than he is about appearances.

He tells her he's sorry, and she hiccups as she accepts and apologizes for ruining the evening. He tells her it's ok. After the water works shut off, he tells her, "I know you love your husband still. All I'm asking is that you get to know me, the real me, and give this thing between us a chance."

She nods her agreement, a few more sobs, and then they dig into the meal, tension relieved...for now.
********************

The overall setting and scene really isn't one that people would think of as a place for conflict. It breaks all the rules. Passive talking heads over dinner! EEEKKK! Except it doesn't. The dynamic between the two characters is powerful. The situation is uncomfortable. The characters aren't in agreement. The place is filled with potential conflict. That's what tension is--potential conflict. It's waiting for all hell to break loose, for that character to finally put a foot in a trap, or just to open their mouths at the wrong time. An-tic-a-PA-tion.

Hope this helps.

Judg said:

The expression is taken from Donald Maass's Writing the Breakout Novel, as many of you will recognize.

Fantastic idea too. I'm just trying to figure out how to do it.

Any time the conflict is addressed this should pretty much take care of itself.

Other ways of creating tension:

Raising questions in the reader's mind and not answering them.

And...

uh...

and...

OK, your turn. How do you do it?

Click to expand...

I don't like tension on every page. That feels contrived. Your pages can be interesting without them be filled with "tension".

Opposing forces. Give your character something he/she wants--whether it's something physical or, better (in my opinion) something emotional or intellectual that he/she isn't even aware of wanting, and then stick something in his or her way of getting it.

It's not contrived at all if you do it right. It's the difference between prose that is good, technically, but boring, and prose that keeps you reading. You can write the most beautiful sentences in the world but have your storytelling fall flat.

echoing what's said above...tension isn't just car chases, gun fights, big explosions or dark alleys. It's the build up of pressure between two conflicting forces...a good example from nature would be tectonic plates.

You grab the reader's attention by showing them this build up of pressure, with an implied promise that something will eventually give.

A good writer could hold an audience describing nothing more than a party balloon being over inflated by a mischevious child....

....particularly...ahem...if he add to the scene, a shell-shocked father on home from the front, and liable to go beserk at the slightest sound of a bang.

Tension on every page? I'd find that a bit wearing to read. over the course of a book I like a bit of tense, relax, tense, relax, with the tempo upping as you get to the crunch. Otherwise I feel like I've run a marathon just reading.

A good writer could hold an audience describing nothing more than a party balloon being over inflated by a mischevious child....

....particularly...ahem...if he add to the scene, a shell-shocked father on home from the front, and liable to go beserk at the slightest sound of a bang.

Click to expand...

yep, that could be pretty tense alright.

I think the tension on every page maybe doesn't have to be the emotional wearing kind -- there's also the more pleasant (sometimes) tension of anticipation.

Then there's... when you know what characters want, and the way they interact with one another drives them further from what they want, the tension of going "No, dummy, trust her!" or "Arrrgh don't trust her!"

So the tension doesn't have to be there for the characters to be there, some, for the readers.

Just for the record, here's the full quote from Maass:

Tension on every page is a technique that keeps readers glued to a novel, even in the absence of artistic prose, rich atmosphere, complex characters and lofty themes. It is the application of macroconflict on a microscale.
It is the key breakout skill.
–Donald Maass, Writing the Breakout Novel.

IdiotsRUs said:

Tension on every page? I'd find that a bit wearing to read. over the course of a book I like a bit of tense, relax, tense, relax, with the tempo upping as you get to the crunch. Otherwise I feel like I've run a marathon just reading.

Click to expand...

Tension isn't always exhausting. Tension isn't about being tense. Tension is about that compelling force that keeps you reading. Go through and pace a John Grisham novel to see what Maass is talking about. Even the 'relax' moments in a novel need to have some reason to pull you into the next scene. No, the whole thing can't be at a high. But tension has peaks and valleys, always in motion, like a wave pulling you along.

Tension and conflict are not always in your face, blatent beat you across the head with violence or action. Tension can be quiet and quirky. It's that moment of holding your breath waiting for everything to explode. Tension is all about potential action, potentional energy, potentional violence, potential explosions. An-tic-a-PA-tion. Building up the readers hopes. Surprising them. Blowing their minds.

There's a reason Dan Brown sold so many copies of Da Vinci Code in spite of being panned by many critics and other writers. He kept readers wanting to read more! It's not his witty prose or even the believability of the story that made that book a best-seller. It was tension, the need to read the next page, and the next, and then more in order to find out what happened.

What you, Idiotsrus, are referring to is pacing, not tension. And I recommend actually reading Donald Maass' Writing the Breakout Novel before judging this one statement. Unless you understand the nature of conflict and tension in the context that Maass is putting those terms in, you won't understand exactly what he's referring to.

Good luck!

What you, Idiotsrus, are referring to is pacing, not tension. And I recommend actually reading Donald Maass' Writing the Breakout Novel before judging this one statement. Unless you understand the nature of conflict and tension in the context that Maass is putting those terms in, you won't understand exactly what he's referring to.

Click to expand...

Hmm I may have to try that one. And yes pace is probably what I was talking about - I haven't had my obligatory three pints of tea yet this morning. I only meant that a constant state of tension isn't a good thing - it has to fluctuate ( as you say peaks and valleys) or it does get wearing. ( to me, only me, IMO etc)

Very well put there Gerri, I think that may actually make a little sense.

IdiotsRUs: Definitely, do read Writing the Breakout Novel - and if possible, get the companion Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook as well. It's immensely helpful. Maass' seminars on this topic are also incredible, albeit expensive.

IMO, the dictum "tension on every page" is better viewed as anti-advice . . . do not write any pages that lack tension. That means no full pages of nothing but description and minutae, UNLESS there is something tense about your setting, or a contrast between the mundane actions of the POV character(s) and the overall story (for example, a scene with a woman washing dishes is not tense by itself, but a scene with a woman washing dishes because her abusive husband who gets pissed if the house isn't spotless will be home in five minutes, or a woman washing dishes while witnessing suspicious events at her neighbors' that she eventually figures out is a murder, is tense).

It's an exercise in removing static scenes that don't advance the story. I think it's effective; took me a few years to finally understand the concept, but I'm now with the Donald Maass agency, so I think it was worthwhile.

Tension can also be described as "making the reader want to know what happens next." It can be action-packed like hanging someone off a helicopter (though honestly, these "action" sequences are usually the most boring part of a book. It's the thrill and supsense parts that win readers over), or subtle like a woman going through her missing father's trunk in the attic.

If the reader needs to know what's going to happen or what will be discovered, you have tension.

How about tension in every scene? What I mean by tension varies according to what's happening in the novel at the time. Sometimes a scene is just conflict between two characters (which creates tension) or sometimes it involves the entire theme and unattainable goal of the whole novel. I don't think you need to put the Big Tension on every page, but I think having some kind of tension (large or small) within every scene is pretty doable without seeming forced.

Maybe TENSION IN EVERY SCENE would be a better way to think about it as an author. Make sure each scene has some tension, otherwise you just have talking heads or pointless narration.

This is something I struggle with as well...

Tension and conflict don't have to be in your face. It can be external or internal, and it doesn't have to arise and be resolved on every page either. Basically, you can have an arc full of tension, or individual short-term or long-term tension/conflict can arise and be dealt with.

The easiest way to create tension is to make sure you know what your characters want and are trying to get, and make them oppose one another (or external circumstances). It could be as simple as "mommy wants to go shopping but the little girl wants ice cream, now" or sexual tension between two shy characters. Then there's plot tension: what is going to happened next? That makes for a page-turner.

Not all kinds of fiction has a "page-turner" type of tension. I think it's oversimplification to assume that. However, there should be at least some kind of tension (character's internal conflict) throughout. Meaning, if you have a chapter of just a character sitting around enjoying the day being really blissful about his life... it's nice, but where is the tension? Why should the reader read it? It could be a foreshadowing/dramatic irony (the readers know something bad is going to happen -- the character just doesn't know it yet) or someone else doesn't want the character to be happy and tries to ruin his day...

I don't think tension/conflict means you have to have violence, turmoil or carnage on every page. There are all kinds of tension and conflict, from the most outrageous (the end of the world) to introspective. But there needs to be something, to keep the readers emotionally and intellectually invested, to turn the page to find out what will happen to these characters.

Like most of the "Rules of Novels" (especially ones using words like "every" or "never" or, for some reason, "adipose") this one seems meaningless to me.

Ask yourself...when you read your favorite novels, is their tension on every page? Or do some pages describe scenery, or give background, or engage in humorous wordplay or flirting or something?

Linton Robinson said:

Ask yourself...when you read your favorite novels, is their tension on every page? Or do some pages describe scenery, or give background, or engage in humorous wordplay or flirting or something?

Click to expand...

Sceneries should be described in the context of the plot, and that should have tension.

Back stories should have tension.

Humorous wordplay shouldn't exist just by itself.

Flirting should have tension.

Mainly, GerriB put it very well. And if you read the context in which Maass placed the original post, you will understand where he's going with it. Tension can be small, the simple unexpected. Here's a simple example.

Jeff paused at Jane's cubicle. "I saw you at the mall yesterday."
"Yeah," said Jane, "I took a break and went shopping."

No conflict, a yawner. But try it another way:

Jeff paused at Jane's cubicle. "I saw you at the mall yesterday."
"You must be mistaken," she said. "I didn't go to the mall, I spent the day on my project."

Now the reader wants to know what's up. Conflict, tension, call it what you will. Jeff expected something like the first answer, an acknowledgment. But with the second response, the implications in his mind also flow to the reader. That is tension without a blast in the face.

We're all different. I believe tension in every scene is plenty. Many of the books that "you just can't put down" rely on cheap tricks. To me that's akin to opening a novel..."Jake had less than 60 seconds to live."

When it comes to movies, I don't want to watch a thriller or an action adventure or a murder mystery. Light romantic comedies are my choice. I have enough tension as it is without paying to get more.

If it's on every page, then tension would become the prosaic, and you'll get bored of it sooner rather than later.

Judg said:

Light romantic comedies are full of tension. Tension in this context doesn't need to be a bad feeling. It can be eager anticipation, the promise of a lovely surprise coming up, all kinds of things.

Click to expand...

Thus defined, I can only agree.

GerriB said:

Tension isn't always exhausting. Tension isn't about being tense. Tension is about that compelling force that keeps you reading. Go through and pace a John Grisham novel to see what Maass is talking about. Even the 'relax' moments in a novel need to have some reason to pull you into the next scene. No, the whole thing can't be at a high. But tension has peaks and valleys, always in motion, like a wave pulling you along.

Click to expand...

Well said. One of my all-time faves is Michael Crichton's The Great Train Robbery. There are chapters with tons of exposition about how different the Victorians were from modern people, but behind it all, at every stage, there's a problem that has to be solved, whose solution involves risk-taking that could go south at any moment. It was the constant presence of a risky, unresolved problem that made it un-put-down-able, even when the immediate action was the protag having a pleasant Victorian lunch in a banker's garden.

Tension is just as effective when it's in the background. Characters don't have to be chewing their fingernails off for there to be tension. Two armed guys who don't like each other, sitting across a table from each other, can ooze tension without either of them doing anything.

There are all sorts of tensions, and it doesn't much matter what kind is in the air, but stories without tension are a very hard sell.

Ways to create tension:

- suspense/mystery (cliffhangers, etc.)
- dramatic irony
- foreshadowing
- contradiction/incredulity ("oh no, don't do that!")
- anticipation
- unexpected turn of events
...