I could see Sally’s breath crystallize in the air as she jogged up to the coffee shop door. Bruised and soggy leaves layered the parking lot – red, gold, purple.  The sun had just baked the frost from the pink chrysanthemums blooming outside.

Our little town crouched at the edge of winter – we could feel it in the air.  The crisp tension of autumn, when any day we’d wake to a snowfall.

The door jangled as Sally opened it. She caught my eye. “Sorry I’m late.” She dropped her backpack onto her chair. “Field trip day at school and I forgot to sign a permission slip. Congratulations on the game Friday night. I heard your son ran for a touchdown, and the other made a sack. I’ll bet it was fun to watch.”

“I wish. I was on an airplane, heading home, listening to our hometown radio on the in-flight internet. I would hear the beginning of the play and then…the connection would time out and I’d struggle to get it back. I missed about half of it fighting with the internet, and holding my breath.”

“How stressful.”

“Exactly. Which is exactly what I want to talk to you today: creating tension in your scenes.  Now that you’ve learned how to put a book together, create storyworld and emotions and are writing your scenes, it’s crucial to know how to create tension in those scenes.

“Tension is what drives every scene and is created by a combination of elements all doing their part, much like a sports team.  Specifically, it’s a combination of a Sympathetic Character + Stakes + Goals + Obstacles + Fear of Failure.  If any of these are missing, you don’t have tension and are simply muddling along.

“Without a Sympathetic Character, we don’t care about what happens to him.  Without something to lose, (Stakes), it doesn’t matter.  Without a reason to be there, (Goals) they could go home.  Without something to push against (Obstacles), there is no conflict.  Most importantly, without the real Fear of Failure, we don’t care.  If we know they will accomplish their task, then why even both to show us the scene?

“The Tension Equation is why we love football or sporting events.  We have our team (Sympathetic Character), we have the game and our record to defend (Stakes), the Goal is to win, the Obstacle is the other team, and of course if they are not good, if they are not fighting back just as hard, then it’s not a great game. We love games where we win by the skin of our teeth, don’t we?  A hard fought battle?  We have to believe we could lose in order for the game to take on resonance.

“Let’s go back to me on the plane.  I’m the sympathetic character:  A dedicated Mom trying to balance career and family.  I haven’t missed a game yet this year, and it’s my son’s senior year.  These are the personal stakes.  I might even raise the stakes by making it a playoff game and potentially his last game of the season. The goal is to cheer him on and let him know I am supporting him (in other words, he’ll ask if I caught his game). The obstacles are the travelling and the spotty nature of the in-flight internet.  And when the connection times out twice before the game starts, there’s a real fear of failure.”

Sally was taking notes.  “I get it.  I was the sympathetic heroine this morning trying to get my kids ready for school.  My goal was to get my son to school on time for the field trip. The obstacles were my son’s missing backpack and the fact we overslept. The stakes were that this field trip counted for part of his grade. And the fear of failure was the reality that he’d missed the last field trip.”

“Sounds like a doozy of a morning.”  I glanced at Kathy, who was already fixing Sally a pumpkin chai. “We’ll define these elements and teach you how to use them more next week, but here’s your homework.  Go through the last scene you’ve written and pinpoint or add in each of the elements of the Tension Equation.”

Sally closed her book. Accepted the chai from Kathy with a smile. “Can I just sit here for a moment first, and breathe?”

Truth:  To keep the tension high in the story, you need to carefully craft the tension equation into each scene. You might feel these elements by instinct, but getting deliberate with your tension elements will help you craft a novel that your readers can’t put down.

Dare:  For every scene, do a quick litmus test: Do you have the Scene Tension elements?

Have a great writing week!

Susie May

P.P.S  Are you crafting a story and looking for some hands-on help? Our private Storycrafter’s retreat is coming up next week – Oct 19-21, in Mpls, MN, and we have a few openings left!  We’d love to have you join us.  Come with an idea – and leave with a story! Or, maybe you’ve written a story that just doesn’t seem to sell – we’ll help you figure out why, and how to fix it.  I’m proud to say that we’ve had someone published or contracted from every class of Storycrafters.  I’d love for this year it to be you! http://storycrafters.mybooktherapy.com

For PREMIUM Members:  Check out these related articles!

http://www.mybooktherapy.com/what-is-scene-tension/

http://www.mybooktherapy.com/quick-skills-how-to-build-scene-tension/

http://www.mybooktherapy.com/tension-toolbox/

http://www.mybooktherapy.com/wheres-my-knife-i-want-to-cut-the-tension/