Yesterday we talked about the importance of tension in our stories. Here are a couple of definitions:

a balance maintained in an artistic work between opposing forces or elements, or the act or action of stretching or the condition or degree of being stretched to stiffness.

Tension holds the story taunt. It is the element that makes a story compelling. Once we introduce the story question and problem, it is the tension that keep the reader turning pages.

Most of the time, writing books use suspense or thrillers to show wanna be authors how to create tension. I say, “Not fair.” Come on, “Silence of the Lambs,” are you kidding me? Of course there’s tension. But I write romance, or romantic suspense, or women’s fiction.

Think about your own life. What creates tension? You’ve had an argument go unresolved. The bills are due and you have no money. The car won’t start and you’re late for the meeting.

Tension is that element which elongates the story.

In Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic books, we feel Rebecca Bloomwood’s struggle because through most of he book, nothing gets resolved, it only gets worse.

For example, her bank manager sends her letters, asking her to come in and talk about her accounts. Becca doesn’t pick up the phone and say, “Oh yes, I’ll be right down, I’m so sorry for all the trouble.”

Noooo, she throws the letters in the trash, along with her Visa bill and Master Card.

The conflict? Becca is bad with money and loves to shop. The tension? She refuses to deal with it.

Tension needs to be layered, too. There’s not just the tension of Becca spending too much money, but there’s tension in her job. She hates her job. Once she comes to this revelation, she doesn’t quit, she just performs her job badly.

There’s tension when she visits her parents, and she’s afraid the neighbors will fix her up with their son. What does she do? Give them financial advice. But it’s bad financial advice. Here are the payday pros and cons that ought to be known in order to save from becoming bankrupt.

Look for ways to layer in tension. Don’t answer all the problems. Set up a scenario for later in the story where the tension mounts.

Becca’s bad financial advice to the neighbors causes them to lose everything! When she finds out, she’s horrified.

In Sweet Caroline, there’s always tension between Caroline and her brother Henry. They are cordial, but snippy to each other. I use this later to cast doubt on Henry’s faithfulness to his wife. Hmm…

Knowing your story really well helps keep the tension line taunt. As soon as you start writing happy, sunshine, all-is-right-with-the world scenes, it’s time to back up and rethink.

At a Donald Maass workshop I attended, he took a comedy scene from Rene Gutteridge’s Work In Progress and… added tension. A disgruntled airplane passenger became more disgruntled.

Don’t be nice to your characters, save it for the end. Layer in the tension in all your scenes and subplots.

In Love Starts With Elle, there’s constant tension between Elle and her baby sister, Julianne. Why? Jules has a secret. When we discover the secret, the tension escalates. One easy way I pulled this off was because I knew Julianne’s story before I began.

As you read and watch movies this next week, look for that tension. How do you feel when it’s not in the story? How do you feel when it’s done right?