I watched the season finale of Once Upon a Time last night (*warning! Spoilers!*) and it was one of the best episodes in the series.  Why?  The tension!  The plot was simple – the heroine, who’d finally found her happy ending with her family, accidentally fell back into time, and thwarted the epic, historical meeting of her parents. She pulled a “Back to the Future” and erased her future.

What does she want?  To return home and live happily with her family.  Her goal – make sure her parents met, somehow.  Why? Because after a horrible childhood, she’s finally found a home.  What’s at stake?  Her life – and her son’s life.

And…standing in her way is the Evil Queen (as well as the lack of magic needed to open the time portal.)

Great set up for the episode – and even better, it makes for exactly the right ingredients to talk about how to create powerful tension in a story – and especially how to keep your Act 2 tension from saggy by creating tension in every scene.

Let’s start a definition of tension. Obstacles and Activity are not Tension. Tension is derived from a sympathetic character, who wants something, for a good reason, and who has something to lose, who then creates a specific, identifiable goal, only to run up against compelling, powerful obstacles, which then creates the realistic fear of failure.

In other words, the MBT Scene Tension Equation:

Sympathetic Character + Motivation + Want + Goals + Stakes + Obstacles + Fear of Failure.  The 7 Components of powerful scene tension.

If any of these are missing, you don’t have tension. (or you have weak tension!)

How do you build that tension into a scene? Here’s are the components I use to build the Scene Tension Equation:

Sympathetic Character:  This is all about having a character that is not only likable, but relatable…and that means understanding what your character WANTS at this moment.  It’s all about looking at their greatest desires and creating a relatable motivation, something we could get behind.

Let’s go back to Once Upon a Time. Emma, the heroine, was abandoned as a baby, and grew up without a family.  She is offered a home in Storybrook, and a chance at a family… but she’s afraid of losing them.  (and the fear is realized when she falls back in time, and rewrites her future).  More, she feels like she is not a part of their fairytale world because she didn’t grow up in their world. Understanding Emma’s past is key to rooting for her.  (and the creators did this by showing us a flashback scene of Emma at the group home, watching another little girl find a family. We understand her deepest desire.)

Ask: What does POV want at this moment?

To make it Scene Specific, you next need to create a GOAL. Every deep want translates into Goal, and every scene contains a component of that Goal.

So, if we were writing Emma’s story, understanding her past, we’d say – Emma wants to be a part of her family’s story and belong to the Fairytale.  To make it scene specific, we’d narrow it and say, “Emma needs to make sure her parents meet by make sure her mother steals her father’s engagement ring.”  (how they met the first time)

You must have a specific, measurable goal in order to create scene tension (even if the POV character doesn’t know it – you as the Author must know it.). Only when you have a goal can you then create the obstacles that stand against it.

Now, to strengthen this goal, add in motivation:  WHY.  And to create it specifically for the scene, Ask:  Why do they need it right now?

In Emma’s case, the goal is immediate because her father, Prince Charming, is going to marry another woman.  She must get her parents to meet before he marries the wrong woman and erases the family line.

Which brings us to STAKES.  What will happen if they DON’T meet their goal? What fear hovers over the scene?  Clearly, Emma and more importantly, her son Henry’s entire existence is at stake.   If you don’t have stakes, then no one cares – this is probably the most important part of scene tension.

Now it’s time to build the Obstacles. What will stand in the way of your character achieving this goal? Obstacles can be People, Situations, (weather, or machines, or even government), or even a person’s own emotions/values.

In Emma’s case, it’s the Evil Queen.  She is after Snow White, Emma’s mother, and in helping her mother, Emma gets captured.  Snow White tries to save her and is also captured…and murdered.  (Good thing they live in a realm of magic…but that’s all I’m sayin’).

However, the moment when Snow White is executed makes for a powerful Fear of Failure moment. 

The Fear of Failure is the trick that will keep your readers at the edge of their seats. I first heard about this at a Donald Maas retreat, and implementing it has been key to my writing.

Here’s the trick.  Look ahead to the end of your scene and ask: Will your character reach his/her goal?

If NO, then hint at victory once, maybe twice in the scene, then disappoint them at the end.

If YES, then hint at defeat, only to surprise them at the end.

I won’t tell you how the episode ends, but the ending twist is worth waiting for.

Want to keep your tension high in Act 2?  Use the 7 components of Scene Tension for EVERY SCENE.  (yes, that’s shouting). Sympathetic Character + Motivation + Want + Goals + Stakes + Obstacles + Fear of Failure.

Go! Write Something Brilliant!