Saggy Scene Series: The ONE Easy Trick to creating Scene Tension

Build in a Fear of Failure!

I am a closet SciFi junkie, and my current love affair is Falling Skies. I’ve been with them from the beginning and to be honest, I love the show not for the Sci-Fi, but for the characters. In short, I love the hero, and his three sons, and want them to survive.

I care about these Sympathetic Characters.

Which is why I found myself at the edge of my seat during last week’s episode. The hero, Tom Mason (played by Noah Wylie) and his oldest son, Ben, are trapped in a prison camp and need to escape. They’ve devised a wild plan to break through the electrical walls that holds everyone prisoner.

I realized the episode was fantastic when I found myself on my feet at the end of it.

Here’s the play of events – the hero has to distract the bad guys (skitters, or very large alien bugs) and get them to a building they’ve rigged to blow. In the meantime, Ben has to gather up all the prisoners and get them into the tunnels near their escape route. Finally, a third group, incidentally, a motley crew of soldiers who hate each other, has to climb over the wall with this homemade electric-repelling suit to get to the power supply and take down the electric wall.

If you are a fan and haven’t seen the episode, stop reading here.

The plan begins perfectly – Tom kills a guard, which brings out a horde of bugs, who chase him (he’s on a motorcycle) through the city, away from the escapees.

Saggy Scene Solutions: Use Goals versus Obstacles to create tension!

I’ve been on the phone a lot this summer, helping my clients brainstorm scenes. One of the biggest issues I see in ACT 2 is the struggle to set up a scene correctly and create reasonable tension to drive a reader through the scene.

Last week we talked about how to set up a scene. Today, we’re going to talk about how to use the combination of Goals against External and Internal Obstacles to create tension.

In Act 2, it’s essential that each scene have tension. Many people confuse tension with obstacles. Obstacles do not cause tension unless they stand in the way of something someone WANTS for a Very Good Reason.

My son just got back from football camp, so we have football fever around here. Which means it’s time for a football metaphor. The push FORWARD of the offense is the WANT (motivation) and GOAL (a first down!) of the character.

The Defensive line is/are the obstacles that push BACK against the character. You must have both to create tension.