Tension and Conflict Part 5 - Methods to Create Tension

Earlier I described the difference between conflict and tension. Conflict is the action of two opposing forces. It is the butting of heads between ideas, needs, desires and wants, or it can be a single individual wanting two opposing things. What makes conflict important is the tension it creates. Tension is the emotional response to the conflict. Without it, the conflict would not have much impact on the reader.

Many methods can be used to create tension, and I will cover some of them here, but I’m sure you can add others to your list.

1. Introspection:
Introspection is the head and heart of the character, a combination of their thoughts along with the emotional encroachment on the person’s sense of security or confidence. When a character delves internally into a conflict, he reveals something unknown to the reader or even a new awareness for him. He is encouraged to dig deeper into the problem, and it leave readers with questions about how this situation can be resolved.

Introspection dramatizes the conflicting feelings and clashing ideas within the character or between two characters and it creates dilemmas for both parties. Often backstory is used here to introduce past problems and bring them to the present. When incidents or beliefs from a person’s past affects how he or she responds to life today, it creates this kind of internal tension. These are often secrets that the character doesn’t want others to know, but fighting for their idea or goal can result in revealing this secret. Think of people running for political office. They knew their past follies will be displayed to the world.

Sometimes through introspection, the characters face competing desires. They want two opposing things: success but they want privacy. A common conflict that creates great tension is when a character’s wants actually is opposed to what he needs. He wants success but what he really wants is happiness, and the success will not provide it.

Introspection can also reveal how a character’s perspective is not necessarily the truth, as illustrated in this dialogue from one of my unpublished novels.

Heroine: “I keep reminding myself it’s not the same, is it? Things change. We’re different now.”
Hero: “Are we?” He studied her face, hoping she’d back down on her comment. He’d stayed pretty much the same, always wishing he’d find another girl like her. Someone he could talk with and be open with. Be himself. With others, he felt as if he should try to impress them.

2. Ticking clock:
Tension is always created by adding a ticking clock to the plot line, such as a time restraint or deadline. The problem must be resolved in a certain amount of time. Stories that deal with marriages of conveniences are usually based on this premise. The hero or heroine must marry within a certain time period before they can inherit the family wealth. This works well in a suspense. The bomb will detonate at midnight. It must be found. The kidnaped child will die without it’s medication. The good guys must find the treasure before the bad guys. This technique creates exciting tension.

3. Dialogue:
Novels are dependent on dialogue, but dialogue can be used in a variety of ways to create tension other than arguments. What creates tension for the reader is to hold back information by leaving things unanswered or interrupted or by creating doubt when the character says something that doesn’t quite fit or adds an issue that hasn’t been initiated. Other elements of dialogue that creates tension are silence, subtext, and avoidance.

• Silence - Silence is when the character doesn’t respond or when a conversation falters and no one speaks. The reader knows that the characters are dealing with what’s been said, and it helps create tension. Here’s an example from my novel And Baby Makes Five.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Chad making gentle circles on Nate’s back, the child’s contented look evident.
"I fed him a short time ago so he shouldn’t be hungry,” she said.
“He wants attention. We all need that some times.”
His words sounded melancholy as her pulse tripped. Everyone needed to be loved and caressed. She’d been without that kind of relationship since she’d married Miguel. His love had become rough and his drunken words, vile.
Silence settled over them until Chad turned toward her. “Do you understand what I’m saying?"

In this lack of response, the reader is drawn to their own questions. They last two pieces of dialogue spoken by Chad demonstrates his personal need for attention and his need to hear her response.

• Subtext - Subtext is difficult to create but it’s an excellent form of subtle tension. Subtext is the implicit or underlying meaning behind the words.
Women 1: Do you like my dress?
Women 2: The color’s great.
Obviously reference to the color doesn’t answer the question, but it says a lot. A man flirts with a woman as they look at a lovely handcrafted table and chairs
She: Gorgeous. Those legs Look at the lines.
He: I have been.

• Avoidance – Avoidance can is witnessed when a conversation seems to go in two different direction as one character is evasive or non-committal, or when one character answers a question with question. This is an excellent example from: Lisa Samson’s Tiger Lillie in a conversation the home owned by the first speaker’s mother. You can feel the tension as you read it.

“I asked Rawlins if I could work for the ad agency, Mom.”
“I already know his answer. Do you think you could paint some murals here for us? It will be a while before we move in—until your father retires, which might be years from now.”
"Rawlins said the ad world is too competitive. He doesn’t want me to become jaded.”
“I was thinking maybe a garden scene in the kitchen.”
“Maybe I could sell my paintings.”
“Or do trompe l’oeil. Here would be a good place to start.”
“I really want to go to college.”
Mom looked around. “Of course, the master bath has lots of potential, too.”

4. Character’s Perception:
In real life, we each see things differently. Our perception brings with it memories from our past and undertones from our experiences and beliefs. Tension is created not by what’s been said but what the words mean to the character. For example, if we’ve had a happy childhood and a good life, the word “home” brings a warm and happy feeling. If home was a horror for us, then that word will trigger other ideas. Give the character some perception challenges and use this technique to create an intriguing kind of tension.

5. Pacing:
Pacing has been covered in other articles, but it is a great tension technique. Remember while the plot is the journey of the characters in your novel, pacing is the speed at which you deliver the action. It’s like a roller coaster ride with moments of calm but always with the anticipation that the next challenging hill is coming until the roller coaster pulls back into the station and you climb out. Journey’s end. By moving a scene to another character or situation while you leave another scene hanging works very well to create tension. You can read other articles on pacing to learn how to create the fast and calm scenes. One style is using scene and sequel which I’ll cover in my next blog.

Tension and Conflict Part 4 - Mirco Tension

While conflict is action between people, ideas, or needs, tension is the response to that action. It is the emotion that drives the story. Tension shows urgency, requires choices, and leaves the reader with questions. Donald Maass in Fire In Fiction refers to Micro-Tension which is an inherent sense of tension built into the novel with the use of your writing style.

• Moment By Moment
Provide a step by step view of the scene, especially in suspense, that keeps readers in a state of tension as to what will happen. Think of an old John Wayne movie: two gunman facing each other. Focus on eyes of the good guy/eyes of the bad guy, focus on pistol in holster of both, shifting of their stance, fidgeting fingers, long distance view of the gunman facing each other, close up of a tick in the cheek of one, muscle jerk of another, motion, gun from holster, shot.

With each movement you will enhance the tension. This can be done in any novel in a
dramatic scene by detailing the scrap of a chair on the floor, table tips as he rises, women steps back and hand reaching for a kitchen drawer, man’s feet moving toward her, drawer opens, man reaches for her, her hand plunges into the drawer, man attacks, knife flashes, bloody shirt, man falls, woman screams.

You get the idea. Focus on each step, but only use this for scenes of drama that make a dynamic move forward in the plot.

• More Than Details Along with the moment by moment action, provide moment by moment details of emotion. Show how the main character responds to the action as it unfolds, and notice I said show and not tell. Use the body’s response such as: intake of breath, trembling, wrenching heart, galloping pulse. Use small pieces of introspection but give them a first person feeling. He can’t do this to me. I will not let him win. She won’t treat me like this again. Use introspection sparingly.

• Sense Of Foreboding
Leave readers with the feeling that more is there than they can see. Use subtle foreshadowing, leave sentences unended or questions unanswered, struggles unspoken but the reader feels them. Use situation that involves the senses—gooseflesh, pricking sensation up the spine, head spinning. Creating the feeling of ESP for the character or the reader who anticipates something is going to happen.

• Anxiety And Twists
Create anxiety and twists to the “normal.” Man walks into his office and the room is empty. Rattled by problems, woman drives to pick up her child at school, but he’s not there. Person plans a party and no one shows up. Fourth of July celebration and it rains.

It can be small to knee-jerking twists, but put them in your novels to create tension.

• Conflicting Emotions
Life produces conflicting emotions. A man wants a promotion but realizes it will take away time from his family life. Woman wants to have a child but realizes it will affect her career. Man wants to prove he’s innocent of a crime but must put the blame on a friend. Dieter faces her favorite dessert and struggles. Emotions in real life are often conflicting. Look in your own life and take note of what you struggle with. If you struggle, then so do many others. Work these kinds of conflicting tensions into your novels.

Emotions are often conflicting when someone is reluctant to accept or believe what they see, hear or feel. If you see a friend’s husband in a restaurant with another woman, you have conflicting emotions. Is this a romantic dinner? Is it really him or a look alike? Do you tell your friend or do you pretend that you didn’t see it? Each decision has with it inherent problems.

Another reluctance to accept or believe something comes with the character’s flaws. He is impatient, but does not accept that he is. She is fifty-nine but behaves as she did when she was twenty-one. He steals from his company but thinks he deserves the “bonus.”

Whether it’s facing our own conflicting emotions or dealing with someone else’s issues, tension is created for the character and the reader. Build these techniques into your basic story structure.

Tension and Conflict Part 3 - Kinds of Conflict

Most authors can name the two kinds of conflict talked about most in fiction, internal and external. Both of these are important to any novel, but don’t lose sight of two more that you may not have considered—inherent and extra-external conflict. These additional kinds of built-in conflict can add extra excitement to your fiction.

External Conflict
External conflict are those things outside the character. It includes two or more people whose needs or wants are in competition. It is the outside world pressing in on the character’s life and well-being.
Example:
John wants to purchase a bigger house to go with his new position.
John’s wife wants to save the money for emergency needs.

External conflict can also be one person with two opposing desires. What he or she wants means losing something else.
For example: John wants freedom, but he wants to marry.
Susan wants to be treated like a woman but wants equality in her career.

Often these external conflicts cause the character to look deeper inside their desires and to question themselves. Is this really what the character wants? Will it provide happiness?
The conflict then causes the character to weigh what is important in his life and make a choice. Conflicts often include choices.

No matter which kind of conflict—between two people or one person and himself—the elements of conflict mentioned in the last post are important to both.

Internal Conflict
Internal conflicts are those struggles inside a character. They fall into various categories, but they all have things in common. A character must make choices. He will either hang on to the status quo or let it go and take a chance so that his life can be fully actualized.

• Personal issues are common forms of internal conflict. A person brings from his past doubts, fears, disgrace, or internal turmoil that he can’t get beyond. It affects his behavior, personality, and choices. He’s held back from being a whole person because he drags this baggage along with him. He sticks with what he wants to be rather than what he could be.

One of these conflicts similar to the one above is a character with two opposing desires, but the desires affect his moral conduct. He wants to steal the money, but he knows it’s wrong. He wants his freedom, but he has vowed to be faithful to his wife and family.

• Form of protection is another type of internal conflict. A character holds on to a flaw or personal issue to protect himself against harm, losing his reputation, exposing the truth about himself or someone he loves. It is the struggle between doing the right thing or clinging to the problem to cover the truth. Jeff Gerke in his download titled How To Find Your Story on Marcher Lord Press describes this problem as a character’s tumor or knot. Either term refers to a character’s major flaw. If the character can have the tumor removed, he will be healthy again, but if he allows it to stay inside him, he will be “sick.” Gerke lists many examples of tumors that the character can cling to: guilt, anger over loss, self-centeredness, fear of cowardice or weakness, temper, addiction (sex, drugs, alcohol), greed, doubt or disbelief, phobias, lack of faith, fear of commitment (to anything). A final way to look at conflict as a form of protection is: want vs need, self-loathing vs coverup, weakness vs desire for strength, or secret vs the truth.

• Delusion is another element that works in internal conflict. Sometimes a character doesn’t recognize his flaw. Since he can’t see it, he denies it, creating a multitude of conflict for himself or with others. Another kind of delusion involves the character who knows what he wants or who he wants to be, but the reader can see what is best for him and knows what he should do or be. This creates genuine conflict for the reader as well as for the character.

• Spiritual struggle relates to a person of faith whose behavior goes against her beliefs. The behavior can be from the past, leaving her frozen with fear of being unforgiven or unable to forgiven herself. It has to do with making choices with the question being what do I want to do and what does God want me to do. These struggles are common among people of faith, and it creates havoc, because faith is an important aspect of their lives. It is the road map and north star, in a sense, which guides them, and when they step off the path, they can become lost. Think of playing a sport without rules but with a life and death outcome.

Inherent Conflicts
Inerenet conflicts refer to elements such as setting and story setup built into the plot.
• Setting usually to the location of the novel and the scenes (as well as the time of year, day, etc), but setting is also influenced by the characters’s distance in a relationships, bad memories brought to the setting, and dangerous environments. The setting can arouse emotion as the character struggles with what the setting brings to them and it can arouse questions for the reader.

Example from my novel Upon A Midnight Clear:
Callie regarded her surroundings as she slid the coat from her shoulders. She stood in a wide hallway graced by a broad, curved staircase and a sparkling crystal chandelier. An oriental carpet covered the floor, stretching the length of the entry.

Two sets of double doors stood closed on the right, and on the left, three more French doors hid the rooms’ interiors, leaving Callie with a sense of foreboding. Were the doors holding something in? Or keeping something out?

In this example, you can see the conflict that’s created for the character as well as the reader. How will this setting affect this character’s life as she makes a decision to work in this home? What is going on in the lives of these characters that has create a sense of foreboding?

• Opponents were mentioned earlier, but when the story opens with characters who are connected in some way—siblings, spouses, employer/employee— and reflect different viewpoints on life or accepted behavior, or characters are introduced with opposing desires and wants, these conflicts become inherent to the plot.

Extra External Conflict is an element brought to light by Robert McKee, author of Story. This conflict tends to be visual—action, adventure, humor, or farce and in itself displays conflict in manner that can be seen. Think of Lucille Ball’s grape crushing scene or the candy packing scene.
• Action creating emotion. This can include prat fall, practical jokes, and other humorous elements as well as suspense scenes with a storm brewing outside and someone hiding in a room. It’s those tense moments when the audience screams in a movie. These are more difficult to create when it is in a novel, but it is possible.

• Action stressing conflict in form of an analogy This happens when the action of the scene becomes an analogy of what’s going on inside the character. McKee uses an example from the movie Kramer Vs. Kramer and the French toast scene. The husband has found a note from his wife that she is leaving him. His young son is crying over the situation. This is the external conflict. The man is trying to make French toast for the boy and hoping to waylay his fears that Dad can’t do the job, but he is failing. He has egg shells in the egg mixture, he’s spilling things and burning the food. This internal struggle is the man’s confident failing The visual picture of the mess that he has made is an analogy for the mess the man has made of his life. It is the extra external conflict of the story.

Using these forms of conflict in your novels by adding character flaws and forcing characters to make choices create pressure. Pressure results in tension, and the more the pressure builds, the more tension it creates. By adding more pressure and providing resistence, you will create greater tension and thus greater emotion.

Tension and Conflict Part 2 - The Nature of Conflict

While tension is the emotion of a novel, conflict is the power. It drives the story forward and causes the reader to hang on and go with the ride. Without conflict the scenes would be a slow walk through a park. Who cares?

Yet conflict has some “need to” factors. An argument over what color to paint a wall or whether the evening will be spent watching a good movie or a sports event is a common event in many households, but it doesn’t fit the definition of conflict in fiction. Many new writers think an argument between two people is what it takes, and though an argument that severs their relationship or causes one character to do something drastic is a form of conflict, arguments are not the ultimate.

So what is the nature of conflict? What is it that conflict needs to be in fiction?

• Make a difference to the plot. The conflict must matter to the character so that the final solution will make a difference in the character’s life. The conflict must be worth the prize, meaning the solution to the conflict must be important to the character. Thinking of the movie or sport night, you can see in the long run that doesn’t make one bit of difference to a character reaching a goal.

• Must have a worthy opponent. If the conflict is involves another person, the person must be strong and clever. A dumb criminal is easily caught, but a smart one creates a dynamic story. As the main character expands his paths to undo the opponent, the opponent needs to also change and grow with the main character to make the fight worthwhile.

• Must connect with the reader. The conflict needs to be something in which a reader can relate. They can see the danger of the situation to the characters and to the even the world in a thriller. They must understand, and better yet the conflict makes even more impact if it’s something that has happened to them. This includes things like betrayal, fear, abuse, doubts, and internal struggles that many people experience.

• Must produce emotion. Emotion is the reaction to conflict and it is what creates tension. Conflict without tension is flat. This is the argument over a white or chocolate cake. A reader doesn’t care. They aren’t affected if a married woman comments on an attractive man, but if the woman finds herself dreaming of the man and looking forward to seeing him again, emotion is involved and thus tension since it signals a deeper conflict.

• Tests the character. Conflict that is powerful pushes a character to his limits. It forces him to demonstrate strengths & abilities he never realized he had, and it signals growth which is a must in good fiction. Readers want to see the character’s change and make progress in their lives.

• Gain causes loss. When the conflict is between people, someone wins and someone loses. Sometimes this could be an equally important character in the novel, and this creates another conflict. But conflict can happen inside one person. If the character wants to be successful and famous, he will lose privacy and freedom. It goes with the gain. Along the same idea, sometimes to reach one goal, a character must lose another. To obtain the job promotion to better himself, he must move and lose connection with his family who needs him.

If you can include these qualities in your conflict, they will be powerful and suited to a strong fiction novel that relates to the reader, provides them with excitement and draws on their emotions.

Tension And Conflict - Part I

The Set Up to Tension and Conflict
I recently presented a workshop on tension and conflict. The topic offers many steps to writing a good novel. I began this workshop with the basic elements needed to begin a novel because it sets up how conflict begins. Conflict is a concept you know is vital to any story. It is what drives your story and is an event that causes action between the opposition and the main character. Tension, on the other hand, is the character’s reaction to the event. This reaction arouses emotion of the character and the reader. Emotion is a must in any novel.


Vulnerable Characters
Major characters must be vulnerable. They have flaws, weaknesses, fears, and sinful behaviors which they often are trying to hide. Immediately you find tension inherent in this situation. Whenever a character wants to avoid facing a truth, tension creating emotion happens. Another side of these flaws and weaknesses might be the character’s inability or avoidance to face them. It is denial. I am not impatient. I do not look at everything in a negative way. I don’t feel sorry for myself. When you look at your own flaws, you can relate to this problem. No one wants to admit what makes them less than perfect.


Characters’ Goals
Every major character needs a goal. It is something they want to gain or something they want to avoid. They want to gain a good reputation. They want to avoid gossip. They want to find the treasure. They want to avoid being found. They want to find the killer. They want to avoid being killed. They want to find love. They don’t want to give up their freedom.

Goals fall into three other categories: possession, relief, or revenge. The character wants to possess wealth, charm, good looks, success, love. The character wants relief from fear, loneliness, hatred, domination, pain, sorrow. The character wants revenge for a loss, betrayal, lie, robbery, prejudice. You can add to the list with your own ideas that fit under possession, relief or revenge. Keep these ideas in mind as you create goals for your characters. Make sure the goal has issues that will create conflict.


The Hook
Every novel needs a hook, a premise that draws the readers in and an event that makes them curious or ask questions. A hook is introduced when something happens. It can be the result of a new character entering the scene, receiving a letter or phone call, being offered a proposition, reading something in a newspaper, or a character’s startling statement. Whatever it is, the thing that happens is best when it adds surprise, makes the readers ask questions, or creates an emotion that pulls the reader along.

Next, the “happening” creates opposition to the character’s goal. Opposition is conflict. Well-known writer, Dwight Swain, in his book, Techniques of the Selling Writer, says that conflict can:
• Hinders
• Complicates
• Blocks
A goal is hindered when another conflict or another goal gets in the way, especially a goal that must be reached before the larger goal is accessible. Complications can involve an accident, another person demanding time or energy, a new piece of information that changes the direction of the goal. Finally goals can be blocked when someone gets there first or when someone removes options. I’m sure you can think of many other things to add to this list.

The next article will cover the Nature of Conflicts.

2nd Annual Rochester Writers' Conference - Michigan

Make More Money with your Writing!

The 2nd Annual Rochester Writers' Conference
Saturday October 3, 2009
8 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Sessions in Fiction & Non-Fiction
Open to New and Published Writers
Early Bird Registration in $99.00

www.RochesterWriters.com

Local writers, authors, and educators will be presenting a variety of workshops, lectures, and panel discussions at the Second Annual Rochester Writers' Conference on the beautiful grounds of Rochester College. Refreshments and Lunch included with Registration.

Presentations by…

Gail Gaymer Martin
Cindy LaFerle
Sandra Agazzi Chimenti
Margo LaGattuta
Theresa Falzone
Rebecca Stevens
Michael Dwyer
Annick Hivert-Carthew
Chloe' Yelena Miller

Sessions Include

Re-work, Re-sell, and Re-print
Creating Success as a Writer
Fine-tune and Market your Poetry
Creating a Winning Pitch
Building an online Presence
Magazine Editors’ Panel
Writing For the Christian Market
Traditional Publishing Panel
Contracts & Copyrights
Brainstorming, Work & Creativity

Using A Visual Thesaurus

A while ago, I told you about The Synonym Finder but J. I. Rodale. It’s a huge, thick book with tremendous information on synonyms which I am always searching for. I use it daily to find a better word than the one I'm using or to find a different word so I don't have to repeat the same word over and over.

But I stumbled upon a unique thesaurus that is available on the Internet. It provides a multitude of information as well as creates a colorful image as you study the words. It's easy to use. Type the word you you want to explore in the blank and then hit When you need a synonym or antonym or sometimes a different take on a word, searching for exactly what you want can be difficult. One of the best books I’ve found to find this information is called The Synonym Finder by J. I. Rodale. but if you’re on the Internet and want to try a visual thesaurus, try Visuwords at http://www.visuwords.com/

This site color codes the words to indicate categories: noun, verb, adjective or adverb. It also provides such information about the word as: a derivation, an attribute, a kind of or part of, entails or causes and so many other pieces of information. You can narrow down your search with the list on the left side of the screen. When you place your curser over each of the circles, it will provide a box for more explanation. Give it a try. I used the word "substance" and was surprised at the information the thesaurus provided.

You’ll get more synonyms from the book by Rodale, but you can receive a quick answer with a broader scope of information from Visuwords and an amazing display as well.