In a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog, Tiffany Yates Martin discusses how to create suspense and tension no matter what is happening in your story. “Not every story or scene lends itself to overt tension and suspense,” she writes. “You won’t always have obvious antagonists or arguments. Not every car ride ends in a crash. There aren’t knife-wielding killers lurking behind every door (hopefully).”
So, how can you keep the pages turning during your quieter scenes? Yates Martin recommends leaning away. “It’s an understandable instinct to lean in, full speed ahead, when your characters are headed in the right direction: meeting the love interest, surmounting a challenge, moving closer to a goal,” she says. “But though you may be moving the story forward, if the road is too smooth, readers may lose interest.”
Writers tend to let their characters enjoy these moments, but it’s the tension that keeps readers moving forward. Instead, Yates Martin recommends focusing on the obstacles, challenges, setbacks, and uncertainties in your protagonist’s current situation. For example, if a character in danger finds a place of safety, don’t let her lean into her safe environment, have her pull away instead. “For instance, rather than embracing the sanctuary of her hidey-hole, what if she resents having to flee?” Yates Martin explains. “What if she’s outraged or irritated or upset about leaving her life and job and friends and everything comfortable and familiar? What if she disdains the facilities, complains to everyone around her, finds the kids annoying, phones it in as a counselor?”
This gives you opportunities to add tension to every scene. Instead of appreciating her safety, she’s horrified, resentful, or angry, which can only create conflict with other characters and her surroundings. “Rather than alienating readers from the character, you can make us root for their comeuppance or turnaround or redemption,” she adds. You also add stakes. What if her attitude gets her fired and she loses her safety? Assuming the hero begins embracing her new surroundings, you can create tension that she’ll be found by whatever placed her in danger in the first place, adding risk for herself and anyone around her.
“Suspense questions like this pack much more punch than just the threat of her stalker—which is merely a framing device, a setup, a thread too slender from which to hang the entire story’s tension and suspense,” Yates Martin writes. “No matter your genre or premise, tension and suspense are the fuel of propulsive story—perhaps never more so than in the ‘quieter’ stories and the upward trajectories.”
