Narrative tension is the tension felt by characters in a novel about unresolved and unfulfilled events and needs. That is why it is so important to suggest the promise of a story in a dramatic context, so that a storyteller creates characters who have a need to act and act despite obstacles. When the characters in a story can’t get what they want, they experience narrative tension. When acting to gain something increases a character’s pain (because the story/narrator increases the obstacles), a character in a story experiences increased narrative tension.

Simply put, a storyteller creates a character who cannot refuse to act at the cost of inaction, but there is also a price to pay for acting.

Romeo, in Romeo and Juliet, is a great example of narrative tension. To act on his love for Juliet is to turn against his family and family; not to act on his feelings for Juliet is to violate his sense of what is important to him. But any action he performs increases his pain.

Romeo is a great character because he won’t let death stop him from being with Juliet.

A novel (or memoir) that lacks narrative tension fails to be convincing. It may seem episodic; events happen, but there is no tension around the outcome of these events. The characters act, but there is no tension built around their actions.

Suggesting tension for the characters is only the first step in building narrative tension. The second step is to write about this tension in a way that transfers from the characters in a story to the audience of a story. That’s why introducing the promise of a story around an issue of human need is so important. When a story’s audience identifies with the story’s characters and goals, that audience may also be led to internalize the tension over whether a character achieves their goals.

While a great plot can help engage an audience in finding out what happens next, when an audience has internalized the narrative tension of a story, that audience needs to experience the resolution and fulfillment of the story to ease the tension created by the plot. storyteller.

The greater the tension, the more convincing the novel.

This is why keeping the promise of a story offstage can be so deadly. That lack can lead to a weak or absent narrative tension.

So, the generation of narrative tension begins with the opening sentences of a novel or short story.

Narrative voltage can be compared to an electric current that runs through a story. The weaker the current, the less a story gets across to an audience. The higher the stream, the higher the engagement of an audience.

When I have worked or talked with agents, the lack of narrative tension is the main reason for rejecting novels.

Another path in this issue of narrative tension…

What does your main character want when your story begins…

and…

…What prevents you from getting what you want?

Externally and internally?

If nothing blocks a character, there is no drama surrounding the story moving forward. There is no reason for a character to feel tension, or the audience of a story to feel tension because a character gets what they want.

Another way to build tension is to start a story with a character struggling with a dilemma (which can be primarily internal or external). If a plot event forces that character to act to resolve her dilemma, the story begins with a question: what will the character do? and moves toward an answer to that question.

If that step solves the original dilemma, but creates a new, bigger problem that requires another step forward, the story continues to move forward.

Because of the resolution achieved, the character in the story must go through a change of heart.

If a character doesn’t go through a change of feeling (or understanding), nothing has impacted them. If nothing in a scene impacts a character, it can be difficult for what’s happening to impact the audience. The exception, of course, is that the narrator wants a character to be unaware while doing something that acts on the audience.

When a character faces a bigger and more challenging problem, they must be in a new and different frame of mind.

That feeling can be embodied in an action (a character cries, lashes out, stutters, etc.) or it can be expressed through dialogue.

This simple process is obvious in the Harry Potter books. When done right (Harry’s world is full of continual dilemmas), the effect is to move the audience forward.

Dilemmas in Harry’s world have many faces: Harry wants to go somewhere with his friends, but he can’t because he’s in danger. Harry has many powers, but if he uses them to defend himself at the Dursleys’, he will risk his life. powers are removed.

A lot of stories I read have action, things happen and they get resolved, but the deeper problem is how to make the action compelling.

Just to make this clear, a character can be in conflict with himself and with something outside of him. In The Hunt for Red October, Ramius has seen all his life how the communists have treated his homeland. Only with the death of her wife can he act to resolve that feeling by punishing the communist party (as long as her wife was alive, he could not act without putting her at risk). To push Ramius further over the edge, he blames the communists for the death of his wife due to a botched surgery.

Once that internal tension is established (and sometimes referenced), the story moves forward primarily as Ramius must outwit the forces arrayed against him. But, the transfer of this internal tension to the audience has already occurred.

Understanding how popular stories and storytellers create narrative tension can be a great teaching tool.