Last week we discussed Suspense Vs. Surprise. Today I wanted to cover the difference between Suspense and Tension.

First of all, let's revisit Suspense, which I first came to understand through Sol Stein's book "On Writing Fiction". According to Sol, Suspense is getting the reader to ask "WHAT WILL HAPPEN?", and it is the most essential ingredient to plotting.

You want to grab the readers curiosity and hold it as long as possible, to take them to the cliff's edge and then let your hero dangle by their fingertips.

Here are different forms of suspense:

a) The reader wants something to happen and it doesn't happen, or
b) The reader wants something to stop, and it won't stop.
c) A "possible" danger to a character
d) An immediate danger to a character
e) An unwanted confrontation
f) A fear coming true
g) A crisis requiring immediate action

Your goal is to make the reader cry out for resolution, and then you dance away and deal with other things:

a) keep the danger around
b) only overcome the danger when a bigger danger appears
c) prolong the confrontation
d) don't relieve the character's fear
e) Actions backfire
f) Be mean to your reader ... they want this, really!

Now, how does that compare to Tension? Well, I'm not going to tell you just yet!

That's tension alright.

When you look at it that way, "suspense" is simply "the urge to turn the page" - the desire to keep reading. That can some in many forms, and sometimes it's very soft. Even in a happy comedy where not so much as a fly is hurt, there can be "suspense" that pulls the reader along.

Tension, on the other hand, is high stakes. Right?

Philadelphia, the definition of these words are tough. One person *could* define Tension as "high stakes". For me, I've received the definitions from Sol Stein's book, so I'm kind of sticking with that.

So ... one way to look at Suspense is that it is something that builds and pulls the reader on to the end so they can find out "What happens".

Tension, at least according to Sol Stein, is the small stuff that keeps the reader interested in each individual scene. Even though it is the "small stuff", it is still vitally important, and if you don't pay attention to keeping enough tension in each scene, the reader will lose interest in your writing regardless of the "suspense" of the broader book.

Two synonyms for Tension: Strain, Stress, and Pressure. (Yes, there are three kinds of people in the world, those who can count, and those who can't.)

Tension comes in short bursts of seconds or minutes. And it fades away quickly in the reader's mind unless you renew it.

But ... you need to give them a break here and there. Don't stretch the rubber band too far or it will break. Give them breathers.

Our instinct is to be reasonable and provide answers to the problems in the book, to ease the tension, but as writers we must not do this.

Create it and do not dispel it immediately. Let it linger for as long as it can.

Sol Stein goes on to say that the most important moment of tension in a novel is its first use, which should be close to the beginning.

Your job is to, with this first tension, take charge of the reader's emotions by creating a living, breathing character and then create tension for them, as fast as we can.

Tension examples:

* Dangerous work for the character (but the reader must care)
* A deadline is nearing
* An unfortunate meeting occurs.
* An opponent is trapped with the character in a closed environment
* Something critical has happened, but the character is unaware.

Spoken dialogue is one of the best ways to introduce tension.

Again, tension is the small stuff that makes an individual scene interesting. It is not suspense in that it does not overarch the entire novel. Thus it fades quickly and must be renewed in each scene.

Anyway, that is some of the wisdom I've gleaned from Sol Stein. For my first novel, I rated each scene on how much tension it had and then found the weakest scenes and either improved them or eliminated them.

-Robert

That is very interesting, and I can see what you mean. I've written scenes that seem to have no life - I just want to get them out of the way to move on to more exciting things. Doubtless, it's because these scenes lack tension.

My screenwriting mentor tells me that every scene in a movie is, at the core, between two people that want incompatible things. There may be other people present, but at the core, there are just two people that both have conflicting goals. Such would be tension, and I imagine the same principle applies well to novels.

Very informative posts.


That's a good idea.

Your screenwriting mentor has a good sense, then. I've never thought about movies or scenes in that way, but that is excellent advice.

Jonathan,

I haven't been as rigorous with my second novel, but I learned a lot through the first and it gets more natural to write the tension in.

-Robert

I must say, Treskilliard, I had heard good things about you before your re-arrival. I am very happy you have joined. These are some wonderfully thought out, and in depth topics. I am enjoying the display.

Airianna ... glad to be here. I should hopefully have a bit more time than in the past to be a part of things.