September 20, 2005
One of the things I have above my desk is a sheet of paper that says:

TENSION--SUSPENSE
1. Find tense words.
2. Arrange sentences with tension in mind.
3. Milk the tension.
4. Surface tension (line-by-line tension)
--keep tension in mind as you tend to all the other aspects of your writing!
5. Pull the tension cord
--the reader should always be a little bit worried!

I'm reasonably certain I got those from Gary Provost's "Make Your Words Work," by far the best book on the nuts-and-bolts of writing that I've ever read. I think it's out of print, but if you can find a copy, do. It's excellent.

I want to expand on these five rules a bit and point out that by tension and suspense, we don't just mean the main character's lover is in a house with a serial killer and the hero is 6 blocks away caught in traffic trying to rescue her.

Tense words: "He inhaled sharply" versus "He gulped air" or "Air ripped in and out of his lungs."

Arrangement of tension is a little tricky. It more or less means, don't give away the store in the first sentence. Perhaps:

The killer was in the house. She knew it. As soon as she stepped through the door, she could feel that there was someone there.

Better: She pushed open the door and stepped into the abandoned house. Except, it didn't feel abandoned. It had that odd feel, like there was a presence, like someone was there before her, someone malevolent, dangerous. She heard a sound. Or less than a sound, an echo of a sound, a soundless vibration, as if someone was slowly taking a deep breath. And then she saw it. Clearly, in the dust on the gritty floor, the outline of The Saw's size 12 boot, the one with the slash mark across the heel.

Milk the tension. See above.

Surface tension. Tough concept. Really not a 101 concept at all. Really, to get this you need to write a few million words and read a few million more. But a sentence has tension, balance. It's what is created in the mind and emotions of the reader. It's an accumulation of word choices and word order. It's style and using active verbs and making sure that the words you use convey what you want the reader to feel.

"John was a nice man with a charming smile" is pretty flat no matter how you look at it. "John's smile had charmed many a girl out of her panties," is better and "John's smile lit up the room like a thousand watt bulb," is all right, too.

Pull the tension cord. More milking. See the description of the woman walking into the abandoned house and you see what we mean. There's something going on, but the reader isn't necessarily sure what. It's usually a mistake to give the reader too much information up front, and a way to keep the reader interested is to parcel it out, bit by bit, which keeps the tension up. Think of a story or an article as a trail of bread crumbs. Don't put all of them--or even a meal of them--at the front of the story, but spread them out, spaced out in such a way that the reader is intrigued enough by follow them to whatever the treasure is at the end.

Best,
Mark Terry