{"id":2492,"date":"2013-11-14T17:24:45","date_gmt":"2013-11-14T09:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/?p=2492"},"modified":"2013-11-14T17:45:58","modified_gmt":"2013-11-14T09:45:58","slug":"tension-unbreakable-trip-time-m-night-shymalan-great-storyteller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/2013\/11\/tension-unbreakable-trip-time-m-night-shymalan-great-storyteller\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tension Is Unbreakable, Or A Trip Back In Time To When M. Night Shymalan Was A Great Storyteller"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part Four of a five-part series entitled, How To Write A Story, A Good Story, And Finally A Great Story. You can read Parts One<\/a>, Two<\/a>, and Three<\/a> here.
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\"unbreakable<\/p>\n

I really want to finish my series on how to write a good story, but there\u2019s this man in my apartment, harassing me. He\u2019s not saying a thing, just sitting in the corner with a vicious looking cat o\u2019 nine tails. Every time I begin to type, he clears his throat. I\u2019m going to keep working, but if I don\u2019t make it through to the end, please notify the authorities.<\/p>\n

In any case, what was I writing about? Oh yeah, tension. Even more so than suspense, tension is the glue that connects your story with your audience.<\/p>\n

ten\u00b7sion [ten-shuhn] noun<\/p>\n

Mental or emotional strain; intense, suppressed suspense, anxiety, or excitement. <\/em><\/p>\n

A basic tenet of narrative fiction is that you must have conflict. Without it, your story dies a limp, anti-climactic death on the page. It\u2019s one of the first things we learn about in creative writing classes. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to say that\u2019s wrong, but I do believe it could be taught better, because conflict isn\u2019t really what we mean. Conflict by itself does not generate interest. It might, in fact, be off-putting if all you\u2019ve got is people fighting in your story, with no rhyme or reason behind it. <\/p>\n

Tension is both a particular form of conflict, and as the definition above points out, a brand of suspense as well. Tension is about potential energy.<\/p>\n

You place a loaded gun on the desk in front of you. This cannot help but create tension. Pick up the gun and the tension increases. It might go off at any time. As long as the gun is there, we won\u2019t be able to completely forget about it. That\u2019s tension.<\/p>\n

Tension is related to suspense, in that the audience wants to know how the tension will be resolved. Is the gun going to be fired? Who will do the shooting? Who will be shot? Well-manufactured tension grips the audience and creates that edge of the seat experience in movies, and the I-can\u2019t-put-this-book-down-until-this-shit-gets-resolved feeling in books.<\/p>\n

If you can do a good job of creating tension in your stories, then you will succeed as a writer. This I guarantee.
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\nLet\u2019s look at some examples. We\u2019ll start with two scenes from the M. Night Shymalan movie Unbreakable (unfortunately the only available clips are incomplete and of poor quality):<\/p>\n

In scene one, Bruce Willis is weightlifting with his son in the garage. The question is posed how much he can lift. A simple challenge, one that might create mild suspense. But they quickly discover that he can keep adding weights, until it becomes an incredible, almost frightening amount. <\/p>\n