Building the Tension in Your Book

As a book-loving, binge-writing author-nerd, sometimes you can get too wrapped up in loving your characters and the cute little scenes and exchanges that you write, or that you've written years ago but can't seem to let go.

Well, often times that can lead to a lack of tension in your manuscript. As a newb, I had a hard time letting some things go. But let me tell you this, you must do it. Do it for your manuscript, do it for your readers. Do it for yourself.

Why?

Because you don't want to lose tension in your manuscript. If you lose tension, you lose readers.

Sometimes it's hard to understand or visualize how the tension progresses through your MS. You don't want too much tension all the time, either, or your reader is going to feel like you tied a rope around them and are going to keep pulling harder until the jelly comes out.

How do you know how much tension is good and how much is bad?

Get a Beta Reader.

That's the first step. they will let you know where your story sags.

Here's another suggestion, though: make a Tension Graph.

Or, better yet, have your Beta Reader draw a Tension Graph for you.

Making a tension graph was suggested in my last critique group gathering. Well, okay - not suggested, it was actually done. We drew tension graphs of my MS. When you have a lot of pages of a lot of words and you are the author, sometimes the events all mix together like they were thrown into a giant blender, making the tension and non-tension parts difficult to separate in your mind.

My tension graph looked like this:

Sorry for not including axis labels - not in engineering school, here - but I think you get the idea. 

Basically my MS starts out with a big ramp-up in tension, and then it has another peak soon after that, and also has several high-tension parts at the end. But look at that middle. It's sagging. A lot. Without even little tension peaks to keep it going. 

Not that it is bad to have low-tension areas, but you probably don't want a low-tension area for quite this long. Especially not in the middle of the book. You want your readers to be flipping pages faster than they can read them, and making them trudge through a sagging middle might be more than they can handle, even if you've roped them in with a high-tension beginning.

An easy fix? Maybe. Maybe not. 

There are several subplots that I can use to increase the tension in that sagging middle. Or I can change a few things to add in some twists. 

In my critique group, once we drew this Tension Graph, we were able to visualize my MS better and get an idea of what parts needed the most work. We identified different options, and now I need to go in and fix a few things.  

So if you are having trouble visualizing your MS and the tension throughout, think about your story-line and draw a Tension Graph. It may help pinpoint areas that need work. But honestly, have a Beta Reader draw a Tension Graph for you. They'll know better than you because a true perception of tension comes from a fresh set of eyes.

Good luck! Now I will poke through my MS and see what needs some love.