Hey Roman, I love how you described the purpose of tension in storytelling here! You always offer a new and interesting perspective that I never really thought about before! I’ve always thought of storytelling (in fiction and nonfiction writing) is one of the most important elements of being a great writer. Usually in class they would always teach us about the story having a climax, but the story in and of itself isn’t just about 1 inflection point (the climax). It’s really a push and pull of tension throughout the entire story that keeps it interesting. Thank you so much for sharing this! Great work as always 💪💪
Unwittingly I often land the reader in the middle of an event without providing back story, explanations or setting out the path to how we got to 'here'. Of course, this is necessary if you're writing flash fiction or slightly longer short fiction otherwise you've wasted your time (and words!) setting the scene. Get the reader in the middle of events, get their mind asking questions, intrigue them just enough to make them want to read on to find out what happens next.
I said 'unwittingly' because I don't have the patience to enter into all the explanations when I'm writing my first draft. I get an idea in my head and I want to get on with the meat of the story. When editing I might finesse this a little so that the reader isn't too confused - I don't want to put them off.
Varying sentence length and structure can also help with creating tension.
I'm more of an instinctual writer rather than someone who sets out to hone their craft - I don't read books on writing, for example. But I've spent several decades 'doing' writing, on and off, so some techniques have probably rubbed off on me along the way without me realising it!
I don’t do long explanations or backstory either. And IMO it’s not necessary for strong tension. I have several more iterations coming in the tension series, which will include other tension development tools like punctuation, sentence length, word-choice, etc.
That brings up some thoughts. For example, the way both change in tension and duration of tension affects pace. Also, I really enjoy when writers open a piece with tension, which you do often. I'm enjoying these. :)
Hey Roman, I love how you described the purpose of tension in storytelling here! You always offer a new and interesting perspective that I never really thought about before! I’ve always thought of storytelling (in fiction and nonfiction writing) is one of the most important elements of being a great writer. Usually in class they would always teach us about the story having a climax, but the story in and of itself isn’t just about 1 inflection point (the climax). It’s really a push and pull of tension throughout the entire story that keeps it interesting. Thank you so much for sharing this! Great work as always 💪💪
Super glad to hear that it helped!
I love playing with tension, both in fiction and in poetry. Great 60 seconds!
I’m curious to know your thoughts and how you’d go about explaining tension in storytelling.
Unwittingly I often land the reader in the middle of an event without providing back story, explanations or setting out the path to how we got to 'here'. Of course, this is necessary if you're writing flash fiction or slightly longer short fiction otherwise you've wasted your time (and words!) setting the scene. Get the reader in the middle of events, get their mind asking questions, intrigue them just enough to make them want to read on to find out what happens next.
I said 'unwittingly' because I don't have the patience to enter into all the explanations when I'm writing my first draft. I get an idea in my head and I want to get on with the meat of the story. When editing I might finesse this a little so that the reader isn't too confused - I don't want to put them off.
Varying sentence length and structure can also help with creating tension.
I'm more of an instinctual writer rather than someone who sets out to hone their craft - I don't read books on writing, for example. But I've spent several decades 'doing' writing, on and off, so some techniques have probably rubbed off on me along the way without me realising it!
I don’t do long explanations or backstory either. And IMO it’s not necessary for strong tension. I have several more iterations coming in the tension series, which will include other tension development tools like punctuation, sentence length, word-choice, etc.
Yes, that’s one of the things I like about your writing - you land the reader in the midst of the action and go from there.
Looking forward to the upcoming tension instalments!
i’ve never thought about it this way! thank you for the insight!
Thanks for listening. :)
That brings up some thoughts. For example, the way both change in tension and duration of tension affects pace. Also, I really enjoy when writers open a piece with tension, which you do often. I'm enjoying these. :)