How To Use Tension In Your Writing
Conflict keeps the world a-spinning. If we didn’t get enough of this challenge in our lives, we always ended up bringing some in. Either we live in a story or we derive it vicariously, immersing ourselves in books, games or some other form of media.
When you write (with the help of your favorite writing assistant software), the easiest way to keep your readers on the page is to draw them in with a compelling tale. Whether you’re doing fiction, producing sales copies or typing up the cover story for Guns and Ammo, this driving plot can easily prove to be your most potent weapon.
The best way to bring that in is to incorporate fiction techniques that inject emotion into your copy. And that’s regardless of whether you’re writing a biography, a news piece or some other topic that’s in no way imaginary.
How do you create conflict? Most fiction writers use a one or a combination of these three techniques:
Imagery. These are words that create pictures in your reader’s mind, either by vivid descriptions or through figurative speech. Done well, this lively image can make the story extremely real for your audience.
Tension. All good storylines generate some amount of tension that changes things up for the reader. It breaks their flow, strains their thoughts and adds a slight amount of hostility to the experience. This tension can be inserted as part of the plot in the form of conflict or a creative use of words, such as a sentence that leaves them hanging.
Release. You can’t build up all that tension without providing any form of release. An audience left hanging often walks away dissatisfied. This pushing and pulling is what keeps your readers interested,making them indispensable to truly engaging pieces of writing.