Emotional Tension

This post was written by Mattie May of The Pub in collaboration with NoQuWriCo for Preptober.

We’ve all read stories where something feels off to the point of just skimming the pages because we stopped caring about who’s here and what’s happening. The characters seem to float through the plot, and yes, there’s conflict, but they’re hyper-focused on the main plot and have little to no emotional depth. Then we realize we’ve lost interest and the book joins the DNF pile to collect dust. There might have been several things wrong with it, but a lack of emotional tension could be one of them.

Emotional tension is important because it adds depth and keeps the story moving forward. It is also a great way to motivate your characters to action. An emotional event can be just the thing to push them over the edge. (It’s up to you on whether that’s off the edge or back onto the edge.)

There are several kinds of emotional tension, and depending on the story you’re telling, you can add one or some combination. We’ve found that in our storytelling we tend to use multiple. Whatever mix you end up using, it needs to be consistent with who your characters are and what will impact them. It’s also important to note that an emotional event would impact your character, so be sure to follow through and don’t leave the reader hanging with unresolved emotional tension!

External Tension:

External or social has to do with any people outside of the character. It could include family, friends, society, or whoever else your character is around. Does their family expect them to behave in a certain way? Are there societal expectations they are rebelling against? The amount of influence that the social aspect of emotional tension will bring is reliant on how much stock your character places in the opinions of others. However, most can’t completely ignore the opinions of close friends or family. If their goal will cause conflict with the social area of their life, you have so many options to add some emotional tension in just this area.

Examples of External Tension:

Romantic Relationship

Family/Societal Expectations

Parental Authority/Relationships

Mentor/Mentee Relationships

Sibling Relationships

Family/Friend death

Work/Job

Coworkers Relationships

Conflict of Interest

Internal Tension:

Internal conflict or struggles are a great way to add emotional tension because there are so many options. One good way is to take something away like their health or a limb. There is nothing like a life changing illness or wound to add emotional tension, especially if they need their health or strength to do their job or complete their mission. You can also add guilt, or a complicated past that makes them reluctant to do what they need to do.

Another way is to limit their choices. Do they feel convicted to support the greater good? Are there only bad options? Are they forced to use questionable means to reach a good end? All these issues add depth to your character and make them someone that your readers can relate to or root for.

Examples of Personal/Internal Tension

Choices (ie. Greater good, means to an end, better of two bad choices)

Physical (Wounds, health ect.)

Guilt about their Past

Mental Mind Games

Obviously there is some overlap between the Social and Personal tension — that’s how life and emotions work. However, if your character cares less about what other people think, it might be better to add an internal level of emotional tension. If the central conflict of your story is societal then it would add more layers to your character for them to have internal emotional tension about it.

One of the keys to emotional tension is that you don’t have to say everything; let your reader pick up on an awkward conversation, let them feel the anger when your character loses someone close to them. Weave emotional tension into your story and make it feel natural. Your characters, human or otherwise, will have emotions about what is happening to them.

Some of us at The Pub like to use family and mentor/mentee relationships or complicated family dynamics to raise emotional tensions. Some others like to use some good internal questioning or mental trauma to raise the emotional tension in their stories. We all tell different stories, so our methods of adding emotional tension varies, but every story we tell has some level or form of emotional tension.

As you are preparing for NoQu or any writing project, consider ways you can layer the emotional tension in your story. It helps with the word count and it will tell a better story.

The Pub is a Christian publication devoted to sharing creativity and challenging writers to write thoughtfully and powerfully. Mattie May is one of six members of The Pub and writes historical fiction, including her debut novel, Everlasting Gold. The Pub's first edition of submitted short works of fiction will be releasing November 6th!

To learn more about their publication and for more great posts just like this one, visit their website: https://thepublicationcott.wixsite.com/thepub-lication