By: Nate Philbrick
So you’re writing a scene in your novel and you really want
this moment to get your reader’s heart hammering. Here are eight practical
strategies to help you can achieve that.
Raise the stakes for
that particular scene
The higher and more immediate the stakes are, the more
tension readers feel. Put your characters in situations where they have to make
a hard decision or perform a hard action right away, and make it clear that if
they fail, something disastrous will happen as a consequence.
Focus on action and
dialogue
Action and dialogue are the two main vehicles of tension.
Minimize description, thought-processes, exposition, etc. as much as possible.
Shorten your
sentences
Short sentences convey tension more than long ones because
they quicken the pace of the scene. Long sentences force the reader
to slow down, so cut, cut, cut.
Eliminate subject
nouns and pronouns
. . .
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