21.16: Tension and Release as Call and Response

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Writing Excuses Introduction

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4:59Season 21, episode 16. This is Writing Excuses.

Tension and Release Discussion

5:06Tension and release as call and response. Tools not rules for writers by writers. I'm Mary Robinette. I'm Dong Wan. I'm Erin. And I'm Howard. Today, we're going to be talking about tension and release as a way to kind of guide your reader through your fiction. A lot of times we talk about conflict as being a thing that a story must have, but I've been thinking more and more that it's tension. We did a whole thing about tension season before last, last season, previously on Writing Excuses.

5:40So we're just going to do a quick kind of reminder about what tension is and then talk about specifically how you can use tension, but also the release of tension as a way to control how your reader is experiencing the story. So I'm going to start with some of the pieces of tension that we talked about previously. There's conflict, of course, juxtaposition, unanswered questions, anticipation, and then microtension, which is small pieces of tension.

6:16So those are types of tension. When we're talking about release of tension, what are some ways we can think about sort of the opposites of those? I think, I mean, conflict resolution being sort of the most obvious one, right? The end of a fight scene, whether that's a physical fight or an emotional fight, right? Like coming to some kind of conclusion where you have that mini resolution, right? And this doesn't have to be a resolution of the core tension of your thing, right? The monster can still be hunting them, but you make it to a safe room, you bar the door,

6:47you escape for a moment, right? Or, you know, you have a beat where you think you've defeated it, right? And I think all of those can be small releases of tension that give your story, it adds to the pacing, right? It pulls you through, right? Because to me, tension and release is controlling pacing, is controlling flow. And part of what you said right there, you know, if you've resolved the fight, but, you know, maybe not the emotional conflict, well, those are two different sources of tension.

7:18It's entirely possible to relieve, to release some of the tension. Oh, okay, good, they're not shooting at each other, but they still need to have the big talk. Yeah. And they haven't yet. Yeah, a lot of times I think about tension, especially in horror, but I think it works in other places, about safety versus danger and the known versus the unknown. So if you move, and a lot of that is about tension is movement. So you move from one known state a lot of times to another known state. So you go from dangerous and known, I know I have to give a speech and I'm super, like, I just, it's going to be so horrible, I know it, you know, but it's dangerous.

7:56Too dangerous and unknown in the middle of my speech, the zombie apocalypse occurs, which is great. I don't have to do the speech anymore. However, new problem, you know, but it does resolve the emotional tension of the speech, and then you move on to a new place. And the reason why release is pacing in my mind is because, okay, so my worst food opinion is I don't like risotto. And part of why I don't like risotto is that every bite is the same as the one you just had, right? It just continues to be the same flavor going forward and the same texture going forward.

8:29And so if you have a book that has, or if you have a story that has no release of tension, it can feel very sane throughout, right? Differentiation allows us to observe the passage of time, right? And so when you let people have those moments of release, it makes them feel like your story is moving forward, even if the main overarching thing is still not resolved. I was just thinking of, I don't know if it was in Alien Earth or not, but there's a moment where the xenomorph has gotten away.

9:03Yeah. Now we're all tense because we can have a jump scare at any point where the xenomorph leaps out. And then someone says, you know, oh, you know, we know where it is. It just killed so-and-so. That's actually a release of tension because now I know it's not going to jump out right here. And then they go after it. And now I'm tense again because they are approaching the place where we could again be jumped by the alien. And so it is a very nice rolling forward of tension and release as we make me tense and make me relax.

9:40Well, and I think it's not just that it's boring. I think it's also fatiguing for the reader if things are at the same level of tension. Like if you think about a set of stairs, there are landings on stairs in order to give your muscles time to recuperate before you do the next set of stairs. It's why the Stairmaster at the gym is the worst thing ever invented. Is it worse or better than risotto? That's a good question. It's better than risotto. I'm so tense about wondering why.

10:12My dislike of risotto knows no bounds. But the reason we keep going to horror, I think, is it's one of what is sometimes called a genre of the body, right? It's a genre you feel in your body as you have the tension, right? Romance, erotica, there's a few, humor, all of these are sort of categorized as genres of the body. And so they're great examples of looking at how tension builds, right? Humor is also tension. As you tell a joke, Howard, what you call the comedic drop is you're building tension until you have the reversal.

10:45You have the drop that lets the sort of humor beat resolve. That's why you can use humor in a horror story to get that little release valve of tension before you ratchet it up again. It's why horror is one of my favorite things to write. Yeah. Because the whole humor toolbox applies. It's the same skill set, it's just a different resolution. It's why Jordan Peele is one of the greatest horror auteurs of all time, because he's also one of the funniest people of all time. But you can also use it in things that are not particularly funny or overtly horror.

11:19The Spell Shop by Sarah Beth Durst is this cozy, and it's just delightful and charming. But one of the things that she does in it that I think is so fascinating is like, I could not stop turning the pages. She's so good at the tension and release. And one of the things she does is uses juxtaposition and questions to pull you through. So the opening of the story, our main character is a librarian. There's a coup that is going on in the city. We do not actually see the coup. We see smoke rising in the distance.

11:53But all she has to do is get out of the library with her sentient houseplant. And just the juxtaposition of librarian, sentient houseplant, smoke from coup in the distance. And you know that at any moment those things could intersect. And even though they don't directly intersect at the beginning of the book, that is still looming over you for much of the book. And it allows you to be like any moment now. This anticipation, this juxtaposition of this extremely cozy thing with some real horrors happening in the background.

12:27Well, what's useful also about your list of different types of tension is that you can alternate between them to keep flow moving through the story, right? So the game Blue Prints is a great example. And that's because you have the tension and release of receiving a puzzle and then solving the puzzle, right? And that is one kind of resolution. What made me think of it is in the background, there's also this revolutionary narrative happening and the succession narrative happening in the background. So as you're getting story elements, that is pulling you through as you want to know what's happening in the world.

12:59Who are these characters? Why is this house the way it is? At the same time that you're getting the tension release of the puzzle solving, right? The game Hades uses a similar structure in terms of the tension and release of doing a very difficult combat and then dying and then getting more story, right? So if you alternate them too, as you let pressure off on one valve, you have the other one still pulling you and then you release that one and the other ones, you can alternate them. I think of it as leapfrog. Yeah. The frog jumps, we're tense, the frog lands, we've relaxed, and now another frog is going to jump over it.

13:32And that pattern, I mean, obviously, if that's the whole pattern all the way through the book, it will get a little stale. But as a structure for helping you understand tension and release in your own work, that is a fine starting point. Well, you just need, like, more frogs. You just need more frogs. And different types of frogs, because I think, like, again, like, we talk a lot about how humans are pattern recognition creatures. And if you have the exact same type of tension resolution, tension resolution, the reader already sees the resolution when the next tension occurs, and therefore they don't feel tense.

14:07They're like, it's like when you have, like, the hero who's played by a really big name actor in danger in the first three minutes of a movie, and the person's like, I'm not really buying that, like, I doubt that you got Val Kilmer in order to kill him in minute one. And so when it does happen, it's very shocking. But I think playing with different types of tension says, okay, we're going to do this a little differently. We got a question recently at a live event about how to make try-fail cycles feel different. And some of it's having a different fail to the same try, or a different try but the same fail.

14:42Changing one thing changes the pattern enough that then humans are like, this is new, and yet again, I'm feeling my emotions. Well, all this kind of plays into a thing that we're talking about with the difference between shorter fiction and longer fiction. And as you go from short story to novel, you need to layer in more plots. You need to go from an A plot to an A plot, B plot, C plot, D plot, in that having those different layers lets you alternate when you're building and when you're releasing tension to sort of create this movement of flow that we're talking about. So speaking of tension to release, we got to take a break for a second.

15:16But when we come back, I want to hear from you guys about how you decide where to put those releases. With the Blue Cash Everyday Card, it's easy to earn 3% cash back on groceries at U.S. supermarkets, U.S. online retail purchases, and U.S. gas stations. That's how we grow our family's little nest egg. Learn more at americanexpress.com slash explore-bc. Terms and cash back cap apply. Tired of juggling sales tools or spending hours on prospecting just to book a few meetings? Meet Apollo, the go-to-market platform for finding leads, connecting with buyers, and closing deals all in one place.

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16:27So stop paying for five different sales tools when one does it all. Visit apollo.io and sign up free today. If the world were like a Sleep Number mattress, everything would adapt for your comfort. Because as your life changes and your body changes, Sleep Number mattresses adapt and shift to give you personalized comfort night after night. And now everything's on sale during our Memorial Day event. Save up to $1,200 on mattresses, plus free delivery when you add a base. Ends Monday. To experience a whole new world of comfort, visit a Sleep Number store or go to sleepnumber.com.

17:01Sleep Number, to a good life's sleep.

Post Break Discussion

17:03Okay, so when we went to break, I kind of wanted to hear more about your decision-making process, right? So when you're putting together a story, what is the thing that's telling you, okay, I need a release here, I need to build tension here. What are those things that are like mechanically going into your process there? I'm a big baby. I do not like being tense. Um, I am not as tense when I'm writing it as when I'm reading it.

17:34And so generally speaking, uh, I, I like my food much saltier than Sandra does. And so I know that if it's the right amount of salt I've screwed up, it's reverse for tension. If I feel like this is, this is too tense, then I, I need to turn it up a couple of notches and that will be accurate. And that's where my barometer is now. I don't know if that's where my barometer will be in six months or six years or whatever.

18:05Um, but it's, I mean, life is a moving target. Um, I just scale things in that way because I've discovered that my tastes are such that I like a little less tension. And so when I'm writing for a wider audience, I'm going to put in more tension than I want. I like that you're almost like checking in with yourself somatically as you write of like, where am I feeling tension? Is this too much? Then it's like, oh, then that's the right level. Right? Yeah. I tend to think about it.

18:37Um, I mean, the challenge in leaning on, on Howard's metaphor is that it is a season to taste. For me, when I'm using tension, I'm often using it to control pacing, uh, and also to control the effect on the reader. So if I have, um, if I have a slow scene, you know, it's a quiet scene, it's people in a room and they're having a conversation or I don't know, making tea. I'm very likely to then try to insert some other kind of tension in order to make this,

19:12that moment kind of tick along, even while giving people the illusion that they're resting. I love this contrast because, you know, I'm, I'm speaking to how am I feeling while I'm reading? And Mary Robinette is speaking to how is the structure of the book working in terms of pacing? And it, to be honest, I use both tools. Yeah. Um, and I think a lot of us end up using both tools and that's why it's so important to call

19:44out all of them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this makes so much sense to me with both how each of you individually talk about process and talk about fiction. Aaron, I'm kind of curious, like you write incredibly tense fiction, right? Like an Aaron Roberts short story has me sweating from line one to the end. Like, how do you think about that maintaining that level or increasing or do you ever like choose to intentionally decrease it or do you just make me suffer the whole time? I often go in writing thinking, how can I make Donglaan suffer? That's successful. It's like, it's written on top of my desk.

20:16But I think. Risotto.

20:20Great. Uh, I think that part of it is that I have trained myself. I was thinking to love tension. And some of this is a lifetime of watching soap operas, which have to create tension all the time in situations that are very familiar. Like, it's a lot of it like who's in love with who and who lied to who about this. So many frogs. But there's so many frogs. It's basically putting a whole bunch of frogs in a bag and shaking it is a soap opera. And so since.

20:50Don't do this at home. And then licking each frog. No. The frogs in a bag method of storytelling. Is that what you're saying? Okay. And so I think that because, like, I sort of grew up with that as a level of storytelling, I always want more tension. I'm like, they're spending too much time feeling safe. I don't like it. Throw something at them. Yeah. And I think also I've learned a lot about tension from singing and seeing other people sing. Oh, I love that. When you talked about Risotto earlier, I was like, this is how I feel. If you ever go to karaoke or even professional singers who don't modulate, like, they have

21:24a beautiful belting voice, but they just, like, belt for five minutes straight. After a while, you just tune it out. And when you, I'm singing, I like to belt. Like, I will watch the audience for, like, when I feel that they are kind of done with it and immediately modulate what I'm doing in real time to try to, like, do something different, like, oh, that's a perfect time to get quiet. That's a perfect time. You know, now you know what I can do. Like, I'll do something else. And so a lot of it for me is very, like, gut feeling.

21:55But in order to do that as somebody who's writing a story, I will read my stories to myself or have the voice of, like, Microsoft Word read it to me and feel like if I'm not feeling tense in this moment, I need to add something else here. Man, if Clippy can make you tense, you're doing it well. Clippy makes everyone tense. You just made me think about a thing about why we modulate in a song, and we do it for emphasis. There are times when we go quieter because we want someone to lean in.

22:26And that's also, I think, places where you have those quieter scenes where it looks like the tension is dropping, but there's this undercurrent underneath it that you're like, I have this creeping sense of dread. Versus other times when you do belt full out because you're trying to emphasize a different kind of thing. So I think thinking about the emotion of the scene is really, like, why you are choosing one type of tension over another and whether you're doing it as a release or a tightening.

22:56Just a yes and that, like, from the singing part of things, when people sing quietly, they're able to enunciate more. You're more likely to hear the lyrics of what they're saying to actually get a sense of what the words are. When someone sings, the louder you sing, the broader your voice becomes. And a lot of times people don't listen to the words as much. They just listen to the sound of it and the feel of it. And so in writing, I think in those small scenes, if there's a small detail of tension, like, the tension is actually, like, whether or not this person wore the thing on their left

23:31wrist versus their right, the small detail, that works better in a quiet scene. In the middle of a large fight scene, it's going to be hard to pay attention to, like, what side somebody had something on because the bigness of it is actually drowning out some of those small details. So having both of them allows you to give both types of tension their day in the sun. And in the spirit of yes and, I've got an, oh, wait.

Audio Engineering Analogy

23:56When I was studying audio engineering, I had things exactly backwards and the instructor in the studio had to come over and tell me, no, you're pushing the faders at the wrong time. I was mixing something where the singers would be, you know, really loud and then really whisper and then really loud and really whisper as sort of a call and response. And I was turning them up during the loud and down during the whisper. And he said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. What you're trying to mimic is the lean in.

24:27When people lean in in order to hear something, they concentrate on it and their brain makes it louder. And so when the soft singing happens, turn it up. Let us lean in. When it's loud, bring down the fader and let us sit back. And it washes over us. I do not know how this applies to writing, but it's fascinating to me. As pattern recognition machines, what we do is we recognize edges, right? An edge will always stand out to us more than the middle of something, right? So when you have that microtension release, it gets us to lock in and focus.

25:01Like when we're like, oh, wait, what was that punchline? You know what I mean? Even though if the scene isn't overall a funny one, having that little bit of just like friction there lets us refocus and pay attention and lean in, as you're saying, to hear the thing better. And then we can go back to sort of what the baseline of the scene is. Yeah. Thinking of that and the call and response you were talking about, since we put that in the title, is the like the it creates a pattern that you then break. It's like lean in for a hug. This is great. Lean in for a hug.

25:31This time I stabbed you. You know? And so this is like surprising yet inevitable.

25:38So if you know me, yes. So like I think like that is a thing that allows you to almost lull the reader into thinking there isn't tension. We're in a low tension moment and then allows you to ratchet it up really quickly, which makes that edge that much sharper to not cut your reader with, but to, you know, cut through their attention with. Cut me, apparently. And it is that the thing that we'll see often at the end of a story that we get this big cathartic snap because of a big tension release.

26:11And I think that's also why you'll see in a lot of places where you get like in the horror thing where they're about to get out and everything looks great. It's that contrast can provide you with more of a reaction to this new tension. Speaking of new tension, it is time for homework, and I want you listeners to consider adding

Homework Assignment

26:37some new tension to your story. I want you to look an existing thing that you've already written, and I want you to look at it and see if you can spot what in that scene causes the tension. And if there's not anything, it's a good sign that you should add something. Try listening to one of the earlier episodes where we do a whole module on tension that's several episodes long. See if you can add a bit of juxtaposition. See if you can add a question.

27:09If there is tension already, what happens to that scene if you change it?

27:17This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses. Now, go write. Writing Excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends. For this episode, your hosts were Dong Wansong, Aaron Roberts, and Howard Taylor. This episode was engineered by Marshall Carr Jr., mastered by Alex Jackson, and produced by Emma Reynolds. For more information, visit writingexcuses.com. Tired of juggling sales tools or spending hours on prospecting just to book a few meetings?

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28:23closing deals, all in one place. Apollo gives you access to over 210 million contacts, and AI that handles all your busy work, finding leads, drafting emails, and even prioritizing your day. So stop paying for five different sales tools when one does it all. Visit Apollo.io and sign up free today. If the world were like a Sleep Number mattress, everything would adapt for your comfort. Because as your life changes and your body changes, Sleep Number mattresses adapt and

28:53shift to give you personalized comfort night after night. And now everything's on sale during our Memorial Day event. Save up to $1,200 on mattresses, plus free delivery when you add a base. Ends Monday. To experience a whole new world of comfort, visit a Sleep Number store or go to sleepnumber.com. Sleep Number, to a good life's sleep. If the world were like a Sleep Number mattress, everything would adapt for your comfort. Because as your life changes and your body changes, Sleep Number mattresses adapt and

29:24shift to give you personalized comfort night after night. And now everything's on sale during our Memorial Day event. Save up to $1,200 on mattresses, plus free delivery when you add a base. Ends Monday. To experience a whole new world of comfort, visit a Sleep Number store or go to sleepnumber.com. Sleep Number, to a good life's sleep.