29 December 2011, this blog is about writing in scenes. I’ll leave up the parts of a novel because I think this is an important picture for any novelist. I’m writing about the rising action.
1. The beginning
2. The rising action
3. The Climax
4. The falling action
5. The dénouement
The question, then, is how do you build tension in a reasonable fashion in the rising action? The easy answer is don’t tell everything. This is the point of rule four: don’t show (or tell) everything. The other simple answer is the concept of tension and release. Simplistically, this is the idea that you present a problem for your main character to solve, build up the tension as they can/cannot solve the problem and then release the tension as they solve/seek another solution.
This explanation is very simplified, but you get the point. Some authors suggest the problem, three, solution, release setup as a specific method in developing tension. I’ll give you more on this.
I’m going to continue looking at the development of tension in the rising action, tomorrow.
Zen of Scenes 