7 Comments

I loved the slow burn of tension in 'I Have Some Questions for You'. Some masters of the page-turning genre make me feel manipulated by dangling every chapter ending over a cliff. It takes great skill to make readers forget that tension was deliberately employed as a tool.

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Oct 11Liked by Rebecca Makkai

My biggest writing fear is cheesiness! You touch on that at the end but I'm not quite clear on what NOT to do when adding tension. I think your point was that the narrative should be robust enough to drive the tension much of the time, rather than jazzing up an inherently saggy story with ambiance or unanswered questions. Are there things you see writers consistently getting wrong with this? Thanks so much for the deep dive into tension!

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Oct 11Liked by Rebecca Makkai

Not sure but I think the Sound of Music thing makes sense because we can hold both diegetic tension (love how you explained this) and mimetic tension at the same time. We know we're watching a musical and we know musical have certain ludicrous conventions like a couple New York gangs suddenly breaking into a singing and dancing routine with each other. Or maybe it's because music in musicals almost operates as internal dialog? So we know the song is telling thoughts and emotions that are internal--like "I Feel Pretty" in West Side story--so it doesn't seem to violate reality as egregiously as it does. Anyway, I so admire and appreciate your ability to analyze and explain what's going on in story.

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author

Yes, I agree! Now the question is: Is there a name for that?

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Magic?

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An example for your list structure: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

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founding

I struggle with writing tension that builds in a subtle way-while hooking the reader-in a story that doesn’t begin with a falling elevator or the promise of a sinking ship. I think Michael Chabon is especially good at this, along with Ann Patchett, Claire Lombardo, and Allegra Goodman. Definitely going to take your suggestion and do some early pages analysis of novels I love for more insight!

Question for you: do you know what the major sources of tension will be before you begin writing a novel, or do you start writing and figure it out?

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