19.39: A Close Reading on Tension: Tying It All Together

Writing Excuses

Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler

Fiction, Business, Careers

4.7 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2024

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode, we’re talking about how important tension is in creating a world where your readers feel fully immersed. We talk about the importance of using tropes and techniques while also using variation in order to make your story less predictable. We dive into the difference between tension and conflict, and talk about how you can use the former to help the ladder. Tension can be found in movement, but also in inaction. We touch on tension's effect on try-fail cycles, inverted pyramids, and worldbuilding.

Thing of the Week: The Night Guest by Hildur Knutsdottir (a novella translated by Mary Robinette Kowal)

Homework: Take a look at your outline and move one of the major conflict points to a different act forward, and then try and move it to a later act. Consider how this changes the pacing and tension.

Sign up for our newsletter:

https://writingexcuses.com

Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

Join Our Writing Community!

Our Sponsors:
* Check out Acorns: https://acorns.com/wx

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/exclusive-content

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends.
0:05.6	If you would like to learn how to support this podcast, visit
0:08.9	www.patreon.com slash writing excuses.
0:15.0	Season 19, episode 39.
0:20.0	This is writing excuses.
0:22.0	A close reading on tension tying it all together. This is writing excuses.
0:22.8	A close reading on tension tying it all together.
0:25.4	15 minutes long because you're in a hurry.
0:28.0	And we're not that smart.
0:29.2	I'm Dung Juan.
0:29.9	I'm Aaron.
0:30.8	And I'm Howard.
0:32.0	And I'm excited that, well well I'm sad that we're ending our whole piece on ring shout
0:37.0	But I'm excited to talk about all the things that we've been talking about over the last few weeks and figuring out how do you put it all together? You know we've been talking about
0:46.0	anticipation subversion movement resolution narrative context. If you're writing trying to
0:52.0	write something as tense as a ring shout how do you decide which
0:55.9	tools you're going to be using at which moment to make it work?
1:00.0	I'm laughing because there are so many disciplines that as a web cartoonist I had to learn so many different disciplines and in every last one of them, I found that I knew more things than I could track at once when I was trying to do a thing.
1:22.0	And so for me, the answer is... at once when I was trying to do a thing.
1:22.7	And so for me, the answer is,
1:25.8	think about one thing, do it as best you can,
1:29.3	and then come back and figure out
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.