Whoa, That’s Tense. 3 Ways to Raise the Tension in Your Scenes

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The movie Sanctum really knows how to crank up the tension and keep viewers on the edge of their seats, and I admired the way the director kept the tension high all the way to the end. 

One reason is because it's set in a cave and many of the scenes are underwater. Even though I’ve never been cave diving, I have dived wrecks with confined spaces and I know how dangerous cave diving can be. So many things can go wrong and kill you. 

There's a lot writers can learn about tension from this movie, but let's look at my three favorite aspects and how you can apply them to your novels.

1. It Creates a Setting Ripe With Hazards 

Cave diving is dangerous. It’s secluded, there’s no easy way out, and if something goes wrong you’re on your own. What better spot to put your protagonist in than a similar "dangerous and on your own" situation?

Look at your scenes, especially the ones that start and end chapters. What kind of environment is your protagonist in? Are they in a place where if something goes wrong they can easily escape or deal with it or will it be harder to solve their problem? This works for emotional settings too, such as if they have to deal with a difficult emotion and don’t want to face it. You might consider:

• Cutting off their escape routes: If the only possible way to move forward is to go through more danger, you leave your protagonist little choice but to risk it.
• Narrowing their options: If cutting off their escape routes isn’t feasible, try making one way riskier than the other. They way they want to go won’t work, so they have to go the way they don’t want to.
• Add potential threats: What aspects about the setting could cause more trouble? Not that they will or need to, but what is possible? Just because you don’t plan on something bad happening doesn’t mean the reader can’t worry that it will. 

(Here's more on how setting can affect tension)

2. It Let the Characters Make Dumb Mistakes

When you ignore the cave diving expert who tells you how to survive the terrible situation you’re in, don’t be surprised when you die. In an unforgiving environment, one mistake can kill you. Try being less forgiving of your protagonist and let them get themselves into trouble. Think about:

• What don’t they know: Nobody knows everything about a situation, so what if your protagonist doesn’t have all the skills or information needed to get out of trouble? What mistakes might they make that will get them closer to a catastrophe? A physical mistake that affects their plan? An emotional mistake where they act without thinking or in a way contrary to what’s smart? A mental mistake where they misread a situation or vital clue?
• What might you take away: Taking away one piece of information might make the scene more tense. The noise in the dark is much scarier before we discover it’s just the cat. Is there anything you can change so that the reader fears what’s out there/in there/is going to happen? A little mystery can be a powerful thing.
• What don’t they want to admit: People keeping secrets or not fessing up can cause all kinds of trouble, and if the reader knows or suspects someone is holding back about something critical, there’s a lot of anticipation about how that will unfold. And again, it’s not something that has to happen, it’s the potential for disaster that makes this tense.

One warning here however...be careful of making characters too dumb. People do make stupid mistakes for believable reasons, but there's a line between "oops" and "too stupid to live" you don't want to cross.


(Here's more on 7 ways characters can screw up their decisions)

3. It Forces Character to Make Impossible Choices 

When something goes wrong in a cave deep underwater, you might have to choose between letting one person die or multiple people dying. Some people can’t be saved no matter how good a person you are or what you try to do. Make the choices your protagonist has to face – or choices she might have to face – horrible so the reader can agonize right along with them. Such as:

• Choices between people: Not every situation is going to be life or death, but there are plenty of opportunities to choose one person over the other. Make that choice have consequences that add to the problems (potential or real) piling up. Someone becoming more and more upset over a choice could turn into a nasty surprise.
• Choices between beliefs: Inner conflict is great to play with, so make the most of it. Is there a line your protagonist refuses to cross? Something they swore they’d never do? How close can you push them to that line or that action?
• Choices that all suck: Being in a situation where there is no right answer, and every choice sucks and ends badly for someone, is tense. If the protagonist is willing to do X, then what might happen later when things get really bad? Maybe they make a hard choice here to avoid crossing a line or doing what they swore they’d never do.

(Here's more on characters making tough choices and why it matters)

While you don’t want to throw trouble at your protagonist just to make trouble, putting them in an environment rife with potential dangers makes everything they do matter more. One mistake, one slip up and disaster could come crashing down on their heads.

Tension is all about what could happen, not what is happening. It’s the anticipation that gets us.

What's your favorite way to raise the tension? What have you seen or read that did it particularly well?


Find out more about setting and description in my book, Fixing Your Setting & Description Problems.

Go step-by-step through setting and description-related issues, such as weak world building, heavy infodumping, told prose, awkward stage direction, inconsistent tone and mood, and overwritten descriptions. Learn how to analyze your draft, spot any problems or weak areas, and fix those problems.

With clear and easy-to-understand examples, Fixing Your Setting & Description Problems offers five self-guided workshops that target the common issues that make readers stop reading. It will help you:

• Choose the right details to bring your setting and world to life
• Craft strong descriptions without overwriting
• Determine the right way to include information without infodumping
• Create compelling emotional layers that reflect the tone and mood of your scenes
• Fix awkward stage direction and unclear character actions

Fixing Setting & Description Problems starts every workshop with an analysis to pinpoint problem areas and offers multiple revision options in each area. You choose the options that best fit your writing process. It's an easy-to-follow guide to crafting immersive settings and worlds that draw readers into your story and keep them there.

Available in paperback and ebook formats.

Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The Shifter, was chosen for the 2014 list of "Ten Books All Young Georgians Should Read" from the Georgia Center for the Book.

She also writes the Grace Harper urban fantasy series for adults under the name, J.T. Hardy.

When she's not writing novels, she's teaching other writers how to improve their craft. She's the founder of Fiction University and has written multiple books on writing.

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