Writing Excuses

19.35: A Close Reading on Tension: An Overview and Why Ring Shout

Sep 1, 2024

Howard Tayler joins to share his expertise on storytelling tension. He compares tension to a rock precariously balanced at the top of a hill, ready to roll. The conversation highlights how 'Ring Shout' intertwines real-world trauma with horror elements to evoke discomfort and suspense. The team discusses tension-building techniques and analyzes emotional engagement in narratives. They encourage listeners to reflect on suspenseful stories, mapping out moments of tension and release to enhance their writing skills.

18:53

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Episode guests

Howard

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Tension is essential in storytelling, with effective manipulation enhancing narrative impact through various forms like anticipation and denial.

Visual elements, such as cover design, play a crucial role in signaling tension, evoking emotional responses even before the reading begins.

Deep dives

Exploring Tension in Storytelling

Tension serves as a vital element in storytelling, and its effective manipulation can significantly enhance a narrative's impact. Different forms of tension—contextual, in-text, anticipation, and denial—can be intertwined to create a complex experience for the reader. The discussion highlights the importance of pacing in tension, where the guide notes that shorter works, like novellas, can showcase techniques that build and release tension effectively. The use of tension can alter the reader's emotional state, making them feel both an intellectual awareness of the story's direction and a primal fear of the unknown.

Intro

2min

Exploring Tension through 'Ring Shout'

2min

Exploring the Dynamics of Tension in Storytelling

10min

Exploring Tension Through Storytelling and Animation

2min

The Art of Tension in Storytelling

3min

Analyzing Tension Through Close Reading

2min

Compared to This is How You Lose The Time War, which we read earlier this year, Ring Shout deals with a very real world. This discordance, where authors make their audience uncomfortable by creating things that shouldn’t go together, is part of the power of this novella, and part of the reason we chose to dive into tension! Our favorite metaphor about tension from this episode comes from Howard: potential movement (imagine a rock at the top of a hill).

Note: this novella uses tools from the horror genre to add tension, and this can be intense for some readers!

Thing of the Week: Blue Eye Samurai (Netflix)

Homework: Take a movie or a book you've read that you find highly suspenseful and write an outline covering the major plot beats. Look at where tension is created and where it is released, and build a map of how it evolves over the course of the story

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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.

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