Tension
Figuring out how to add tension in my novel without losing its soul.
I had a revelation about my near-future, barely-sci-fi novel draft. I realized my plot didn’t have enough tension. I thought about it for a while until I had an idea, and then I redid the entire outline.
I do my preliminary outlining in an app called Miro, which is like a virtual whiteboard with sticky notes. I’m not affiliated or sponsored by Miro.
It looks like this:
I have three POV characters, each with their own story arc. I vaguely follow the Save the Cat arc structure but with a little more chaos.
The problem is, I’m still not entirely happy with it. While the updated plot has more tension and stakes, the message gets overshadowed. I’m worried the questions I’m asking in the story might get lost in the plot. This novel is character-driven, but it’s challenging to do that when your character’s biggest problem is that she doesn’t make her own decisions and prefers to go along with everyone else.
The new tension isn’t related to the main science fiction concept, either. The main science fiction concept that’s essential to the big question. As I write this, I wonder if I’m really writing two novels, or if I need to find a new way to torture my characters that fit better with the initial premise.
My critique group forgot that the novel is speculative. While I touch a little on the speculative aspect in the first section I sent them, it gets mostly ignored for the next 10,000 words.
As I’ve been trying to decide what to do next, I’ve gone back to short stories. I rewrote one I started about a year ago. I started a new one inspired by MySpace. Lately, my fiction has become less speculative as a whole, and I haven’t decided how I feel about that.
I’m trying to let things come as they are and not push anything. We’ll see where it goes.
My husband is a big Miro user and tried to get me to outline this way but I’m such a paper person! It’s really satisfying to see your layout!
So now I'm really curious about your main character. Why does she only want to follow the crowd? Do you address that in your story? Is it a lack of confidence, or fear of failure, or to avoid conflict? Does she have a problem with boundaries? Is she codependent? Or is it more pathological - a pervasive fear of being abandoned or feeling helpless? And where does that come from? I'm looking forward to finding out.