Writing Craft
Tense scenes are oddly hard to balance on the page. Give a character too much interior thought and the pressure leaks away. Give them too little and they start to feel like a pair of sensible shoes being dragged through the plot.
I keep noticing how much of the work comes down to choosing which thought matters in the moment. Not every fear deserves a paragraph. Sometimes one sharp, ugly sentence does more than a page of explanation.
The tricky bit is that silence can be just as revealing as thought, if you let it do some of the heavy lifting.
I keep noticing how much of the work comes down to choosing which thought matters in the moment. Not every fear deserves a paragraph. Sometimes one sharp, ugly sentence does more than a page of explanation.
The tricky bit is that silence can be just as revealing as thought, if you let it do some of the heavy lifting.
Interior thought is useful, but people sometimes use it as a substitute for pressure. If the scene is already tense, the character doesn’t need to narrate every bead of sweat. A single bad decision, or the refusal to make one, can do more work.
In revision, I often find the real question is whether the thought changes the scene. If it doesn’t, it’s probably decorative.
In revision, I often find the real question is whether the thought changes the scene. If it doesn’t, it’s probably decorative.