8.3 Building and resolving tension
9 min read•august 21, 2024
Building and resolving tension is a crucial skill for writers crafting episodic dramas. This topic explores various techniques to create compelling conflicts, maintain viewer engagement, and deliver satisfying resolutions across multiple episodes.
From internal character struggles to external threats, writers must balance different types of tension to create depth. , , and strategic information reveals are key tools for building and keeping audiences hooked throughout a series.
Types of dramatic tension
- Dramatic tension forms the backbone of compelling episodic drama, driving viewer engagement and emotional investment
- Understanding different types of tension allows writers to craft multifaceted conflicts that resonate with audiences
- Balancing various forms of tension creates depth and complexity in storytelling, essential for long-form television narratives
Internal vs external conflict
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- stems from character's inner turmoil, doubts, or moral dilemmas
- External conflict arises from outside forces, obstacles, or antagonists
- Combining both types creates layered characters and rich storylines
- Internal conflicts often manifest in character decisions and growth arcs
- External conflicts drive plot progression and action sequences
Interpersonal vs situational tension
- Interpersonal tension develops between characters through relationships and interactions
- Situational tension emerges from circumstances or events beyond characters' control
- Interpersonal tension fuels character dynamics and dialogue-driven scenes
- Situational tension often serves as catalyst for plot developments or character reactions
- Balancing both types maintains viewer interest across multiple episodes
Psychological vs physical tension
- Psychological tension focuses on mental and emotional stress or
- Physical tension involves tangible threats, dangers, or physical challenges
- Psychological tension builds through suspense, uncertainty, and character introspection
- Physical tension drives action sequences and high-stakes confrontations
- Alternating between psychological and physical tension creates pacing variety
Elements of tension building
- Tension building is crucial for maintaining audience engagement throughout an episodic series
- Effective tension building requires careful planning and execution across multiple episodes
- Understanding these elements allows writers to create compelling arcs that span entire seasons
Foreshadowing and anticipation
- Foreshadowing hints at future events or conflicts to create anticipation
- Plant subtle clues or symbols that gain significance later in the story
- Use dialogue or character actions to suggest impending challenges
- Create by giving audience information characters lack
- Balance foreshadowing with surprise to maintain unpredictability
Pacing and timing
- Vary scene length and pacing to control tension levels
- Use shorter, rapid scenes to increase urgency and excitement
- Employ longer, slower scenes to build suspense or explore character depth
- Strategically place commercial breaks or episode endings at high-tension moments
- Alternate between high-tension and low-tension scenes for emotional impact
Stakes and consequences
- Clearly establish what characters stand to gain or lose
- Raise stakes progressively throughout the episode or season
- Create personal and emotional consequences for character actions
- Introduce time-sensitive elements to increase urgency (ticking clock)
- Ensure consequences are proportionate and believable within the story world
Techniques for escalating tension
- Escalating tension is essential for maintaining viewer interest across multiple episodes
- These techniques help writers create a sense of progression and increasing stakes
- Skillful application of these methods prevents storylines from becoming stagnant or predictable
Obstacles and complications
- Introduce new challenges that impede characters' goals
- Layer multiple obstacles to create compounding difficulties
- Vary obstacle types (physical, emotional, moral) for diverse conflicts
- Use obstacles to reveal character strengths and weaknesses
- Ensure obstacles are organic to the story and not contrived
Time pressure and deadlines
- Impose time limits on character objectives to create urgency
- Use countdowns or ticking clocks to visualize approaching deadlines
- Create conflicting time pressures forcing difficult choices
- Employ time jumps to accelerate tension in long-form narratives
- Balance immediate deadlines with long-term consequences
Withholding information
- Strategically reveal information to characters and audience
- Create mystery by concealing key plot elements or character motivations
- Use unreliable narrators or limited perspectives to control information flow
- Reveal information gradually to maintain suspense and viewer engagement
- Balance information withholding with satisfying revelations to avoid frustration
Character-driven tension
- is fundamental to creating compelling episodic drama
- This approach focuses on internal conflicts and interpersonal dynamics
- Developing strong character-driven tension ensures emotional investment from viewers
Conflicting goals and motivations
- Create characters with opposing objectives or incompatible desires
- Develop complex motivations that lead to difficult moral choices
- Pit characters' personal goals against their professional or moral obligations
- Use conflicting loyalties to create internal and external tension
- Explore how characters' goals evolve and clash over multiple episodes
Secrets and lies
- Introduce hidden information or deceptions between characters
- Develop the potential consequences of secrets being revealed
- Create situations where characters must choose between honesty and self-preservation
- Use dramatic irony by revealing secrets to the audience but not all characters
- Explore the impact of lies on trust and relationships over time
Character flaws and weaknesses
- Establish clear that create vulnerability or conflict
- Use character weaknesses to generate internal struggles and external challenges
- Develop arcs where characters must confront and overcome their flaws
- Create situations that exploit character weaknesses for dramatic effect
- Balance flaws with strengths to create multi-dimensional characters
Scene structure for tension
- Structuring scenes effectively is crucial for building and maintaining tension
- Understanding these elements allows writers to craft engaging individual scenes
- Proper scene structure contributes to the overall pacing and tension of an episode
Opening hooks
- Begin scenes with compelling moments or dialogue to grab attention
- Use visual or auditory cues to set the tone and atmosphere
- Introduce immediate conflicts or questions to engage viewers
- Start in medias res to create a sense of urgency or intrigue
- Vary opening techniques to prevent predictability across episodes
Rising action
- Escalate conflicts or challenges throughout the scene
- Introduce new information or obstacles that complicate the situation
- Develop character reactions and decisions that heighten tension
- Use dialogue and non-verbal cues to increase emotional intensity
- Build towards a critical moment or revelation within the scene
Climax and turning points
- Create a peak moment of conflict or decision within the scene
- Ensure climaxes have significant consequences for characters or plot
- Use turning points to shift the direction of the story or character arcs
- Balance resolution with new questions or conflicts to maintain engagement
- Vary the intensity and nature of climaxes across different scenes and episodes
Resolving tension
- Tension resolution is crucial for providing satisfying payoffs to viewers
- Effective resolution techniques maintain audience engagement while setting up future conflicts
- Balancing resolution with ongoing tension is key to successful episodic storytelling
Payoff and catharsis
- Deliver satisfying conclusions to built-up tensions and conflicts
- Ensure emotional release for characters and viewers alike
- Connect resolution to character growth or important revelations
- Balance with realistic consequences of actions
- Use payoffs to reinforce themes or central messages of the series
Unexpected twists
- Subvert audience expectations with surprising plot developments
- Introduce new information that recontextualizes previous events
- Create plot twists that are both surprising and logically consistent
- Use misdirection to set up twists without feeling cheap or contrived
- Balance shocking twists with satisfying resolutions to maintain credibility
Partial vs complete resolution
- Determine appropriate level of resolution for each conflict or storyline
- Use partial resolutions to maintain ongoing tension across episodes
- Provide complete resolutions for self-contained episodic plots
- Balance closure with new questions or conflicts to drive future episodes
- Consider the overall series arc when deciding on resolution levels
Tension across episodes
- Managing tension across multiple episodes is crucial for maintaining viewer engagement
- This section explores techniques for creating compelling multi-episode arcs
- Understanding these concepts helps writers craft cohesive and engaging seasonal storylines
Cliffhangers and suspense
- End episodes with unresolved conflicts or shocking revelations
- Create anticipation for future episodes by posing intriguing questions
- Use cliffhangers to heighten emotional investment in characters' fates
- Balance frequency and intensity of cliffhangers to avoid viewer fatigue
- Ensure cliffhangers have meaningful payoffs in subsequent episodes
Overarching vs episodic tension
- Develop season-long story arcs that build tension across multiple episodes
- Create self-contained episodic conflicts that resolve within single episodes
- Balance overarching tension with episodic satisfaction for viewer retention
- Use episodic tensions to explore different facets of overarching conflicts
- Ensure overarching tension progresses meaningfully throughout the season
Balancing resolution and continuation
- Provide satisfying resolutions to immediate conflicts within episodes
- Maintain ongoing tensions that carry forward into future episodes
- Use partial resolutions to create a sense of progress while sustaining interest
- Introduce new conflicts or complications as old ones resolve
- Ensure each episode contributes to both immediate and long-term story arcs
Subtext and subtlety
- and subtlety are powerful tools for creating nuanced tension in episodic drama
- These techniques allow writers to convey complex emotions and conflicts without explicit exposition
- Mastering subtext and subtlety enhances the depth and realism of character interactions
Dialogue and subtext
- Create layered conversations where characters say one thing but mean another
- Use tone, body language, and context to convey hidden meanings
- Develop character-specific speech patterns that reveal underlying emotions
- Employ silence and pauses to heighten tension in conversations
- Balance explicit dialogue with subtextual communication for depth
Visual cues and symbolism
- Utilize visual elements to reinforce or foreshadow tensions (colors, objects)
- Create recurring visual motifs that gain significance throughout the series
- Use camera angles and framing to suggest character relationships or power dynamics
- Employ lighting and set design to enhance mood and atmospheric tension
- Balance obvious visual cues with subtle symbolism for viewer engagement
Dramatic irony
- Create situations where the audience knows more than the characters
- Use dramatic irony to build tension through audience anticipation
- Develop scenes where character actions have unintended consequences due to lack of information
- Balance dramatic irony with character discovery to maintain engagement
- Use dramatic irony to explore themes of miscommunication or misunderstanding
Genre-specific tension
- Different genres require unique approaches to tension-building and resolution
- Understanding genre conventions allows writers to meet or subvert audience expectations
- This section explores how tension manifests in various popular television genres
Thriller vs romance tension
- Thriller tension focuses on suspense, danger, and high-stakes conflicts
- Romance tension revolves around emotional connections and relationship obstacles
- Thriller pacing tends to be faster with more immediate physical threats
- Romance builds tension through emotional intimacy and character vulnerabilities
- Both genres use anticipation but for different payoffs (danger vs connection)
Comedy vs drama tension
- Comedy tension often stems from awkward situations or misunderstandings
- Dramatic tension involves serious conflicts with significant consequences
- Comedy resolves tension through humor and often resets for next episode
- Drama builds cumulative tension across episodes with lasting repercussions
- Both use character flaws as sources of tension but with different tones
Mystery vs action tension
- Mystery tension relies on and gradual revelations
- Action tension focuses on physical conflicts and immediate dangers
- Mystery pacing is often slower, building suspense through investigation
- Action sequences create rapid, high-energy tension with quick resolutions
- Both genres use time pressure but for different purposes (solving vs surviving)
Audience engagement
- Maintaining audience engagement is crucial for the success of episodic drama
- This section explores techniques for keeping viewers invested in the story and characters
- Understanding these concepts helps writers create compelling, binge-worthy series
Emotional investment in characters
- Develop complex, relatable characters with clear goals and motivations
- Create opportunities for audience empathy through character struggles
- Use character growth and development to deepen emotional connections
- Balance character flaws with redeeming qualities for nuanced portrayals
- Provide moments of vulnerability to strengthen audience-character bonds
Suspense vs surprise
- Build suspense by creating anticipation and uncertainty about outcomes
- Use surprise to subvert expectations and maintain unpredictability
- Balance suspenseful build-up with satisfying or shocking payoffs
- Employ red herrings and misdirection to enhance suspense
- Alternate between suspense-driven and surprise-driven plot developments
Tension through multiple plotlines
- Develop interconnected storylines that create tension across various characters
- Use parallel plots to explore different aspects of central themes or conflicts
- Create tension through converging plotlines and character intersections
- Balance screen time and pacing between multiple storylines
- Use subplot tensions to enhance or contrast with main plot conflicts
Key Terms to Review (32)
Anxiety: Anxiety is a complex emotional response characterized by feelings of tension, worry, and apprehension about potential future events or situations. It often arises in scenarios of uncertainty and can serve as a crucial mechanism for building tension in narratives, enhancing conflict, and engaging the audience’s emotions. By effectively harnessing anxiety, writers can create a compelling atmosphere that heightens suspense and deepens character experiences.
Catharsis: Catharsis refers to the emotional release and purification that characters and audiences experience through art, particularly in dramatic narratives. This emotional release often comes from confronting deep-seated emotions, such as grief or anger, allowing both the characters and the audience to find relief and understanding after a significant buildup of tension and conflict.
Character flaws: Character flaws are imperfections or weaknesses in a character that often drive their actions, decisions, and relationships. These flaws make characters more relatable and human, providing opportunities for conflict and growth, as they often lead to challenges that must be overcome. In storytelling, character flaws can create tension by putting the character in difficult situations and influencing their interactions with others.
Character-driven tension: Character-driven tension refers to the emotional and psychological conflict that arises from the desires, motivations, and relationships of characters within a narrative. This type of tension is crucial in building suspense and engagement, as it compels the audience to invest in the characters' journeys, creating an immersive experience as they navigate obstacles that challenge their goals and reveal their vulnerabilities.
Cliffhanger: A cliffhanger is a narrative device used to create suspense and maintain audience interest by leaving a story unresolved at the end of an episode, often with a shocking or dramatic moment. This technique encourages viewers to return for the next installment to find out what happens next, making it an essential tool for building tension and engagement throughout a series.
Cliffhangers and suspense: Cliffhangers are storytelling techniques that create a dramatic pause or unresolved situation at the end of a scene or episode, leaving the audience eager to know what happens next. This method generates suspense, which is the tension and anticipation created as viewers wait to see how conflicts will be resolved. Together, cliffhangers and suspense are essential for maintaining audience engagement, making them powerful tools in episodic drama to enhance emotional investment and drive narrative momentum.
Climax and Turning Points: The climax is the most intense, exciting, or important point of a narrative, often representing a turning point where the main conflict reaches its peak. This moment is crucial as it propels the story towards its resolution, marking a shift in the direction of the plot. The turning points that lead to the climax help build and resolve tension, allowing characters to confront their challenges and audiences to experience heightened emotions.
Conflict escalation: Conflict escalation refers to the process in which a disagreement or tension intensifies, leading to more significant confrontations and challenges between characters. This development often involves increasing stakes, heightened emotions, and a greater complexity of the situation. Understanding this progression is crucial for creating engaging narratives that build tension and lead to impactful resolutions.
Conflict-laden exchanges: Conflict-laden exchanges refer to dialogues or interactions where tension, disagreement, or competition between characters is central to the narrative. These exchanges serve to build dramatic tension, develop character arcs, and drive the plot forward by showcasing opposing goals or desires. Such moments often create emotional stakes and highlight the complexities of relationships, making them crucial for engaging storytelling.
Conflicting goals and motivations: Conflicting goals and motivations refer to the diverse and often opposing desires or ambitions that drive characters' actions in a narrative. These conflicts create tension and drama, as characters struggle to achieve their individual aims while facing obstacles from others with different motivations. Such clashes not only deepen character development but also propel the story forward, as the pursuit of these goals leads to pivotal moments and resolutions.
Denouement: Denouement refers to the final part of a narrative where the complexities of the plot are resolved and the story reaches a conclusion. It's the moment when conflicts are settled, and character arcs are completed, providing closure to the audience. This stage is crucial for tying together loose ends and can affect how viewers perceive the entire story, especially in episodic formats.
Dramatic Irony: Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows more about a situation than the characters do, creating tension and engagement. This knowledge can enhance emotional connections and make character decisions more impactful, as viewers are often left anticipating the consequences of these choices.
False resolution: A false resolution occurs when a narrative appears to reach a satisfying conclusion, but actually leaves significant plot threads unresolved or introduces new conflicts that complicate the story further. This technique can create tension by misleading the audience into believing that the characters have resolved their conflicts, only for new challenges to arise, keeping the suspense alive.
Foreshadowing: Foreshadowing is a literary technique used to give an indication or hint of what is to come later in the story. It serves to build anticipation and create a sense of suspense, allowing viewers to connect various elements of the narrative as they unfold. This technique enhances narrative continuity and can deepen character arcs by setting up future events and emotional responses.
Internal Conflict: Internal conflict refers to the psychological struggle within a character, often involving their emotions, desires, or beliefs that create tension and drive character development. This type of conflict is crucial for character depth, influencing their backstory, relationships, and overall narrative arc while maintaining audience engagement.
Moral ambiguity: Moral ambiguity refers to situations where the right course of action is unclear or where ethical principles conflict, leading characters to navigate complex moral landscapes. This concept plays a crucial role in storytelling, especially when characters face dilemmas that challenge their values, forcing viewers to grapple with questions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, and the grey areas in between.
Obstacles and Complications: Obstacles and complications refer to the challenges and unexpected issues that characters face within a narrative, creating conflict and driving the plot forward. These elements are crucial for building tension, as they force characters to confront their limitations and make difficult choices, often leading to character development and heightened emotional stakes.
Opening hooks: Opening hooks are intriguing elements placed at the beginning of a story or episode that capture the audience's attention and draw them into the narrative. They are crucial for setting the tone and establishing initial tension, prompting viewers to ask questions and invest in the unfolding plot.
Overarching vs Episodic Tension: Overarching tension refers to the sustained emotional or narrative pressure that spans an entire series or storyline, creating a sense of ongoing stakes and development. Episodic tension, on the other hand, is the immediate, situational pressure that arises within a single episode or segment, often resolved by the end of that episode. Both forms of tension are essential for maintaining audience engagement and driving character development.
Pacing: Pacing refers to the speed at which a story unfolds, controlling the rhythm of narrative events and character development to maintain viewer engagement. It directly influences the audience's emotional response, helping to balance tension and release, as well as how information is revealed over time.
Partial vs Complete Resolution: Partial resolution refers to a situation in a narrative where some conflicts or tensions are resolved, but not all, leaving certain elements open-ended or unresolved. Complete resolution, on the other hand, occurs when all conflicts and tensions are fully addressed, leading to a clear and satisfying conclusion. Both types of resolution play critical roles in building and resolving tension within a story, influencing audience engagement and emotional payoff.
Payoff and Catharsis: Payoff and catharsis are two intertwined concepts in storytelling that refer to the emotional release and satisfaction experienced by an audience when a story reaches its climax or conclusion. Payoff occurs when the story's built-up tension leads to a significant moment or revelation, providing closure for plotlines and character arcs. Catharsis, on the other hand, is the emotional purging or relief that audiences feel as a result of experiencing these moments, often leading to a sense of fulfillment and understanding.
Red Herring: A red herring is a misleading or distracting piece of information that diverts attention away from the main issue or argument. This technique is often used in storytelling to create suspense, mislead characters and audiences, and enhance narrative complexity by introducing false leads that keep viewers guessing.
Rising Action: Rising action is the series of events in a narrative that build tension and develop the central conflict, leading up to the climax. This part of the story creates suspense and deepens the audience's investment in the characters and their struggles, making it essential for developing both A and B storylines, pacing scenes effectively, introducing conflicts, and building tension throughout the narrative.
Secrets and Lies: Secrets and lies refer to the hidden truths and deceptions that characters keep from one another, often driving the plot and shaping relationships. These elements create complexity within character dynamics, revealing motivations and vulnerabilities while also leading to conflicts and tension. The interplay of secrets and lies can enhance dramatic tension, as the revelation or concealment of truths impacts the characters' interactions and the overall narrative arc.
Story arc: A story arc refers to the overarching narrative structure that outlines the progression of a storyline from beginning to end, encompassing character development, conflicts, and resolutions. It connects various plot points and character growth, ensuring that the story maintains a cohesive flow while engaging the audience through emotional highs and lows.
Subtext: Subtext refers to the underlying meaning or implicit ideas behind a character's words and actions, which are not explicitly stated but are crucial for understanding the deeper layers of a narrative. It enriches storytelling by allowing characters to convey emotions, intentions, and conflicts indirectly, enhancing dramatic tension and audience engagement.
Suspense: Suspense is a dramatic device that creates a sense of uncertainty or anxiety about what will happen next, keeping the audience engaged and eager to find out the outcome. It often hinges on questions and conflicts within the narrative, drawing viewers in and making them emotionally invested in the characters and their journeys.
Three-Act Structure: The three-act structure is a narrative framework that divides a story into three distinct sections: setup, confrontation, and resolution. This structure helps to establish the story's characters, conflicts, and eventual resolutions, which are essential for crafting compelling episodic dramas.
Time pressure and deadlines: Time pressure and deadlines refer to the constraints imposed on the completion of tasks or projects within a specified time frame, creating a sense of urgency. This urgency can influence decision-making, character actions, and the pacing of a story, often heightening tension and driving the narrative forward as characters race against the clock to achieve their goals.
Unexpected twists: Unexpected twists are surprising turns of events in a narrative that challenge audience expectations and alter the perceived trajectory of the story. These twists serve to enhance the storytelling by creating intrigue, keeping viewers engaged, and adding layers of complexity to character development and plot progression.
Withholding information: Withholding information is a narrative technique where critical details are deliberately kept from the audience or characters, creating suspense and intrigue. This technique is essential for building tension, as it manipulates what the audience knows and when they know it, often leading to heightened emotional engagement and anticipation of revelations.