I recently read a book (no names, sorry!) that I had some trouble getting into. The premise seemed interesting (nothing amazing or too dramatic--just a nice, contemporary love story), but the only thing that kept bringing me back was what would happen when "the world" found out the girl was with this guy she wasn't supposed to be with. Other than that, there wasn't much tension in the story.
So tension is kind of a weird thing because, as a people, we don't like it our real lives. In fact, many of us flat-out avoid it.
Tension, conflict--these are things we could do without on most days.
The problem? We love to live vicariously. Tension is fine as long as it's not happening to us, and we especially love to read about it.
Your reader wants to return to the story you're telling (otherwise, why would they have picked your book?), and they can only do that when they're anticipating what's going to happen next.
How do we create that suspense?
First, we can't make things too easy for our characters. They need to struggle, and they need to fail (to a point).
Second, characters shouldn't get along with 100% of the people 100% of the time. Pit them against each other. Let them disagree, argue, and "duke it out"--literally or metaphorically.
Third, when you do introduce conflict, don't resolve it too quickly. Draw it out (not unnecessarily so, but maybe character one shouldn't accept character two's apology so soon).
Finally, as conflicts are resolved, make sure new ones have been introduced. At least one over-arching conflict should take us all the way to the end of the novel, but there will be sub-conflicts popping up all over the place. Use them to keep the reader coming back for more.
Be Brilliant!
~Katie~
