Part VII: The Art of Delay--Creating Tension and Reader Anticipation

***This post is the seventh in a series of eight exercises designed to take our short stories from rough draft to finished "masterpiece"(or as close as we can get ;-) with the help of the late John Gardner and a host of other well-known authors and teachers.  Click here for Part I ***


Back in January I posted a piece on the importance of tension in writing fiction, but the topic is worth revisiting I think, especially now that we're in the process of reworking our short story "masterpieces." So, what are people referring to when they talk about tension in storytelling? I like this definition offered by the late Rust Hills, long-time fiction editor for Esquire magazine, and author of Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular:

That “something” which is “going to happen” usually involves conflict of some kind, and the foreshadowing of that conflict is a key element in creating tension that works.  “Conflict is the heartbeat of all writing,” says Lajos Egri, author of The Art of Dramatic Writing.  “No conflict ever existed without first foreshadowing itself.  Conflict is that titanic atomic energy whereby one explosion creates a chain of explosions”:

Says Hills, “As with every other discussion of method, of course, there has to be an amount of competence and care on the writer’s part, or the effect won’t be caused by the method.”

Our mentor, the late John Gardner, agrees:

So for every piece of delayed information we'll need to do three things:  a) foreshadow the event so that the reader will anticipate its eventual coming; b), resolve or reveal the event or information at some point later in the story; and c) keep the tension taut throughout the story leading up to it, writing with such care, such rich language and startling accuracy of perception, that the reader can’t wait to skip ahead to the end, but is kept from doing so only by his own unwillingness to leave the gorgeous passages leading up to it.

Simple, right?

Rust Hills: Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular

John Gardner: The Art of Fiction

Lajos Egri:  The Art of Dramatic Writing

Write A Short Story:  

Part I: Introduction

Part II: Setting & Emotion  

Part III: Character Motivation & Change

Part IV: Story Shape

Part V: Dialogue

Part VI: Authenticating Detail & Description

Part VII: Tension & Reader Anticipation

Part VIII: Plot

Flashback

Yesterday I changed my mind about how to structure my novel. This is nothing new -- I've gone back and forth with this for nearly four years now. My novel spans approximately six years in time, and though the events occurring in the earliest months are critical to the story's outcome, I want to keep the main focus on those events that take place during the final year of the story.

Telling the story in chronological order seems like the most straightforward way to go, but that option gives equal weight to both past and present events. Another option would be to tell the story in alternating parallel storylines, one chapter in the present, followed by a chapter of flashback, and then back to the present in the next chapter, and so on. This structure would also seem to put too much focus on my character's past actions. For now, I've settled on a third option: I'll begin each chapter in the present and then flash briefly back to an important scene from the past, giving just enough information to provide necessary motivation or to reveal character. These flashbacks will follow a chronological timeline, until hopefully by the end of Part I the past will have caught up to the present and I can proceed with the rest of the novel in the present time.

The only problem, of course, is that flashbacks can be difficult to pull off. "There is an inherent plot problem when you use flashbacks," writes James Scott Bell, author of Plot & Structure. "… forward momentum is stopped for a trip to the past. If not used properly, the reader can get frustrated or impatient (not to mention editors, who tend to distrust flashbacks altogether)."

But flashbacks can be a good thing, as Caren Gussoff notes in this excerpt from her excellent chapter on "Setting and Pacing" in Gotham Writers' Workshop: Writing Fiction, The Practical Guide:

One thing for sure, to be such a wizard we need to keep our readers from getting lost in time and space, to keep our transitions as smooth and inconspicuous as we possibly can. In her bookPlot (from the Elements of Fiction Writing series) Ansen Dibell writes:

One way to make sure you're solidly anchored before you make the leap back in time is through the use of sensory detail. Author  Rust Hills (Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular) writes:

Recently I've tried to pay attention to how some of my favorite authors manage to navigate so smoothly from present to past and out again. The following are just a few flashback transitions from one of my favorite short stories, "Tiny Smiling Daddy," by Mary Gaitskill (Read her stories. Gaitskill is a master at piloting the reader through time and space). Each of the following passages leads into a brief flashback scene. The last one is my favorite-- the way the author ferries the reader from a scene in the present action (He stopped at a crowded intersection, feeling like an ant in an enemy swarm), through a brief summary of events over a period of time (She wrote poems about heroic women warriors, she brought home strange books and magazines), to a particular, vivid moment in time (Kitty screamed at her, the tendons leaping out on her slender neck.... ) So fluid. So seemingly effortless!

So, if in your current writing project you're ready to "lean off the roof" and take your reader on a brief journey into your character's past, here's an exercise to help get you started:

James Scott Bell, Plot & Structure

Rust Hills, Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular

Ansen Dibell, Plot

Gotham Writers' Workshop: Writing Fiction: The Practical Guide (chapter on "Setting & Pacing" by instructor, Caren Gussoff)

Mary Gaitskill's collection of short stories: Because They Wanted To