When You Know Exactly How You Want A Scene To Go But As Soon As You Sit Down To Write It You Are Suddenly

Tension vs. Conflict: What’s the Difference?

Good morning everyone! It’s my birthday today and because it’s my birthday I thought I’d post today (that’s kind of an obscure reference to Star Wars Guy and his girlfriend lol)!

Conflict and tension in literature help build drama and keep readers engaged through the end of the book. Learning the distinctions between conflict and tension will help elevate your writing and make your storylines more engaging.

What Is Tension in Writing?

Tension in a literary context is the sense that something ominous is right around the corner. Building a large amount of tension as a writer keeps your readers engaged up until the end of the story. Mystery novels are full of tension and foreboding, and they generally feature tense scenes from beginning to end. Working within the genre of mystery writing is a great way to learn how to layer tension into your narrative arc. Good use of tension makes a story worth reading and keeps readers guessing.

3 Tips for Using Tension in Your Writing

Learning to build tension is no easy task. Even the most seasoned professional writers have trouble maintaining tension from beginning to end. Here are a few tips for using tension successfully in your writing:

Foreshadowing: An important part of building tension is using foreshadowing to build dramatic tension and keep readers on the edges of their seats. In Harry Potter, author J.K. Rowling uses flashbacks and backstory to foreshadow the eventual major conflict that will unfold between Harry Potter and the villainous Voldemort.

Inner conflict: Sometimes inner conflict and self-doubt can be layered in through character development and used to build levels of tension. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the main character wants to avenge his father’s death but is beset by self-doubt, paralyzing indecision, and mental strain. As an audience, there is a sense of tension in every scene as we wait to see if Hamlet will act on his inner desire for retribution or remain stuck in a place of indecision.

A time limit: One great way to build tension in your story is to place a time limit on an action your character has to undertake. By adding the element of a ticking clock, you build tension and increase stakes. This is a common technique used in thriller novels and films as well as action and adventure stories.

What Are the Differences Between Conflict and Tension?

While tension simmers under the surface, conflict is generally out in the open—it's tension realized. Tension might be present an unspoken rivalry between the protagonist and antagonist or in the audience’s awareness of an impending disaster.

Conflict, on the other hand, involves an active clash; maybe the protagonist and the antagonist engage in a firefight or a heated debate, or maybe a character fights off a pack of animals or works to prevent climate catastrophe. Even if the conflict is interior—a character battling low self-worth, perhaps—it still involves opposing forces struggling for supremacy.

What Is Conflict in Writing?

Conflict can come in many forms. Conflict in a story can be a physical fistfight or a passive-aggressive war of words. All that is required for conflict is a manifestation of disagreement or incompatibility between a character and something else. Characters can be in conflict with other characters, with natural forces, or with society at large.

Another type of conflict is internal conflict. Conflict is one of the fundamental principles of narrative and creative writing. In order to write a story worth reading, you need characters whose point of view is in some way challenged and to whom bad things happen. Without conflict, you won’t have a narrative or any meaningful character arc.

4 Types of Conflict and Tips for Using Them in Your Writing

The kind of conflict you use depends on what your plot and subplots are centered around and what your main character wants and needs. New plot points generally introduce conflict or advance existing conflict. Here are some types of conflict to employ in your writing and a few tips about when and how you migh

Person vs. self: An internal conflict is a kind of conflict that only manifests within a character’s head. Though we may see this conflict dramatized through narration or dialogue, or play out in the protagonist’s actions, it is an internal struggle within a character.

Person vs. person: The simplest and most common form of external conflict is when two characters are in conflict with each other. The first stories we are told as kids generally have a clear good guy and bad guy. These stories are early introductions to person vs. person conflict. Person vs. person conflicts are very common, and it’s rare to find a narrative without an interpersonal conflict present at some point in the story.

Person vs. nature: Conflict between a person and forces of nature is a good example of external struggle that can raise the stakes in a story. Some notable stories that included conflict between a person and a natural force include The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway and Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Consider using person vs. nature conflict if you’re interested in writing a story with one main character and few, if any, supporting characters.

Person vs. society: Conflict between a person and society at large is a type of conflict often found in science fiction. Some notable examples of this type of conflict are found in The Handmaid’s Tale and The Hunger Games series. In The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen finds herself contending with a dystopian and oppressive United States government that pits citizen against citizen in order to keep dissent down and quell rebellion. If you’re interested in science fiction or narratives about social justice, you might want to consider exploring conflicts that pit an individual character against society at large.

Accurate

Naming characters in your books is like:

This is Mischa Ernst Townes III: I made a list of thirty-two possible names and narrowed them down through careful evaluation of which phonetic sounds and letter combinations invoked his energy, which etymologies most emulated the spirit of the character, and which names had connotations or allusions that would foreshadow or contrast his inevitable arc while simultaneously harking back to his history in an interconnected web.

OR

This is Roger Halifax it came to me in a dream.

There is no inbetween.

Dragon Age Inquisition Tarot, HQ: 1/10

I also want writers to stop assuming if a male and female character are friends they they have to be dating. Assuming if a m & f are friends they automatically have to like each other it makes for really lazy writing. If you want 2 characters to be in love, to like each other you have to show us why they like each other. Gives us the story of them falling in love two best friends of the same gender should not have more chemistry than the main couple gives us m/f relationships where there is just friendship so we can have the romance stories we deserve and stop assuming m/f together on screen are automatically dating.

NOT ONLY do i want more m/f friendships in media where there's nothing romantic between them, but i want m/f friendships where both characters are SINGLE so that there's no reason there to "justify" why those two can't date. i want the platonicness of their relationship to be something that stands on its own merit.

The Emotion Thesaurus: Amazement

Hello everyone! This post will discuss the emotion amazement.

This section is taken from the Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.

Amazement

Definition: overwhelming astonishment or wonder

Physical Signals:

widening of the eyes

a slack mouth

becoming suddenly still

sucking in a quick breath

a hand covering one's mouth

stiffening posture

giving a small yelp

rapid blinking followed by open staring

flinching or starting, the body jumping slightly

taking a step back

a slow, disbelieving shake of the head

voicing wonder: I can't believe it! or Look at that!

pulling out a cell phone to record the event

glancing to see if others are experiencing the same thing

pressing a hand to one's chest, fingers splayed out

leaning in

moving closer

reaching out or touching

eyebrows raising

lips parting

a wide smile

spontaneous laughter

pressing palms to cheeks

fanning oneself

repeating the same things over and over

squealing dramatically

Internal Sensations:

a heart that seems to freeze, then pound

rushing blood

rising body tempreture

tingling skin

stalled breaths

adrenaline spikes

Mental Responses:

momentarily forgetting all else

wanting to share the experience with others

giddiness

disorientation

euphoria

an inability to find words

Cues of Acture of Long-Term Amazement:

a racing heartbeat

shortness of breath

knees going weak

feeling overwhelmed as if the room is closing in

collapsing

May Escalate To: Curiosity, Disbelief, Excitement

Cues of Suppressed Amazement:

holding oneself tightly (self-hugging)

walking in jerky, self-contained strides

clamping the hands to the chest

looking down or away to hide one's expression

eyes widening a bit before control is asserted

mouth snapping shut

a stony expression

taking a seat to hide emotion

making excuses if reaction is noticed

stuttering, stammering

12 Emotional Wounds in Fiction Storys

Betraying a Loved One. Your character made a choice, and it backfired, badly. They betrayed someone close to them, maybe on purpose, maybe by accident. Now, the guilt’s eating them alive. They might try to fix things, but can they even make up for what they did?

Guilt Over a Past Mistake. They made a mistake, one that cost someone else. Maybe it was reckless, maybe it was a dumb decision, but now it haunts them. They can’t stop thinking about it, and no matter how hard they try to make things right, the past keeps pulling them back.

Survivor’s Guilt. Imagine surviving something awful, an accident, a disaster, but someone else didn’t make it. Now your character is stuck asking, “Why me? Why am I still here?” They push people away, convinced they don’t deserve to be happy or even alive.

Feeling Powerless. Your character is trapped, maybe in an abusive home, a toxic relationship, or just in life itself. They feel stuck, with no control over their own future.

Being Wrongly Accused. They didn’t do it. But no one believes them. Your character has been falsely accused of something serious, maybe even a crime and now they’re fighting to clear their name. It’s not just about proving their innocence, though. They’re also battling the pain of being abandoned by people who were supposed to stand by them.

Public Humiliation. They’ve just been humiliated in front of everyone, maybe it’s a video gone viral, or they were betrayed by someone they trusted. Now, they can’t even look people in the eye.

Living in Someone’s Shadow. No matter what they do, it’s never enough. Someone else, a sibling, a friend, a partner, always shines brighter. They feel stuck in that person’s shadow, invisible and overlooked.

Abandoning a Dream. They had big dreams, but somewhere along the way, life got in the way, and now they’ve given up. Maybe it was because of fear or circumstances beyond their control, but the loss of that dream has left them feeling empty.

Childhood Trauma. Something happened to them when they were young, something painful that still affects them today. Whether it was abuse, neglect, or a significant loss, the trauma follows them into adulthood, shaping how they see themselves and the world.

Being an Outsider. They’ve never felt like they fit in, whether because of their background, their personality, or something else. They long for acceptance but fear they’ll never find it.

Struggling with Addiction. They’re caught in a destructive cycle, whether it’s with substances, behaviors, or even people. The shame and struggle to break free from addiction are real and raw.

Living with Chronic Illness. They’re living with a chronic illness or disability, and it’s not just the physical challenges that weigh them down, it’s the emotional toll, too. Maybe they feel isolated, or like they’re a burden to others.

being a writer leads to a genuinely helpful but also very stupid kind of mindfulness where you'll be having a sobbing breakdown or the worst anxiety attack of your life and think "okay, I really need to pay attention to how this feels. so I can incorporate it into my fanfiction."

look, i'm sorry to say it, but if you really truly want to see more queer representation in media, you're going to need to be okay with seeing representation that you don't relate to at all. you need to be okay with media that has queer characters but none who share your specific identity. you need to be okay with media that has queer characters who do share your identity but who you find completely unrelatable. this is because you are not the only queer person on the planet and queer people who are not you, including queer people who you share no similarities with besides your queerness, deserve to see themselves represented.

you also need to be okay with media that shows a queer experience that you personally find uncomfortable. it's okay if you hate coming out stories, but other people find them valuable, so they need to exist. it's okay if you're a masc trans guy and you feel uncomfortable seeing femme transmasc characters, but femme transmascs do exist in real life and also deserve to see themselves represented. it's okay if you're uncomfortable with queer stories that involve cheating or abusive/toxic relationships or queer characters who are not good people, but other people find a lot of meaning in those stories, so you need to be okay with the fact that they exist.

please stop calling out creators—particularly queer creators—for writing queer representation that you don't personally relate to. if you want every queer person to be able to feel represented in media and if you want every queer creator to be able to make the stories they want to tell, you're going to have to learn to accept that some stories will feel completely unrelatable to you, and that's okay, and it doesn't mean those stories are "problematic" or "bad representation"