To put this simply I saw everyone else doing one and decided I was special too so congratulations! You get to hear me drone on about writing something I've proven time and time again to be pretty mediocre at!
Tension can and should be handled in a variety of different ways for instance "Oh man I hope I pass this math test!" isn't going to have the same amount of tension as "If we don't press the big red button the world is gonna blow up!" It can be pretty hard to gauge just how much tension something should have because if you have too much things feel blown way out of proportion and if you have too little a potentially game-shaking moment can feel way smaller than it should.
Also, tension has to be dished out in moderation because if you just keep piling on more and more tension it can become stressful and tiring to follow what's going on, or perhaps worse what used to be suspenseful and exciting becomes the status quo. Sorry to use anime as an example but it's the biggest offender in my opinion. In a lot of anime specifically shonen as the story goes on the author has to keep raising the stakes and raising the tension otherwise like I said the suspense falls flat and the story becomes dull but this only postpones the problem because if you keep raising the stakes sooner or later the viewer/ reader loses grasp of how the situation affects the story which means the story loses its emotional value making it...dull.
You see another thing people forget is that tension has to be believable not just in the context that it makes sense but rather that the viewer feels genuine concern that our heroes might fail. I'm going to use Avenger's Endgame as an example because while I liked the movie I never really felt the tension because I was never really convinced that our heroes might fail, This isn't really the movie's fault more the fact that well...the Avengers already took an L in Infinity war so there's no way they're going to take an L in Endgame right?
Now one thing I'd like to note is that tension is at its best when the audience can connect with it which is why sometimes smaller scale more personal based pressure can be better than grandiose "world-destroying" consequences. Bottom line: If your tension can't connect with the audience it's not at its best. Do you know why people watch drama? Because they can draw comparisons to their own experiences and emotions. That's why the worst villains in media are people like Malekith in "Thor the dark world" because he's boring, he's bland and so the threat he poses is also bland and unconvincing. You never feel threatened by this guy in fact when I watched the movie I didn't give a flying fuck about anything this man was saying because it was just empty dialogue about "Purging the weak" and "Taking back what's ours" you know generic villain stuff, the kind of things you'd expect from a Skyrim NPC but at least they were fun to kill, the fight with Malekith was so whack I can't even remember most of it.
It doesn't matter how stunning and beautiful your fight scenes are, It doesn't matter how much build-up you have and how well it's handled. If your tension is bad your story is going to be BAD because the conflict is what drives the story.
Alrighty, assuming I didn't say "Tension" too many times I want to hear from you people, and who knows maybe someone who actually knows what they're talking about will join the discussion?
Tension can and should be handled in a variety of different ways for instance "Oh man I hope I pass this math test!" isn't going to have the same amount of tension as "If we don't press the big red button the world is gonna blow up!" It can be pretty hard to gauge just how much tension something should have because if you have too much things feel blown way out of proportion and if you have too little a potentially game-shaking moment can feel way smaller than it should.
Also, tension has to be dished out in moderation because if you just keep piling on more and more tension it can become stressful and tiring to follow what's going on, or perhaps worse what used to be suspenseful and exciting becomes the status quo. Sorry to use anime as an example but it's the biggest offender in my opinion. In a lot of anime specifically shonen as the story goes on the author has to keep raising the stakes and raising the tension otherwise like I said the suspense falls flat and the story becomes dull but this only postpones the problem because if you keep raising the stakes sooner or later the viewer/ reader loses grasp of how the situation affects the story which means the story loses its emotional value making it...dull.
You see another thing people forget is that tension has to be believable not just in the context that it makes sense but rather that the viewer feels genuine concern that our heroes might fail. I'm going to use Avenger's Endgame as an example because while I liked the movie I never really felt the tension because I was never really convinced that our heroes might fail, This isn't really the movie's fault more the fact that well...the Avengers already took an L in Infinity war so there's no way they're going to take an L in Endgame right?
Now one thing I'd like to note is that tension is at its best when the audience can connect with it which is why sometimes smaller scale more personal based pressure can be better than grandiose "world-destroying" consequences. Bottom line: If your tension can't connect with the audience it's not at its best. Do you know why people watch drama? Because they can draw comparisons to their own experiences and emotions. That's why the worst villains in media are people like Malekith in "Thor the dark world" because he's boring, he's bland and so the threat he poses is also bland and unconvincing. You never feel threatened by this guy in fact when I watched the movie I didn't give a flying fuck about anything this man was saying because it was just empty dialogue about "Purging the weak" and "Taking back what's ours" you know generic villain stuff, the kind of things you'd expect from a Skyrim NPC but at least they were fun to kill, the fight with Malekith was so whack I can't even remember most of it.
It doesn't matter how stunning and beautiful your fight scenes are, It doesn't matter how much build-up you have and how well it's handled. If your tension is bad your story is going to be BAD because the conflict is what drives the story.
Alrighty, assuming I didn't say "Tension" too many times I want to hear from you people, and who knows maybe someone who actually knows what they're talking about will join the discussion?
