Totnes Phase 2 TENSION Friday 27th

We looked at some line-editing skills today.
Tips:

1. start with concreteness, rather than abstraction
2. remove as many function words as you can
3. let your verbs and nouns predominate in each sentence - try not to hide them behind function words
4. Function words are inexpressive - but we use them a lot in talk - so it tends to infect our prose if we're not careful.
5. Words to avoid: be, as such, already, because, there is, it was, there was, had to be a, has there ever been such a, - the list is endless really…

TENSION
Tension has 4 styles:
Relationship / Task /  mystery / surprise
1. Dialogue should always have inflection to reflect relationship tension (rise to point of crisis)
if two people are at odds - use shorter responses, less need for attribution and direction
2. Task tension works best by placing obstacles in front of your main protagonist, and just keep putting them there. TIP - don't always have an answer or solution as to how your character will resolve the crisis.
3. Mystery tension - use dramatic irony, let the reader see the misunderstandings of your protagonist - let them scream at the page.
4. Surprise tension (where's the twist?) Work at it being a surprise to you too. If you're surprised by what your protagonist has done, the reader will be too.
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