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Thursday, 28 March 2013

Using A Scene Chart for Tension and Suspense

Posted on 10:47 by Unknown
So yesterday my amazing writer friend Jordan McCollum posted on her blog about "Tension Check" and she included a link to a scene chart.  As I looked it over, and read her reasons for using it (she's a lot more organized writer than I am and I know I'll never keep up) but in this case I decided I was going to use it.

As a suspense writer, I want to keep my tension building throughout the book, but I also want that balanced with believability and character growth.  It's a tall order to fill.  Yet, even just doing the scene chart with my first four chapters I've noticed places that I can add one more layer and change a character's goals.  It has been so helpful.  (Click here for the scene chart I grabbed from Jordan's site.)

The more I write/publish the more I learn about the craft of writing and I really feel like I'm improving with every book.  Tension is huge for a suspense writer, and I try to be very aware of it in my writing.  I once had a reader tell me they were absolutely exhausted when they were finished reading one of my books.  I think that's a good thing, overall, but there also has to be a bit of downtime and depth.  Hence the reason why I am moving away from my pantser habits and becoming the perfect candidate for using a scene chart in my chapters.

So, that's what I'm working on this week.  Do you have something similar to a scene chart that's helped you in your writing?
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