Tightening Tension - Top techniques
How do you make four men sitting around talking baseball, turn into a chillingly frightening situation?
Alfred Hitchcock could do it.
How can you tell a joke so that a thousand people burst out laughing at exactly the same time?
Hamish and Andy know the technique.
Who can craft a speech that will change the world?
Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Barack Obama did it.
What these creators know is a simple but powerful secret.
Build up the tension!
Everyone remembers the last line (i.e. the ending). However the most effective writers know that a great ending or punchline is always set up by a powerful tension or crescendo scene before.
Students often short cut the tension scenes - they want to get right to the action climax. However, see how much more effective it is if a writer takes the time to build up the tension to the climax ending.