Ramping Up the Tension

“Amanda stepped off the elevator on the lower level of the parking garage.  At ten o’clock on a Saturday night, the level was empty except for her car . . . and one other she didn’t recognize.  A sound of dripping water and the soft scurrying of animal feet – rats? – made her throat close. 

She swiveled her head in search of anything or anyone nearby then took a tentative step toward her car.  Then another step and faster, faster, until she was almost at a sprint.  Her high heels clicked on the concrete floor and echoed in the cavernous space.  Finally, she reached her car.  Damn, why didn’t she have her keys ready? 

Amanda fumbled through her bag, her heart now ratcheted up, pumping blood through her ears.  All she could hear was the furious whooshing sound of her own fear.

There, her keys, at the bottom, now in her hand.  She clicked the fob and the latches opened.  She reached for the handle, but before her fingers closed around it, she detected a breathy squeak of rubber soled shoes behind her.  She dropped her bag, swung around with a gasp, hands clenched into fists, ready to defend herself and  . . .”

So, what do you think?  Tension?  I always love the late-at-night parking garage scene.  Scares the heck out of me, even now.

What is tension, really, and why is it so important in writing? Even if you’re not writing a mystery.  Even if you’re writing non-fiction.

The noun tension has its Latin roots in “tendere,” which means to stretch, and tension occurs when something is stretched either physically or emotionally to its limits.  Strained relations between countries can cause political tensions to rise.  Tension can be added to a rubber band by stretching it to its limits.  By the way, you can release nervous tension by shooting that rubber band at the local bully.

Tension is the means to get your reader to turn the page, particularly if it’s used at the end of a chapter as a cliffhanger.  People, for the most part, don’t like to leave things unresolved.  They want to find the solution, even if it’s an unsatisfactory one (that’s another story.)

While you cannot (or should not) distort facts when writing non-fiction, tension around real events can ramp up the readers’ pulse just as thrillers can.  Take “The Monuments Men,” for instance.  How tense can a situation be when you have a group of men and women trying to save the art and monuments of a Europe at war?  When, finally the fighting ends, and they discover, in a dark, damp mine in Austria, a cache of hidden loot that would make King Midas gasp?  When, they manage to “derail” an art train bound for Germany with stolen paintings of Masters like Leonardo.

Now that’s tension.  That’s real life.  Whew.

I welcome your feedback and samples of tension in your writing.