I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be running a workshop on tension for Clarion West this May! Come join me for an exploration of the different kinds of tension and how they shape the reader experience.
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Tied Up in Strings: How Internal Tension Moves Your Characters with Susan J. Morris
Explore the difference between cross-tension and forward tension and how to effectively use them to give your story magnetism and forward drive.
Tension: it’s the heart of the page-turner, the muscle behind a plot that won’t let go, the indescribable need to read just one more chapter. But just as there are different kinds of muscle fibers, there are different kinds of tension, with different purposes—and the balance between them shapes your story.
In this workshop, we’ll dissect how cross-tension and forward-tension work throughout the structure of a story to shape the flow, focus, tone, reader investment, and retention of information. Then, we’ll put those analytical tools to work, working together to create a tension map of The Hunger Games and then using that map to identify the effect it has on the reader experience, as well as the implications for title, genre, and fit in the marketplace.
For writers of all levels. No advance preparation is required.
