building tension

May 30, 2005

When you’re looking at tension throughout a story, there is this spike that happens after every Act turn. Things become volatile at first, but eventually reach a state of equilibrium. However, with each Act turn, the tension becomes higher and higher because every event is built on top of the previous one. It’s almost like building a house of cards. This continues to grow until you reach that 4th Dramatica Act where everything is highly unstable.

The Main Character now is at a point so far from the beginning that he can’t even see where he started or maybe even wonder how or why he got so far into this mess. And the Main Character can’t turn back, no matter how much he might want to, because the whole thing will fall apart. He’s so far now that it isn’t just a one step back process. At that final moment it’s all or nothing.