Brandon McNulty emphasizes the importance of maintaining tension throughout your novel by creating internal conflict within your characters. Here are some key points from his approach:
1. **Internal Conflict**: Focus on your character’s internal conflict to create tension. This can be achieved by presenting conflicting emotions within the character, such as excitement mixed with dread, happiness with nervousness, or contentment with guilt.
2. **Examples of Tension**:
– **Original Example**: A simple paragraph without tension: “Amy pulled out of the driveway excited to pick her son up from school.”
– **Revised Example**: Adding tension with conflicting emotions: “Amy pulled out of the driveway excited to pick her son up from school but dreaded the thought of having to ground him yet again.”
3. **Analysis of Harry Potter**:
– In “Harry Potter,” J.K. Rowling uses internal conflict to create tension. For instance, in one passage, she contrasts Harry’s miserable treatment by the Dursleys with the love they shower on their son Dudley.
4. **Importance of Conflicting Emotions**: Including conflicting emotions on every page keeps readers engaged and curious about how the tension will be resolved. This technique works regardless of the scene type, whether it’s action, description, dialogue, or even a mundane task.
5. **Practical Application**: To apply this in your writing, ensure that each scene reveals the character’s conflicting emotions. This will naturally create tension and keep your readers hooked.
6. **Further Reading**: McNulty recommends Donald Maass’s book “The Fire in Fiction,” which contains more insights on writing scenes with internal conflict and tension.
By consistently incorporating conflicting emotions into your characters’ experiences, you can create a compelling narrative that maintains tension and engages readers from start to finish.