Tension is one of the most important elements in a story.

I do some pro-bono editing in my spare time to help new and struggling authors, and I keep coming across manuscripts that have nothing driving them until nearly the end of the first act. I was wondering why I kept setting these books down and not picking them back up again, and then I realized it's because I have no burning desire to know what happens next because there is no tension.

To clarify: I don't mean the characters aren't fighting enough or the stakes aren't high enough. The world doesn't need to be ending in chapter one for readers to move on to chapter two. Tension can be created out of almost anything. Is your character worried about a big project that's due at work? That's tension. Do they have a nerdy hobby they keep hidden from people they don't know well? That's tension. Are they cooking dinner for their crush tonight and concerned it won't be edible? That's tension! Even if it's resolved in one chapter, it still made readers wonder what was going to happen next.

In the manuscript I'm reading right now, the main character inherited her grandmother's bakery. I thought, 'Ah, so she's going to be worried about filling her grandmother's shoes.' But no, she feels no pressure. So then I thought, 'Okay, maybe the business is struggling.' But no, the business is doing fine. So then I thought, 'Maybe she's going to have to master a tricky recipe.' But no, she nails them every time with minimal effort. So I thought, 'Maybe the grandmother will try to insist that everything is done the way she wants it even though it's not her bakery anymore.' But no, the grandmother isn't even an on-page character. Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.

Welp. That was a hard week, but very worthwhile. I wrote about 40,000 words in 5 days and finished a solid first draft of a novel. I’m very pleased by what I’ve done, but I’m also very tired.

Next up, speed learning Affinity Photo to make a cover for the book - and the series it’s the beginning of. What fun. 

Also, I’m facing starting a newsletter, re-starting my blog, and writing both a short novella to give away with newsletter subscription and also the following novels, so that it’s acutally a series and not just a random one-off. 

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The Writer’s Well Podcast has done it again. They’ve asked an incredibly fascinating and thought-provoking question: What makes you feel like a real author?

They asked this of each other—the two hosts Rachel Herron and J. Thorn, as well as one of Rachel’s friends, Sophie Littlefield. Sophie recalled the first time she was published—a short piece in “True Confessions” Magazine. She went out and…

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