It is what makes the reader want to keep reading and asking “what happens next”. Without tension, the audience won’t care about what happens and how the story ends.

McVeity gives us the following steps for developing tension ¹
1) Start with one problem

2) Escalate the problem – the original problems grows and becomes even more problems!

3) Create a series of events or revelations – sometimes there may not be ‘problems’ but key moments that help the story move towards the climax. These need to link together so that one moment moves towards the next. (For example think about the very hungry caterpillar and how he kept feeling hungry, so each day he ate more and more.

The key to make the tension in a story is what McVeity calls

LONG AND STRONG²

The trick to this are the following:

1. Slow down time
2. Add sensory details
3. Use the Rule of Three and repetition
4. Manipulate the pace