My latest Craft Guide, Building Tension in Fiction, we focus on how tension arises from plot and character dynamics. And while those are the most prevalent source of tension, there’s another element of fiction that plays a crucial role in amplifying tension: setting, and how your characters interact with it. The environment your characters inhabit can intensify emotions and heighten tension, making scenes feel even more electric.
Let’s take a look at three ways to build a setting that sharpens the tension of your story.
Mirror Internal Conflict
Your setting can amplify tension by interacting with a character’s internal conflict in two ways:
It can reflect internal turmoil, as in a character who’s feeling trapped or anxious in his emotional life feeling physically claustrophobic in a crowded environment.
It can contradict the character’s emotions, as in relentless sunshine appearing to mock a dour mood — or torrential storms literally raining on a character’s parade.
Play with physical surroundings as metaphors for your characters’ internal states, and explore how the environment might change as the tension escalates and stakes rise.
2. Play with Senses
Sensory details can be powerful tools for creating tension, whether a character’s senses are heightened or dulled. Limiting what a character can see, hear, or touch—such as in darkness or fog—can create uncertainty and vulnerability, while amplifying certain sounds, smells, etc. can create a sense of overwhelm or a static buzz of anxiety.
When you’re playing with the interaction between senses and tension, focus on unsettling sounds, here-and-gone shadows, or unusual smells to make the reader feel what the character is experiencing. Or, go the other way, and take away a character’s ability to fully understand their surroundings by depriving them of one or more senses.
3. Isolate or Confine
When a character is in a predicament and cut off from safety or help, that creates tension quickly. Whether a character is physically isolated (e.g., stranded) or emotionally isolated (e.g., on the outs with her friends), isolation enhances vulnerability and adds extra tension to both the challenging moments (nobody to help) and the victorious ones (nobody to celebrate with).
Try it Yourself
By manipulating your story’s setting and atmosphere, you can create an immersive environment that enhances every moment of tension and makes even the quietest scenes that much more gripping.
Writing Prompt: Write a scene in which the setting itself adds to the atmosphere, amplifying the tension by making the character feel more vulnerable or uneasy. (You can start fresh here, or pick an existing scene from your current WIP and ramp it up. Or both!)