Tension is good. It makes the reader turn the pages. However,  constant high tension soon gets dull. The readers can’t sustain continuous scared excitement, and after a while, instead of roused, they become bored.

It’s like the waves on a stormy sea: the peaks are only high because of the troughs between them. If there were only continuous peaks without any troughs, the sea would be flat.

Your job as writer is to create not just the peaks, but the troughs which make the peaks look high.

Allow your protagonist to relax and get her breath back before throwing her into the next frightening experience. During this brief relaxation of the tension, your reader’s heartbeat returns to normal – so it can accelerate again.

If you’re writing a thriller, some of the tension stems from the reader fearing for the main character’s safety. Here’s what the scary part of your story might look like if it consisted only of peaks, and how a skilled writer might handle it by alternating peaks and troughs.

Peaks-only version

The heroine gets tortured by the villain. (Peak)

She escapes by lowering herself through the window down the three-storey façade. (Peak)

As soon as she’s outside, she gets pursued by the villain’s minions. (Peak)

To escape from the minions, she hides in a warehouse between boxes and canisters, and the minions immediately set fire to the place. (Peak)

This is too much relentless scare. By the time the heroine faces the snake, the reader scarcely cares anymore.

Peaks & troughs version

The heroine gets tortured by the villain. (Peak)

Finally, he retires for the night, and the pain ceases. (Trough)

She escapes by lowering herself through the window down the three-storey façade. (Peak)

Outside, there’s bright light, and a road leading to freedom. (Trough)

She hears the villain’s minion’s footsteps and voices, and runs for her life. (Peak)

To escape from the minions, hides in a warehouse. She catches her breath and bandages her wounds and lies down between boxes and canisters to get some much-needed sleep. (Trough)

She wakes to the smell of smoke and the prattling of flames. The minions have set the place on fire. (Peak)

The troughs don’t have to be long. One paragraph is often enough. You can insert a short trough in the middle of a scary scene, or as a transition between two scary scenes. At other times, you may want to insert a whole “trough” scene between two “peak” scenes. For example, in the climax of a thriller, you can insert a non-scary scene, perhaps a tender love scene, between two terrifying sections.

Don’t overdo the troughs. If they are too long, or if there are many of them, they can make your writing boring. Don’t allow your reader to become too relaxed. Use the troughs sparingly and keep them short.

Questions?

If you’re a writer and want to discuss this technique, please leave a comment. I’ll be around for a week and will reply. I love answering questions.