By A.C. Williams by @acw_author

When did someone spoil a book or movie for you?

Generally speaking, people in the storytelling business are very cautious about spoilers. But sometimes you can be too careful, especially when you’re writing a story.

Sometimes, one of the best sources of tension in your story can come from spoilers. Revealing important character information up front can be an effective way of building tension. And tension is good.

Tension is what pulls your reader into your story. But how do you generate tension without spoiling the story for your readers?

You have three Character Elements in your writing toolbox that can play a major role in building story tension, and if you know how to use them, you can fit them in all within your first paragraph.

• Motivation
• Personal stakes
• Urgency

Not what you were expecting?

Too often, new writers insist that a physical description must be in the opening paragraph of a story. It feels so important, but please believe me when I tell you that the physical description of a character is the least important element you need.

Your first page needs to include some kind of information about your character’s motivation, the personal stakes involved in their problem, and how urgent it is that they do something about it. These three elements will create a sense of tension, even if it’s a small amount. You can’t underestimate the affect even a small amount of tension will have on a reader.

Now, the character’s motivation on the first page doesn’t have to be the same motivation for the rest of the book. Granted, it should be in line with who your character is. But that very first opening scene needs to show us that your character WANTS something, even if it’s something unconnected to your main story.

Maybe your character is cold and wants to get warm. Maybe your character is hungry and wants something to eat. Whatever it is, show us that your character has a WANT, and that desire is driving them to take ACTION in some way.

A character actively engaged in trying to accomplish something is interesting, and it’s the best way to get your reader’s attention right off the bat.

That doesn’t mean you have to start every book with a chase scene or a fight scene. You can if you want. But whether you’re talking about a classic like Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (Elizabeth Bennet wants to stay single) or one of the big sellers of 2022 Delia Owens’s Where The Crawdads Sing (Kya wants to clean the pot of grits), the story starts off clearly indicating that the character WANTS something.

So how do you replicate this sort of tension? How do you invite your readers to participate in a story when you’re afraid of revealing too much? And how much is too much?

• Show that a character knows more than he or she should by how they interact with others or how others interact with them.

• Use body language and/or non-verbals to communicate that they mean something other than what they say.

• Use other characters to reveal things about your main character that they may not want to reveal yet.

• Use multiple POV characters to your benefit (ensemble casts are amazing, but they are VERY challenging to pull off well).

• Use themes and symbols to represent mystery or hidden agendas.

So we’ve got the idea, right? We need to start off a story by indicating a character’s motivation, personal stakes, and urgency. And now we know a few ways we can do it.

But there are a few other important writing tools we can implement to really crank the tension in a scene up as high as it will go:

• Action
• Voice
• Sensory Detail

This is what seems to distinguish the experienced writers from the new ones. Being able to write with action, voice, and sensory detail WITHOUT telling us what’s happening (SHOWING us instead) is a huge part of being able to build tension.

If we are going to believe that your character WANTS something or feels a sense of URGENCY about something, you can’t just tell us. We have to see your character behave in such a way that we know it.

We have to experience your character having experiences. If you just tell us what’s going on, that creates distance between us as readers and your characters in your story. You don’t want that distance. You want your readers IN the story with your characters, living every moment of the story alongside them.

So look at your first chapter. Look at that first paragraph. What does your character want in that scene? Can a reader understand what is driving your character in that moment?

Can you add action to the scene? Even if it’s just someone polishing shoes or picking apples? Can you help us hear the voice your character uses or experience the world where your character lives through their own eyes?

Every writer needs help with craft issues like this. First pages are hard; first lines are harder. But with practice and patience, all of us can learn how to catch and hold a reader’s attention until the last page.

Award-winning author A.C. Williams is a coffee-drinking, sushi-eating, story-telling nerd who loves cats, country living, and all things Japanese. She’d rather be barefoot, and if she isn’t, her socks won’t match. She has authored eight novels, three novellas, three devotional books, and more flash fiction than you can shake a stick at. A senior partner at Uncommon Universes Press, she is passionate about stories and the authors who write them. Learn more about her book coaching and follow her adventures online at www.amycwilliams.com.