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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38264
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38264
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

### Tension is caused by reader's wanting to know "what happens next".

The MC survives in nearly every novel, in fact the MC dies so infrequently that people don't like those novels. They assume your MC will survive.

Tension is created by situations in which the reader isn't sure what is going to happen, the solution to whatever dilemma is happening on page 50 is not obvious. Say the house is on fire and the MC is trapped. It is only page 50, we **know** the MC will survive, we can even know that this situation will be resolved in the next 5 or 10 pages, we just aren't sure **_how_** the MC will survive, so we keep turning the pages.

If you watch the movie "Die Hard", you never doubt for a second that Bruce Willis is going to live through his ordeal and prevail. The same thing for "Taken", or 007: James Bond will never **die** in Bond flick. Neither will Harry Potter, or the MC of any detective series. Sherlock is not going to die.

Personal death isn't the only thing the MC has to fear; they can fear pain, imprisonment, torture (that doesn't have to leave any marks; e.g. most people don't know if you have broken an arm or leg in the distant past), injury like being shot or stabbed.

They can also fear the death of friends and loved ones, of children, of innocent strangers (all of which you can put in jeopardy, or even kill).

They can also fear **failure,** just because somebody lived doesn't mean they succeeded in their previous mission.

The audience can know the MC will live. The audience can know the MC will **succeed** (e.g. 007, Jason Bourne, nearly any detective series, every Romantic Comedy has a happy ending).

Obviously, that is not where the tension comes from. It comes from the audience **not** knowing _what happens next,_ and always having an open question in their mind about **how** some situation is going to turn out. It shouldn't always be the same question throughout the novel, it can and should be a long series of steps in solving the main question, some of them with failures and setbacks along the way. Readers will become numb and bored by success if it seems guaranteed. A mix of failure and success keeps them guessing, and what they are guessing about is "how THIS situation" turns out or is overcome: There is your tension, even if the final results are known.

Original score: 22