How to Write Heart-Pounding Tension Like Jaws
If I told you to look under a rock and there was even a slight chance there was a snake under it, would you do it?
What if I gave you an electrical shock if there was one. So...snake plus pain, for those following along. You’re cool with that, right?
Well, that’s exactly the kind of experiment that University College London did.
Volunteers played a computer game and were told they had to look under rocks in the game. Some rocks had snakes, and the volunteers would receive a mild electrical shock. Some didn’t, and they received no shock.
Remember when shocking yourself was just an arcade game, and that was...fun? The hell?
Anyway, there were patterns in the experiment. It became clear there were three kinds of rocks. Some rocks always had a snake, some rocks that never had a snake, and some rocks sometimes had a snake.
And they found something interesting about stress in the study.
For rocks that sometimes had a snake, the volunteers had the most stress, showing visible signs of anxiety (pupils reacting, sweat, etc.)
There was far less stress when there was no chance of a snake (obviously) but also less stress when there was a guarantee there would be a snake.
Tension, anxiety, and stress all come down to uncertainty. It’s the fear of the unknown. When humans don’t have answers, we get stressed about it.
We would rather know the outcome, even if the outcome was assured to be terrible.
What does this possibly have to do with writing? Chris, you’ve gone off the deep end now. The obsession with Tolkien was passable, barely, but this?
It has everything to do with telling a good story.
If you want to create tension in your story, and most of us do because we like keeping the reader engaged, then we need to make things uncertain.
When we know our characters are going to be fine, there’s no tension. But interestingly enough, when we are sure they are going to fail, there’s also less tension.
Hmm.
Great storytelling happens when your reader asks, “how is this going to play out?”
Let’s look at a masterpiece of creating tension. In fact, it was so good at building tension we began our deep modern fear of sharks.
Jaws.
How Jaws creates thrilling tension
Ah yes, underwater is exactly where you want to be in a shark movie
You can hear the music even as you read this.
The slow build-up of possible disaster is how Jaws became the classic it is today.
Sure the shark looks fake, but that actually helps prove the stress experiment. Once we see the shark, it becomes far less terrifying.
And it wouldn’t matter how good it looked. Once we see it, we begin to categorize it, compartmentalize how it works in our heads. We do what humans do best: find answers.
And the tension starts to relent.
The movie’s climax has more to do with how the characters will turn out than our fear of the shark. We need to see Chief Brody through this. He’s just a normal, rational guy trying to do the right thing to protect this town he now calls home.
The shark attack scenes utilize some great tricks to keep you on the very edge of your seat. If your butt doesn’t clinch at least a little in this movie, who are you?
The opening, of course, is as memorable as it gets. We see a girl in terrible trouble.
It’s slow at first. We know something is stalking her.
When that payoff happens, we aren’t sure what we expected. Nothing good. But it’s early enough that we ask a lot of questions, and the ocean at night is plenty to make us fear the unknown.
The next victim is a little later in the movie when a kid is taken right from a crowded beach.
We are in a new situation now. We feel somehow safer, but aren’t sure, and that’s the key. There’s people everywhere so surely it will be ok. Right?
Right??
The slow build-up and music cues again. And it focuses on a kid. So obviously the kid is going to be safe they wouldn’t…
Oh shit!
So this shark is a monster that needs to be stopped now. But we (and Brody) feel powerless. The mayor doesn’t seem to care about obvious danger and facts. He just cares about money.
Hmm.
And our main character is desperate for answers. The shark seems like nothing will be able to touch it. Our panic leads us to start thinking anything in the water is surely dead.
And that is where Jaws distinguishes itself.
How writing in uncertainty builds tension
Remember the scene with the two guys on the pier?
What the hell is the point of that scene?
Let me refresh your memory.
They aren’t characters that really show up again. And they survive. Lame. What a throwaway scene.
Oh, but it isn’t.
This scene turns out to be a rock that sometimes has a snake under it.
We think Charlie, the poor guy dragged into the water, is an absolute goner. Sure, yell, “SWIM CHARLIE” all you want. Dude is deader than dead.
But he makes it.
And now we have evidence that you can, in fact, survive an encounter with the shark. Now we have uncertainty.
The entire point of that scene is to make us realize we still need to ask the question, “are they gonna make it?”
It’s critical at this point in the story. Brody’s son is soon going to be in danger, and we need to be uncertain about what will happen.
We’ve seen a kid get eaten. We’ve seen someone barely survive. So we don’t know what will happen at this point.
We peek under the rock, unsure if we are going to be shocked. Is there a snake? Am I safe? And we sweat a little, hoping for the best.
And tension erupts in that moment, overloading our nerves.
How to write page-turning tension in your story
The real question is, how do you get your readers sweating like this?
We want to write stories that our readers can’t put down. They can’t guess exactly how the outcome will be when we create tension.
There’s nothing worse than a reader half paying attention to a scene because it’s not gripping. Enough of those, and they put your book down for the last time, never finishing.
So let’s make them unsure what’s under that rock. Snake or no snake?
You may have scene after scene of tension, but are you sure your reader is feeling it?
Make sure you have a scene like poor Charlie ripped from the dock. The reader needs to know characters can make it.
The inverse is, of course, also true. There have to be real stakes. The terrible trouble swimming around in your story needs to deliver real consequences to your characters.
Pictured: terrible trouble
If your reader knows everyone is going to make it, then there’s nothing to worry about.
It’s why Game of Thrones worked (in the early days.) Main characters died. Like, characters on the friggin’ poster for the show died before season 1 ended. That creates uncertainty.
Honestly, it almost got to the point where you were certain of it. They probably could have used a few more Charlie on the pier scenes.
Keep your reader guessing.
And their pits sweating.
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