Today on the blog, freelance editor and author Rachel A. Greco provides ample advice on adding tension to your prose.

7 Tips For Adding Tension to Your Story to Keep Readers Reading

The mountain groans above you. Cracks break through the ice. One piece, sharp as a dagger, slides off and hits the snow by your boots. More groans resound above as if the mountain is alive. As if it wants you dead. A larger chunk falls off and splinters into a thousand shards just behind you. You run, but how can you outrun an avalanche? Ice pelts your face, nips at your feet--hungry and relentless.

That "what's going to happen next?" twist in your gut is tension. As bestselling author Steven James says in Troubleshooting Your Novel: "tension isn't action; it's anticipation of whether [the character is] going to get what they need or not." In the same book, he also says that tension is born when conflict meets desire.

Tension doesn't have to be something as huge as wondering if the character will survive an avalanche. It can just be the question of whether the boyfriend and girlfriend will kiss.

Each scene in your story should have tension, though it should escalate throughout the story until the final conflict.

Why Have Tension in Your Story?

The short answer: it keeps readers reading. As long as the reader isn't sure whether the main character will get their goal or not, they will keep turning those pages. But as soon as the character survives the avalanche, finds the missing crown, or discovers the answer, the tension deflates. So you, the author, will continually need to inject more tension into the story so the reader constantly wonders what will happen and if the character will succeed. This is one reason why the main character must constantly fail to reach their objective.

How to Add Tension to Your Story

Tip #1: Define Those Stakes

We're not talking about grilled steaks here (sorry, couldn't help myself ;). These kind of stakes are the consequences to your characters and their world if the protagonist fails to accomplish the goal that you give them at the beginning of the story. You must ask yourself these questions about what will happen if the main character fails:

• Who will be hurt?

• How will they be hurt?

• How much will it hurt them?

• Why will it hurt them?

  
  

There will be no tension if readers don't believe anything is at stake or if they don't know what's at stake. So don't let the reader guess--make it clear from the onset. And as the story progresses and the stakes are raised, you'll need to continue to redefine what the consequences could be.

In The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien makes it very clear what will happen if Sauron gets his hands on the one ring: all of Middle Earth will fall to his dominion.

Why It Works

Readers become invested in a story when they care about a character and know how much depends on that character getting their goal or not.

Tip #2: Use Dramatic Irony

An effective way to build tension is to let the reader learn or figure something out before the characters. This technique, called dramatic irony, creates a sense of dread because the knowledge makes it seem even more impossible that the main character isn't going to get what they want. You can do this with subtle hints like the odd behavior of Professor Quirrell in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone or something more obvious like Kelsier in The Final Empire as he keeps secrets from his friends about his true plans.

Why It Works

Dramatic irony is compelling because the reader can't do anything but watch and wonder what will happen when the characters find out and how it will affect them and the story.

Tip #3: Draw Out the Scene

Ironically, sometimes the best way to ramp up the tension is to slow things down. By drawing out a moment--whether through details, inner thoughts, or sensory details, you stretch the reader's anticipation like a taut string. It can be easy to cut scenes short or just give the reader the most important information, especially when we writers are nearing the end of the novel or want get to that one really exciting part. But the more you delay the outcome, the more the reader will lean into it, asking, "What's going to happen?!"

Here's an example from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling when Harry's in the hut with his Aunt and Uncle and is counting down the minutes until his birthday:

Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did. Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.

Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go), was was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?

One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds... twenty... ten... nine--maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him--three...two...one...

BOOM.

Rowling didn't just say, "As Harry counted down the minutes to his birthday, he heard a loud sound outside. Then the door flew open." That would have worked. But would it have kept the reader breathless, wanting to know what was going to happen? Not really.

Why It Works

Slowing down gives the reader time to feel uncertainty, dread, terror--all the emotions the character feels.

Tip #4: Focus on the Details

One way you can elevate tension in your story and draw out the scene is to focus on the details. Readers will feel more immersed in the scene if they feel as if they're truly there, hearing the wind rattle the trees, seeing the hands of the main character shake, etc. This is one example where showing triumphs over telling.

In the moments before Katniss goes into the arena in the Hunger Games, Collins focuses on physical sensations to pull the readers into her fear: the sweat on her palms, the shaking platform, the countdown.

Why It Works

When you zoom in to specifics, time stretches. You create a slow-motion effect where the reader can feel every heartbeat and every hesitation, drawing out tension without losing momentum.

Tip #5: Remove Repetition. Add Escalation

Adding more action doesn't necessarily mean adding more tension. If you have the same kind of car fight or argument, your reader will start skimming. To keep them hooked, you need escalation: a steady increase in stakes, intensity, conflict, or consequence. That means removing unnecessary repetition and making sure each moment pushes the story further than the last.

Bonus Tip: To find out what the stakes are, ask yourself: What does my character have to lose?

As an example, think of the Lord of the Rings series. Frodo and his friends didn't begin fighting at the gates of Mount Doom. No, the escalation of the conflict and consequences grow throughout the series.

First, Frodo just had to get out of the Shire alive with his friends--who only consisted of Mary, Pippin, and Sam. But then he had to get to Rivendell. And then to Mt. Doom. Along the way, we see more and more people being corrupted by the ring and what could happen to all these people and places if Frodo doesn't destroy the ring. By the end, it's not just about him and the Shire. No, he's carrying the weight of all of Middle Earth on his back. No pressure! 😅

Why It Works

Escalation creates momentum and heightens the reader's anticipation as everything falls to pieces around the characters. There's more at stake, so the reader becomes more emotionally involved, and it's harder to believe that everything will turn out in the end.

Get a free checklist outlining all these tips + practical questions to ask yourself as you insert more tension into your story.

Tip #6: Leave Ends of Chapters Unresolved

A practical way to add tension is to leave the reader wanting more. When I was first wrote stories, I'd often end chapters with the characters sleeping. Well, that's not going to keep that reader turning those pages. In fact, it might not only put the characters to sleep, but the readers too!

The best example of this are the Hunger Games books by Suzanne Collins. At the end of nearly every chapter, she drops a bombshell that makes her books nearly put-downable because the reader is thinking, "What?!" and has to keep reading to find out how the characters will react to this shocking new development.

Of course, not every chapter needs to end with a bomb going off or someone getting shot, especially if your novel is in the cottagecore or cozy fantasy genre. The way to add tension to those stories could just mean that you leave the chapter with an argument unresolved or drop some new information in or have the character head off toward their next destination.

Why It Works

When you end a chapter on a question, a threat, or an emotional turning point, it creates narrative momentum. The reader doesn’t feel like they’ve “finished a section”—they feel like they’ve been pulled into the next one.

Tip #7: Shorten Sentences as You Build Toward the Climax

As your story reaches its most intense moments, whether that's a battle, betrayal, or emotional confrontation, your writing should reflect the rising tension.

You can mimic the experience the characters are undergoing by making it easier for the readers to reach the climax. This will help them feel the momentum—fast, breathless, urgent.

Bestselling author Patrick Rothfuss uses short, poetic fragments during emotional or tense scenes:

"I ran.I stumbled.I bled.”

Why It Works

Long sentences and paragraphs slow the eye. When you shorten the line length, readers move faster—matching the rising action and quickening their pulse as events spiral.

Need more help adding tension to your story? As a freelance editor, I offer sample edits of up to 3,000 words for $30. Fill out this short form to get started!