What is tension in narrative? Is it driven by plot, by character, or by both?

Tension is what creates that beautiful anticipation in a reader and can be driven by both plot and character. When the uncertainty builds, the stakes are high, a threat looms and a reader is anxious about the outcome or about an unexpected twist, there is tension. Tension can be built from many things, landscape, pending danger, a characters flaws and decisions or indecisions. Not only does the rising tension move the story forward, but it also builds both curiosity and suspense. 

Your most recent novel, Burning Mountain, is full of twists and turns. Do you plan your twists from the plotting stage, or do they emerge as you write?

I’m a plotter and a pantser, which I believe the term used is a ‘plantser’. I like to outline the basic structure of my novel, including a planned twist or dramatic shift, that way I know what I’m writing towards and staying true to my themes and premise. I also feel confident knowing I’ve got a strong reveal for the reader. However, I don’t over plot. I let the subplots unfold by pantsing. I love the discovery of character, the shifts in beats, those beautiful vignette moments that surprise and reveal another layer. The mini twists in a scene when there are shifts and subtle beat changes, those are the moments I love the most when writing and can only come by trusting your instinct while sitting in the moment.

When do you know in your own writing when a situation or scene lacks tension?

I think the tension falls away when you write a scene, and none of your characters want anything or have anything at risk. When nothing’s at stake. A quick way to check is to ask, what does my character want? What will happen if they don’t get it? If the answer is nothing, and my character is unchanged or unfazed, then I scrap the scene.

Is building tension as important for literary writing as it is for genre writing? And what is the difference?

Both literary fiction and genre fiction has some level of conflict and consequence. The tension in a historical novel could be a pending war, a romance could be the risk of losing love, a crime novel is finding a killer. Whether internal or external conflict, when a character has something at risk, either a threat to their ego, a fortune in jeopardy, a life in danger, a truth exposed, or loved one in peril, the reader worries, and the tension grows.