Tension — unmet desires. Where did Jack Bauer go?

Tension — unmet desires. Where did Jack Bauer go?

Tension.

Writing the word gives me a headache.

Style and tension were the subject of my writing class on Monday.

Not going to blog about style. With all the Sex in the City 2 hype, the only image I have is Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha swathed in fabric striding some sand mountain.

Tension.

Every good story has to have it. A writer’s job is to create it from the first scene and build it, weave it — keep it rising on a string up to the climax. The moment when the conflict is resolved.

This includes creating empathic characters with deep motivations. Their motivations manifest themselves into desires and wants. Good writers block and impede the fulfilment of these desires until two-thirds to three-quarters the way through the story — the climax

That creates tension. The more tension, the more compelling the novel.

Why do we like to read stories filled with so much conflict — yet no one can live that way very long in good mental and physical health?

Our lives might seem pretty lame on the surface.

Granted there is lots of activity. Work, school, volunteering, baking cupcakes for end of school party, battling against the creatures that are shredding my collards.  Nothing is as life shattering as the drama that unfolded in the finales of Lost or 24. Thank God. But why don’t we feel peace?

Jack Bauer is a tough *@###*. If I ever have to battle international terrorists I hope he is on call wherever he has run off to.

You never know. I might find a nuclear zucchini planted in my garden.

It might not be as sexy as a John Grisham thriller, but our inner selves are mega-repositories of tension caused by unmet motivations.

That must be why I religiously run, but that only releases physical manifestations. It doesn’t go to the root of the motivation that’s not being met.

I’ve been studying Galatians. Been working  through Chapter 5 this week. The war of the flesh and the Spirit.

Very interesting stuff.

Galatians 5:22.

I really am going to miss Jack Bauer. Don’t tell my husband because all I did was talk about how violent that show was.

But have to admit, tension looked good on Jack.