I want you
to do something before you read too far.
I want you to close your eyes and picture
one of those cleverest of jugglers — no,
not the ones who juggle running chainsaws
with live cats, but the ones who set
plates spinning atop sticks. You know
the kind of juggler I mean? He starts
with one plate spinning on one stick,
adds a second plate on a second stick,
then a third. Sometimes he puts more
than one plate on each stick, but he
keeps on adding and spinning and building
until he has a whole row of spinning
plates on his table.
Now, close your eyes and picture that
delicate balancing act. Picture some
of the plates slowing, their smooth rotation
starting to wobble. Heart in mouth you
wait for the plate to teeter and fall...but
the clever juggler intercedes in the
nick of time, saving the plate from crashing
to the floor.
Sometimes he simply gives the slowing
plate another spin to restart its rotation.
Sometimes he lets it wobble to almost
a standstill. Sometime he even dives
in and captures it en route to the floor.
Think of the tension that creates in
the audience — anticipating the
next wobble, watching the juggler dash
from one end of his table to the other — even
though you know he will save the plate
from destruction at the very last second.
IF he’s a very clever juggler,
of course, because he knows exactly how
to manipulate interest and tension, milking
every last “ooh” and “ahh” from
his riveted audience.
He is as much a juggler of his audience
as he is of spinning plates!
Have you ever thought of yourself, the
story crafter, as one of those jugglers?
The plates are the elements of your story.
The key characters. The plot elements.
The conflicts or sources of tension.
At the start of the story, you put some — or
all — of those elements into action.
In other words, you set your plates spinning.
Perhaps you start them all at once,
spinning them into action side by side
in a neat, tidy row. But if they’re
all spinning at the same speed for the
same length of time, will that not be
predictable for your readers? But what
if they’re spinning at different
speeds, so their rotations come unstuck
at different times? Or what if you start
with only a few plates and introduce
the others one at a time? New elements,
new action, upping the stakes, creating
greater risks of disaster.
It is up to you how many “plates” to
include, how and when you put them into
action, at what pace, for how long. Remember
how our juggler builds tension in his
audience through fear of the falling
plate? You, as the story juggler, decide
how long to allow each conflict to wobble
before saving it. Or you may choose not
to save one, but allow it to crash and
splinter on the floor.
Or perhaps you add a new twist to the
juggling act and really surprise your
reader/audience. The plate crashes but
doesn’t shatter. It was built of
sterner stuff.
So, the next time you’re concerned
about falling tension in your story — the
next time you encounter the dreaded sagging
middle — think about your plates.
Perhaps you started with too few or set
them spinning at the exact same speed.
Perhaps it’s time to up your reader
anticipation with a wobble and teeter.
Maybe it’s time to set another
one spinning, or to bring one crashing
to the floor.
Manage your plates cleverly, keep the
tension high, and avoid the sagging middle. |
