We are moving from Setting into Tension. In wrapping up with setting we discussed the cultural side of it. This brought me to the realization that all of my characters are white, of more or less Anglo Saxon descent, and all heterosexual. It opened my eyes to the fact that while my setting may be fantastic in many ways, it was also fairly mundane. I also realized that a fantasy world, just like every other, needs varying cultures and beliefs.
Tension is simple and complicated at the same time because you need it on every single page. This helps propel the story along and keeps the reader interested. Without it people start skimming, lose steam, and potentially stop reading altogether. That being said you can not have a 300 page battle scene. While this could be very epic it would likely exhaust the reader. Tension does not have to be overt, and in my opinion is more effective, if it is subtle in nature.
Things that help tension include character self-reflection and leaving story questions unanswered. The best way to make sure story questions keep the reader reading is to minimize back-story dumps, and “tea parties”. Tea parties are where all the characters get together and talk about what has happened up till then in the story. Back-story is the revealing of information about a character that occurred before the story happened. This is good because it explains things, but often the less a reader knows the more they want to read.