Thursday's Children: RAWR!

Welcome to the Thursday's Children Blog Hop, where you can share your sources of inspiration during your writing journey. Make sure to check out the other bloggers via the Linky List at the bottom of this post, and if you want to join in, just sign up and go!

Inspired by T-rex.

Source

One of the hardest things all writers must do is build tension. How do you create that anticipation, that unease, that gripping feeling that will keep your readers on the edge of their seats?

Whenever I need some inspiration, I think of T-rex.

And by T-rex, I mean THE T-rex scene — the big, tension-filled reveal of the Tyrannosaurus in the first Jurassic Park. My favourite movie when I was a kid (*cough* still is *cough*), I recently got to see the re-release on the big screen... in IMAX 3D. Even though I'm now 20 years older than the first time I saw Jurassic Park, the T-rex scene still gave me goosebumps.

See if you can spot all of the tension-building devices in this scene:

Dark and stormy night

Impact tremors... BOOM! BOOM!

Bad guesses: "Maybe it's the power trying to come back on?"

Uncertainty: "What is that?"

Missing goat...

Heavy breathing, eyes growing wide

Gnawed-off goat leg!

Jaw drops

T-rex claw

Menacing growl...

Hungry stare!

Blood

A very scared man, "Oh Jesus!"

Thunder

Fence is torn apart, rung by rung

A call for help: "Dr. Grant?"

RAWR!!


What kind of devices do you use to build tension in your stories?


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