Where's the Heat? Assessing Your Power Positions in Story
First of two posts about upping tension and increasing heat by pushing "character power"
What’s new in my writing room: Honored to be included in the wonderful “How We Spend Our Days” series by author
who has interviewed so many amazing writers (the likes of and Steve Almond and Dani Shapiro!) about a day in their writing life. It’s an inspiring look inside the process and imagination of each working writer, and I loved contributing. You can read about my (not-so-typical) writing day here.
Power isn’t something I think of in story, either as a reader or writer. But when I first learned about power positions in scene, it radically changed the amount of tension in what I was writing.
Who is the power person in each scene of your story?
Who is the character that holds the control over present and future outcomes?
Who will most easily score the home run?
Once I identify that character, I can begin to work the elements of tension in my fiction and memoir more skillfully.
Two or more elements
To create tension or “heat” in a scene, two or more elements of power must face off. One wins out, usually, just like drivers jockeying for first position at a lane merge. How many sit back and let the other driver in? Hopefully, a few. But more often than not, I witness the push of power.
Why? Because we are trying to exert control over our lives, when it might not be offered elsewhere.
So must characters on the page. Story is even more about that give and take of power, that gain and loss of control over oneself and one's circumstances.
What does power in story mean?
"Power" in a story means that character has the ability to evoke change in the status quo. The one who achieves this, drives the story forward. Characters who are powerless do not.
And the character who starts out powerless but somehow gains power, or agency if you want to use a more palatable term, is the most interesting to readers.
Many years ago, I read a novel that featured three main characters, three different women who loved the same man. The first woman was powerless; she became an alcoholic and couldn't take care of her children for most of the novel. The second was more powerful; she was a journalist with money and smarts. The third started out very powerless, living with a serious disability, but she figured out her life and ended up better off than any of the others.
Guess who was the most interesting character to me, the reader? The one who gradually increased her control over her life. Her power.
Safe is not great for story
Many writers want their characters to stay safe, to not risk. This is fine in real life—we all crave a measure of safety and security, especially in turbulent times. But in story, it’s a downfall.
If good remain good and the nasty, fall, it can be boring. Safe in literature, essentially, is boring. Why? Because power never shifts. That kind of predictability causes a tension stall out.
Who fights whom for what?
Power positions work with characters internally--how they feel about their own ability to change their worlds. It also operates between characters. Who controls whom? “Who fights whom for what,” to paraphrase screenwriting guru John Truby.
If a character isn't willing to fight to gain more control over their life, if they stay safe within the known boundaries of their power or lack of it, the tension drops.
So it pays to look at the power balance in your scenes. Ideally, the power balance within and without should shift from beginning to end--as characters realize things, make decisions, grow. As they fight for what they want.
Too much difference isn’t interesting, either
Here's another cool rule I learned:
Not much tension arises when I pair a high-power player with someone completely not in power. There's no mystery as to who will win. Each stays safe within their known world, where the rules are familiar. The weaker person is always dominated. Ho hum.
Interest skyrockets when the weaker person suddenly begins to change, get more strength, find more clues, work with more tools--as that third character in the novel I just finished reading. The outcome is unexpected, I got more engaged.
MG and YA stories are super examples of this, maybe because their plots are simpler or the desires of young narrators are more straightforward. I think of Katniss in The Hunger Games or Harry Potter. Weak to start, gathering strength as we go, the power shifts and they become the heroes by the end, affecting everyone. This makes for an exciting story.
Setting as a power player
Power elements aren't only played out through characters. A hostile setting, or location, in your story can be almost a character in itself and shift the power balance. Think rivers that flood, tornadoes that sweep through a town, fires. Even a sinister object (a jackknife) in an otherwise normal location (rest-area restroom) brings an element of power that will affect the story.
Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River, once said in an interview that if he notices his characters are in the same room for more than a page, he gets them out of there. I wrote that down. The location that's not generating conflict is not a power location.
When we feel stuck and see that nothing's moving forward very well, it's likely we're neglecting the power rule. Ask who the power person is in the scene, and change it up. Ask what the power location is, and have it act upon the characters.
Your Weekly Writing Exercise
Look carefully at a scene or story where you get that ho-hum reaction, even as the writer. Who is the power player in the scene? (Is there even one?)
Play with these ideas:
Rework the scene to increase the power or agency of one character while perhaps decreasing another’s.
Add a powerful element of setting that influences the story considerably.
Bring a powerless character to more agency by giving them a secret super power they may not have ever valued.
Shout Out!
I love to give a shout out to writing friends and former students who are publishing their books and encourage my newsletter community to pre-order or order a copy to show your support of fellow writers. Be sure to let me know if you are a former student and will publish soon (pre-orders of your book are available now), or have in the past two months! Just email me at mary[at]marycarrollmoore[dot]com to be included in a future Shout Out! (I’ll keep your listing here for two months.)
James Francisco Bonilla, An Eye for an I: Growing Up with Blindness, Bigotry, and Family Mental Illness (University of Minnesota Press), November
I’m a lifelong artist, and I love to inspire and support other creative folk, which is why I write this weekly newsletter. My goal with these posts is to help you strengthen your writing practice and creative life so it becomes more satisfying to you.
I’m also the author of 15 books in 3 genres. My third novel, Last Bets (Riverbed Press), was published in April, after becoming an Amazon bestseller during pre-orders. My second novel, A Woman’s Guide to Search & Rescue, was published in October 2023 and also became an Amazon bestseller and Hot New Release from pre-orders. For twelve years, I worked as a full-time food journalist, most notably through my weekly column for the Los Angeles Times syndicate. My writing-craft book, Your Book Starts Here, won the New Hampshire Literary Awards “People’s Choice” in 2011 and my first novel, Qualities of Light, was nominated for PEN/Faulkner and Lambda Literary awards in 2009. I’ve written Your Weekly Writing Exercise every Friday since 2008.
Thank you for this valuable key when writing and revising. I’m going to look as my scenes with this tool in mind. 👍