Conveying Urgency

[WorldPlanter]

Ok. Here’s my problem:

I’m currently working on a sci-fi story that is attempting to remain plausible while still delivering an adventurous and fantastic experience. So far I think I’ve managed to pull this off. However, in many circumstances I suspect that my sense of urgency and dramatic situations may be much different than that of my readers.

For example, I have a scene where my characters have an opportunity to take action inherent with potentially severe consequences that may allow them to obtain a distinct advantage in their current situation. However, this moment of opportunity is actually a period of two weeks because the action in question involves preventing the arrival of a ship that has been in transit for almost three years. I have established very specific guidelines for all the technologies in my story so I can’t tweak the travel time of the ship or other circumstances surrounding the event.

Still, having two weeks to take action hardly seems like a situation demanding urgency for individuals not acquainted with the vast distances and times required for deep space travel. Personally, I view this predicament as a unique and unprecedented opportunity for my characters, I’m just not so sure that my readers will see it the same way. My characters will certainly see this situation for what it is, so I'm hoping my readers will experience it with equal conviction. Is this false hope?

Has anyone here had similar issues with plot where they had difficulty conveying a sense of urgency due to limitations imposed by the laws of their environment?

I’d be interested in hearing comments on this matter to see if anyone has suggestions for conveying the true significance of a situation that seemingly is typical to the outsider.

[wayndom]

Your situation reminds me of a history show I watched about Admiral Nelson's meeting with the Spanish Armada. Part of the show was done from the deck of a ship similar to the ones in the battle. The narrator pointed to the horizon and noted that the two navies could see each other as soon as they were over the horizon, and had all morning long and part of the afternoon to prepare for battle, since the ships traveled at about 3mph. So the crews might see the enemy approaching for five hours or more.

Think of the tension those sailors must have endured during that time...

Of course your characters can't hold their breaths for two weeks, but they can have difficulty dealing with the tension. Some of them might start drinking heavily, becoming argumentative for no apparent reason, etc., etc.

Actually, what you're dealing with is a realistic look at war, which has been described as, "endless stretches of boredom, punctuated by moments of sheer terror."

How do your characters deal with the strain? And how do they help, or try to help each other deal with it? Someone's gotta be losing sleep, maybe someone else has to be put in suspended animation because he just can't handle the waiting..?

Is any of this helpful?

[Rhea L]

Still, having two weeks to take action hardly seems like a situation demanding urgency for individuals not acquainted with the vast distances and times required for deep space travel. Personally, I view this predicament as a unique and unprecedented opportunity for my characters, I’m just not so sure that my readers will see it the same way. My characters will certainly see this situation for what it is, so I'm hoping my readers will experience it with equal conviction. Is this false hope?

Trust your readers.

No, seriously. Just trust them. If someone reads in that genre, more likely than not they're not going to be so ignorant of the existence of the things you think you have a problem with. More, I think it's a fairly safe guess that they will expect it (unless you establish that time-travel is instantaneous in your world, which you obviously said is not the case) so this seems like a non-issue to me.

If that fails, there's always dialogue. Show your characters arguing over, oh I don't know - whether they can make it there in time, because two weeks is such an impossibly tiny timeframe to get from point A to point B... obviously I don't know your story (and I write fantasy, anyway :P) but you probably know what I mean.

The way to make any "unusual" situation seem obvious/normal for your world is twofold: establishing it as early as you can (it has to come naturally out of the story though) and making your characters treat it like the obvious rule/law/whatever it is.

Hope that helps.

[DancingMaenid]

You know, going off what wayndom said, I think having to wait to take action is more suspenseful than having to act immediately.

I recently had to take a placement test for some college courses. I wasn't really planning on taking the test that day, but the people at the college thought it would be smart and it wasn't something you needed an appointment for. So next thing I know, I'm doing it, and then it's done. Afterward, my mom said, "Now aren't you glad you weren't planning on it? You would have been worrying about it all the way over here." I didn't want to admit it, but she was right. When we only have a short time to act, adreneline kicks in and sometimes we become very focused on doing what needs to be done. We might not really think about the situation until afterwards. Whereas if you have a lot of time building up to it, that's just more time to worry and have the anxiety build up.

Think about the effect this is having on your characters, and try to show the reader what they're feeling and how they're acting as a result. I'm sure if you want, you can find ways to increase the suspense. Also, in wayndom's example about the ships, the sailors didn't really have much choice in the matter. Yes, they had a while to plan their actions, but they didn't really have the choice to leave the ship and go home or put fighting off past the point that the two ships meet. If your characters have a lot of options, that might be less suspenseful than if they know that a fight or whatever is going to happen is inevitable, but must wait for it.

[johnzakour]

Ok. Here’s my problem:

I’m currently working on a sci-fi story that is attempting to remain plausible while still delivering an adventurous and fantastic experience. So far I think I’ve managed to pull this off. However, in many circumstances I suspect that my sense of urgency and dramatic situations may be much different than that of my readers.


If you think it works, post it in the SYW section and see if others agree.

[maestrowork]

Still, having two weeks to take action hardly seems like a situation demanding urgency for individuals not acquainted with the vast distances and times required for deep space travel.


Urgency doesn't always mean time. A lot of thrillers force the urgency by imposing a deadline (24, for example). The world is going to blow up in 24 hours... find the bomb!

But urgency can also rely on the dire consequences and the situations. The higher the stakes, the bigger the urgency, and also if the team, for example, is the only one to do this. Also, the closer you come toward the end of the mission, the better. So what if it takes 2 weeks? I want to know what happens during those two weeks, and if nothing happens, then you've lost me. Or if nothing happens in the first 9 days, skip them. Tell us what happens in the last 3 days. Shorten your mundaneness and give us a plot. Or you can have a race -- if another team is also doing this, then you have an urgency to either get there quicker or do it better...

Reminded me of the movie Sunshine. The team has to travel 16 months to the sun to jump start it. Hardly any "time" urgency there. But they are the last hope; if they fail, the sun will die and everyone on Earth will die -- and the story begins when they're really close, just outside of the "dead zone." So, it's like, who cares about the previous 15.5 months? Give us the last few days!

But you do need the set up. The action doesn't start immediately. There's this calm before the storm. And it's very suspenseful because you can foreshadow things to happen. Anxiety, paranoia, temper, etc. But you don't need 14 days to describe that. Get as close to your first major conflict as possible. Then we can really feel the urgency.

[NeuroFizz]

The use of a ticking clock is common in fiction. Nothing says it has to tick in seconds or minutes, or even hours. If the anticipation of the coming event is used skillfully, the reader will feel the tension build as the time passes. If the time gap is long, a good subplot or two would be useful to keep the reader involved, particularly if the subplots enhance the tension of the main event.

[maestrowork]

And it all depends on what happens within those hours or weeks or months or years... and the consequences if they fail. Watch Deep Impact. The whole movie spans over 2 years. But you never lose the sense of urgency because you know they only have one chance to get it right. And we see the tension and interaction and how people act within those two years -- some heroic, some selfish, some stupid, and some sentimental. It's the human stories and each person's reaction that give the story such urgency.

[Joe Moore]

You might want to read HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. Clancy deals with snail-paced submarines and yet keeps you on the edge of your seat from first page to last.

[WorldPlanter]

Thanks everyone. There are several good ideas and suggestions here. I've been thinking for a while how my characters are going to react to the situation and deal with the stress but it's always nice to hear this approach articulated by others.

I found this especially insightful:

If your characters have a lot of options, that might be less suspenseful than if they know that a fight or whatever is going to happen is inevitable, but must wait for it.

As it stands, my characters still have options regarding the dilemma they face. I think I might attempt to devise a way to make the encounter unavoidable.

[WorldPlanter]

You might want to read HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. Clancy deals with snail-paced submarines and yet keeps you on the edge of your seat from first page to last.

Actually I have read it, though it's been about twelve years or more. I really enjoyed it for the thought-out tactical decisions and encounters, which were appropriate for submarine warfare.

As Rhea said, I should put more trust in my readers who will hopefully appreciate the story for what it is.

[WorldPlanter]

Another analogy for the situation I face is a bomb squad having to diffuse a time bomb. I’m sure we have all seen this scene countless times on television and film. It seems that far too often that the bomb is disarmed at the very last second, which is obviously done to increase tension and maximize dramatic effect. However, this also has the result of minimizing plausibility.

If there’s a thirty minute timer on a bomb it’s safe to say that if it’s disarmed with only 23 seconds left before detonation that it was a close call. Having the bomb disarmed with only 0.7 seconds remaining strains plausibility and breaks my suspension of disbelief. I’d prefer the former to the latter in almost every case, but that’s just my preference.