Now, you might be wondering...
What is a High-Stress Situation exactly?
A High-Stress Situation (or HSS for short) can be a number of different things, but all of them fit into two general categories.
1. A situation in which the character is overcome by confusion, terror, anger, or another emotion.
2. A situation in which the character makes a split-second decision that has fateful consequences.
An example:
Spoiler! :
Importance of High-Stress Situations:
1. These moments usually occur at the height of the climax, where all the rising action that has been building up for the entire first part of the story suddenly snaps.
This part is critical, since its success will leave the reader with a positive impression of the overall narrative and also give them the desire to read the falling action to understand the aftermath.
In short, depending on the quality, the climax (high-stress situation) will either make or break the plot as a whole.
2. These events are defining moments for your characters.
When someone needs to make a difficult decision without the sufficient time needed to mull over the pros and cons of each choice, you find out who they really are. When someone's adrenaline is pumping, whether they're angry, terrified, or overcome by any other emotion, all logic is stripped away, leaving the bare bones of their personality to make the calls.
As a result, if you need to reveal someone as being a coward, a traitor, or overly arrogant person, the choices they make in a high-stress situation are an excellent way to do so.
In short, high-stress situations are a great method of defining your characters while keeping the reader entertained.
I know that there are certainly more reasons out there, but for the sake of brevity, these are the two that I'm going to use.
To Use or Not to Use
Now, I've basically just extolled the virtues of utilizing HSS's, but there are times when you should avoid them when attempting to flesh out your characters. For example:
1. When wanting to show how brave Matt is in the face of danger.
Absolutely.
2. When wanting to show Jenny's interest in the process of making donuts.
Maybe not.
3. When wanting to show how much Aiden loves his siblings.
Make sure to do it correctly, but otherwise, knock yourself out.
4. When wanting to show Terry's strong views on important political issues.
It could be an important part of her character, but you shouldn't use an HSS to display that.
TLDR: Only use HSS's to portray fundamental character traits - the traits that define that character as a person. More complicated things like political beliefs don't exactly fit the bill. One of the character's hobbies or interests could possibly fulfill that, but there are much easier ways to show how much Jimmy likes video games than with an HSS.
How To Execute an HSS
As I've previously stated, HSS's are critical moments, not only to the plot of your book, but also to your characters' personalities. Poor writing in these sections can make the characters seem fake, exhibiting contrived reactions and emotions, and it can also make the story seem far-fetched or otherwise unbelievable.
To avoid these contingencies, here are a few tips to do them correctly:
1. Do Not Rush. I put that in bolded and underlined text for a reason.
When you rush a character's reaction during an HSS, the situation doesn't seem real.
"I slipped and fell off the edge of the cliff. My cord caught me at the last second. I hung there for a long while, trembling with fear, but Jason - my climbing partner - managed to pull me back up onto the ledge. "Phew. That was a close one," I said, smiling.
Can you see the problem here? This unnamed climber has just fallen of the edge of a cliff. Now, I don't know about you, but the sudden threat of a long fall before striking your body on a rock and possibly dying on impact doesn't exactly seem like something you'd recover from in a hurry.
Here's the same story, but done better. (It's pretty long, so if you want to skip it, I at least recommend reading the third-to-last paragraph.)
Spoiler! :
You see, as Jason pointed out, this is one of the normal reactions to the aftermath of a life-threatening situation. A sudden, potent surge of emotion is common after an HSS, which is actually another good way of revealing your character's personality if used correctly.
Rushing these situations makes their reactions seem inhuman, sometimes even robotic to the reader. If your audience can't sympathize or otherwise identify with the characters, it damages the readability of the book itself.
2. Use Imagery
Sorry if the rainbow scheme is a bit obnoxious right there, but I need you to remember it because this is an excellent way to avoid rushing when you're writing HSS's.
This is a phrase that I like to use: "When in doubt, saturate with imagery." Imagery is what allows the reader to view your world, and giving the audience a vivid description of the characters and their surroundings is an excellent way to capture attention. Especially if you can pull it off while still being poetic.
"Dust hung in the air."
Not very exciting.
"As I took the old books off the shelf, dust started to swirl in the musty air of the basement, creating miniature cyclones and maelstroms of particles that were turned blood-red in the fading evening light."
Much better.
Imagery is especially important in HSS's. Why? Because without imagery, the reader can't fully grasp what's going on. If they can't fully grasp it, they can't fully appreciate the gravity of the situation.
More importantly, if the HSS is unexpected, e.g. a surprise betrayal by Johnny's best friend, then Johnny will obviously be confused, unable to believe what's happening.
Imagine how much more confused the reader will be if you rush the situation.
"I was hanging out with my friend Carl in our secret lair when all of a sudden, he pulled out a gun and shot my other friend in the chest, shouting 'Death to the resistance!' He ran out the door. 'Carl! How could you?' I cried. He must have been a traitor the whole time. I realized that he must have revealed our location to the dictatorship during the time that he was here."
No. Just... no.
Edited version: (This one's even longer than the last one, so you don't have to read it if you don't want to.)
Spoiler! :
This is another example of a few more normal reactions that happen during an HSS: the refusal to believe that the situation is actually occurring, the repetition of a simple fact over and over again in one's mind, or a combination of both.
As in a real-world scenario, one witness to the 9/11 disaster couldn't comprehend the fact that two planes had just crashed into the World Trade Towers. He mentally repeated the phrase I can't believe this is happening for several minutes as he observed the attacks in real-time.
Wow. I think that literally took four hours to write to completion. Well, I hope you enjoyed this article, but more importantly, I hope that you learned how to use HSS's properly, since they can prove to be an invaluable tool in fleshing out characters, not to mention adding to the excitement of the book itself.
I hope to see you all again soon.
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