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High-Stress Situations



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Wed May 28, 2014 12:56 am
Crunch says...



Okay. This might go pretty in-depth, so just hang on tight and enjoy the ride; I hope you'll learn something new along the way.

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! :
"The horrendous screech of wrenching metal stung my eardrums, sending shock and adrenaline rushing through my veins. I froze for a moment before cautiously getting up from my seat and looking upward. My jaw dropped, but my stomach dropped further.

One of the two supporting rails holding my Ferris wheel car had snapped under the pressure. I could see the rusted edges of the warped framework jutting outward in different directions, causing panic to rise up in my chest.

I barely managed to suppress a cry of terror as the whole car shuddered again, every agonizing creak tightening my chest even further. The wheel had exhausted its inertia by this point, although it hadn't stopped rocking back and forth; I could hear the shrieks of people standing in the line far below. I made the grave mistake of looking down; frantically jerking my head back up, I squeeze my hand against my mouth, trying desperately not to vomit. They were really far below..."


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! :
"The sensation of falling and the utter surprise blotted out thought of any kind during the first few seconds, but the sight of the jagged rocks below galvanized me into action. I had been saved by the cord secured around a small boulder on the ledge above, but knowing that it might not hold for long, I started scrabbling desperately on the cliff face, finding no purchase on the erosion-smoothed stone. 'Jason! Jason, help! Where are you?! JASON!'

All of a sudden, I felt the cord tug on my harness. 'I've got you, don't worry!' came my partner's voice. Slowly - agonizingly slowly - I was hauled upward, grabbing hand and footholds as I found them to ease Jason's load. After an eternity of painstakingly sluggish progress, I finally rolled onto the ledge, my muscles immediately going limp with sheer relief. I realized that my breaths were coming in short gasps; black spots clouded my vision, and I felt like I was going to be sick.

'Are you okay?' he demanded anxiously. I waved him away with an angry swipe of my hand, unjustified adrenaline-fueled fury rising in my chest. 'No! Of course I'm not okay! Do you think I would be okay after almost falling like that?!' I shouted to his face. He backed up, holding his hands out in a peacemaking gesture. 'Sorry - I'm just... worried about you.' I took several deep breaths to clear my mind before shaking my head. 'No... no, it's not you. I'm the one who should be sorry - I didn't mean... to lash out at you like that.' Jason nodded understandably. 'It's a normal reaction.'

We both sat there for several minutes, just watching the clouds float past, not saying a word. I eventually decided to break the silence.

'Although... I think I'm done with climbing for a little while.' "


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! :
" 'We need a distraction to get these soldiers off their planned course. If they manage to get close enough, their seismic detectors will find our underground base and it'll all be over,' I said, giving an accurate assessment of our predicament.

Jack, whose shoulder I was leaning over shifted slightly in his padded swivel chair and traced another path along the dusty computer screen that displayed all squad patrol routes during the next few months. 'What if we placed a drone here,' he suggested, tapping a particular spot close to a nearby intersection, 'loaded it with blanks, and told it to start firing randomly? That'd get their attention real quick.' I slapped his shoulder in a congratulatory manner. 'Great idea - I'll have the techs get right on -'

A sharp, metallic click sounded from a distance behind us. I twisted around to give a superficial glance to its source, but I froze stock-still instead.

'Jack?'

'Yeah, boss?'

'Turn around. Stand up. Slowly.' I cautiously stood straight up, raising my hands palm-outward to shoulder-height and making no sudden movements, Jack quickly catching on and mirroring the same actions. I couldn't comprehend the situation in front of my eyes, though it wasn't for a lack of trying.

It was Carl - Carl, the one who had disabled a government tank by throwing a wrench rigged with explosives into the cockpit. Carl, who had once remotely hacked a UAV to dive-bomb right into a weapons storehouse to prevent its contents from being used against us or the civilian population. Carl, the one who had saved both our lives and many more time and time again as we fought for our freedom against the oppressors who had taken over our city.

It was Carl - the one casually holding his trademark weapon, a glinting silver Desert Eagle, aiming directly at my head from across the room.

'Hey, it's loaded, man,' I said, keeping a measured tone. 'This might be a joke to you, but we have policies about-'

'Quit it with the policies, John. You've had your fun, but my superiors think it's about time your little 'resistance' was shut down.' A completely un-Carl-like sneer crept across his face. 'Permanently.'

'Wait... What?' I demanded, still not grasping the meaning of his words. 'What's the meaning of this? I swear, Carl, if you think this is-'

He pulled off his left glove, one piece of the matching set he always wore, even during the summer months, to reveal an eight-pointed asterisk shaped scar on the inside of his wrist. My jaw hung open in disbelief. 'It's...'

'Yeah. A tracking device, planted by the government itself.' He studied the nonplussed expression on my face as if it was fascinating to him. 'Get the picture yet?'

I still protested despite his direct confession. 'I - I know you! I've known you ever since we joined together for this cause six years ago! You swore to me that you would help the resistance - that you would sacrifice everything if you had to! You promised me that we would set this city free together! You can't be a traitor - how could you be? You even-'

'Destroyed a government weapons cache by crashing a plane into it? Hate to break it to you, John, but I didn't come up with that brilliant idea. What you don't seem to realize is that your actions have consequences. Your spies and so-called 'revolutionaries' had nearly half the population of that district loyal to you. That is, until you created such a violent explosion that it destroyed their homes and killed their family members.'

I started shaking my head, not willing to believe what I was hearing. "No. No, the warehouse was in an abandoned section of that district! You...' I faltered, realizing my mistake.

He chuckled, an unnervingly sinister sound that made my skin crawl. 'Yeah, friend. I told you a lot of things - you wouldn't believe how many of them weren't true. Let me say, you've been a source of constant entertainment, seeing how the population has slowly started to despise you for causing all these acts of terrorism.' He pointed at me accusingly, lowering the gun for a moment.

'You're the villain now, John.'

*CRACK*

He shifted the muzzle a few inches to the left and fired. I flinched, twisted around, and stared dully at the growing red blotch on Jack's white shirt. As he fell to the ground with a muffled thump, I tried to say his name, but everything was under too thick of a surreal haze. I found myself wondering if this was all some terrible nightmare that would soon be over.

'You'll meet your due end soon enough, John! They've already launched a missile with your name on it, and it's heading straight here as we speak!'

He backed out of the main entryway, shouting 'Death to the resistance!' before shutting it and sealing the lock."


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.
"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe, or we are not.
Both are equally terrifying."

-Arthur C. Clarke
  








This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.
— T.S. Eliot