Creating chaos from calm

Think about the conversations you have day to day.

“How was your weekend?”

“Did you get up to much?”

It’s all pretty mundane, as you would expect. There’s no harm in mundane. I’m a creature of habit and have a routine I rarely deviate from. However, when you want to write a story you want the audience captivated and mundane dialogue and events just won’t cut it.

Now imagine some the conversations you would have during life’s stand out events.

“We’re pregnant!”

“I’m so sorry to tell you this …”

Whether it’s good or bad the emotional stakes are raised and the dialogue naturally hits harder. Which brings me to my point.

Imagine you’re creating a scene and it is showing the character in an everyday situation. Sometimes you can learn more about a character in their day to day lives, but how well does that read? After a while it wouldn’t provide much to keep the reader intrigued. This is where creating chaos from calm comes in.

Say your character is having dinner with a friend. They are catching up as friends do. Is that what a reader wants to follow? After a while they will want to know any exciting news the friend is bringing. They will want to know why the character was so adamant they have dinner together. Or, my personal favourite, perhaps the both of them are expecting a quiet dinner when something major in the restaurant happens. Since I’m a fan of the more morbid, perhaps someone is assassinated. Perhaps a fire is started.

Don’t be afraid to keep your audience on their toes. Just remember some of the golden rules:

Avoid shock for shock’s sake
Keep it relevant to the overall plot
Use your setting to your advantage and pull your character out of their normality.

I am a thriller writer by trade so It is easy for me to immediately jump on those themes. But, the same applies to romance. When your character has met someone they have fallen for, naturally, even a quiet dinner is going to seem like a much bigger deal. Or comedy; this quiet dinner starts spiralling out of control leading to all kinds of ridiculous outcomes.

Give it a try. Create chaos from calm.