Building Tension

1. Building Tension Objectives: To understand how the author builds tension

2. Welcome to Camp Green Lake Read the scene at the end of chapter 4, where Mr. Sir shows Stanley around Camp Green Lake. This is a scene with lots of tension, but what does that actually mean? Consider the following situations. Which are tense? • Waiting for an injection. • Playing football in the park. • Sitting outside the head teacher’s office. • Chatting with your friends online. What makes a situation tense?

3. Tension What is tension? The dictionary defines tension as mental worry or emotional strain. Tension is caused by the build up of suspense. Imagine you are on a rollercoaster. As the rollercoaster climbs slowly to the top of the first drop how do you feel? Click on the picture. In a novel tension is used to inject drama and engage the reader. Click on the speakers below. These pieces of music are taken from a horror movie. What do you imagine would be happening on the screen whilst this music is playing? How does music add tension to a scene?

4. Creating tension How is tension created at the end of chapter four? What words, phrases, sentence structures or punctuation are used to add tension to the scene?

5. Creating Tension Write a paragraph explaining how Louis Sachar builds tension at the end of chapter four. Below are a few sentence starters to help with your paragraph: 10th January 2014 Tension Building Sachar creates tension by using short sentences…. Words such as….. The use of questions…

6. Plenary Explain how Louis Sachar creates tension in chapter four of Holes.