Teaching article
Dramatic tension can be a gentle unanswered question
Give the audience a reason to wonder what happens next.
A sealed fictional message gives the audience something to wonder about without requiring frightening content. Plan when information is withheld and revealed so the uncertainty serves the story rather than simply delaying everything.
Identify the audience's unresolved question explicitly during planning. A gentle uncertainty can support drama without requiring alarming events.
What does the audience want to find out?
A sealed fictional message creates a question before it is opened.
Establish a goal. Introduce uncertainty. Delay the answer purposefully.
Tension need not involve frightening content. What question remains open?
Use a gentle mystery.
Resources
- Draw the Marionette Puppet – Creative Art Worksheet for Kids — Use the puppet drawing as a fictional character-design starting point; add the scene actions or script separately.
Further reading
Read next
- Choose a puppet mechanism that supports the intended action
- Pause an original scene where several continuations are possible
- An invented call and response needs an agreed relationship
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