Mastering the Intensity Graph: How to Build Tension and Momentum in Your Story
Every great story follows a pattern of rising tension. Here's how to map your story's intensity to ensure it delivers on emotional and narrative impact.
One of the most overlooked aspects of storytelling, especially in comics, is the gradual rise in intensity that keeps readers hooked. This rise is what we often refer to as "rising action" in Freytag's pyramid, but it's more accurately described as an Intensity Graph—a chart that maps the ebb and flow of your story's tension leading up to the climax. Rising Action never resonated with me, but Rising Intensity? That I get!
If you don't structure your scenes with the right intensity, you risk creating a story that feels front-loaded or fizzles out before it reaches its climax. In this article, we'll explain what an intensity graph is, why it matters, and how to use it to organize your scenes for maximum impact. We'll also include ideas from expert storytellers like Robert McKee and others to clarify how intensity works on both an emotional and narrative level.
Think of it as organizing your story's momentum. Every scene should raise the stakes or give the reader a moment to breathe, creating a rhythm that escalates toward the climax. Too much intensity too soon, and your story burns out. Too little, and readers lose interest. The key is to balance the progression so tension rises steadily while giving moments of calm for contrast.

How to Build an Intensity
Understand Scene Organization
Every story, whether a short comic or a full novel, follows a basic structure of increasing tension. For comics, you might have 6-9 scenes in a single issue, each one contributing to the rise in intensity. You'll have between 40 and 60 scenes for films, and novels can have many more. The point is that each scene needs to push the story forward by raising emotional or physical stakes.
Emotional vs. Physical Intensity
Intensity can manifest as physical (like a fight or chase scene) or emotional (like a deep conversation or personal revelation). Both are equally important, but they must be orchestrated carefully. Emotional intensity can build slowly, layering moments of vulnerability or conflict, while physical intensity often comes in bursts of action or confrontation.
As Robert McKee emphasizes in his book Story, scenes should always end with a "value state change"—a shift in the characters' emotional or narrative condition. This change, whether from positive to negative or vice versa, drives the story forward and maintains interest.
For example, a scene that starts with hope and ends in despair (positive to negative) carries emotional weight and signals a rise in stakes. You could also have physical intensity, like a chase scene, that fails, increasing tension. Your scenes must build in either emotional or physical stakes, or both, to maintain momentum.
Progressive Setbacks
In a well-structured story, setbacks escalate in intensity. Think of them as minor, moderate, and major setbacks that push your character deeper into conflict. Early on, you might present minor setbacks—small obstacles that test the character but don't completely derail them. Midway, these setbacks should become more challenging, forcing the character to confront tougher choices. By the climax, the stakes should be at their highest, with everything on the line.
This idea ties into McKee's concept of **progressive complications**, where each new event in the story forces the protagonist into more difficult situations, until they reach the point of no return in the climax. Each of these setbacks increases the intensity on your graph.
Creating Peaks and Valleys
To avoid overwhelming readers, it's essential to alternate between moments of high intensity (peaks) and moments of relative calm (valleys). These quieter moments allow the reader to digest what happened and prepare for the next tense rise. Without these valleys, your story becomes exhausting; too many peaks too quickly, and readers lose emotional engagement.
In his seminal book *Understanding Comics*, Scott McCloud explains how comics are especially suited to managing this balance because you can control pacing through panel transitions and layouts. A fast, high-stakes sequence might use rapid, action-to-action transitions. At the same time, a quieter moment can slow down with aspect-to-aspect transitions that explore the environment or the character's emotions.
Avoiding the Blowout
One common mistake new storytellers make is blowing up the intensity too early in the story and having nowhere to go. Imagine if your most intense action scene happened halfway through your comic—everything after that would feel anticlimactic. Instead, you want to gradually raise the stakes, saving your most significant moments for the climax.
As Shawn Coyne discusses in The Story Grid, it's critical to map out the escalation of stakes over the course of your narrative. The intensity should steadily rise, leading to a climax that feels earned. Coyne refers to this as ensuring that each scene has a turning point—a moment where something significant changes in the story, raising the stakes and moving the narrative toward the climax.
Step-by-Step Guide: Mapping Your Story's Intensity
1. Identify the Major Setbacks
Break down your story into its major turning points. What are the minor, moderate, and major setbacks that your protagonist faces? These setbacks should become progressively more difficult to overcome.
2. Chart the Emotional and Physical Intensity
For each scene, ask yourself:
Does this scene increase emotional or physical intensity?
What is the emotional "value state change" from beginning to end (e.g., positive to negative)?
Does this scene drive the narrative forward, or is it a moment of calm before the next rise in intensity?
3. Create Peaks and Valleys
Ensure that not every scene is at the same level of intensity. Give your readers moments to breathe with lower-intensity scenes, but make sure these moments still contribute to the story's progression. Use these valleys to build character or explore the world, setting up the next peak.
4. Monitor the Build to Your Climax
As you near the climax of your story, the intensity should be at its highest. Each scene should feel like it's moving toward something inevitable, creating a sense of urgency for both the characters and the reader.
5. Review and Adjust
Once your intensity graph is mapped out, review the pacing. Are there points where the intensity drops too low or rises too high too quickly? Adjust the placement of scenes to ensure a smooth rise in tension.
The Final BOOM!
The Intensity Graph is an essential tool for organizing the narrative progression of your story. By tracking each scene's emotional and physical stakes and ensuring that setbacks escalate, you can create a story that builds momentum, holds attention, and delivers a satisfying climax. Whether you're working on a short comic with 6-9 scenes or a novel with dozens, managing the intensity of your narrative ensures that your readers stay engaged from beginning to end.
Let me know how this resonates with you as a storyteller. Drop a comment and let me know.
Charles Merritt Houghton
27 September 2024