dangling cause, dramatic irony, dramatic tension, telegraphing

As I think about these elements, in relation to reading War & Peace,
and how everything was prepared and dramatic tension finally
introduced and ramped up with the mention of Count Bezhukov's will, I
see how in fact simple it can be. I've known all this by instinct,
yet never in such stark terms. But the thing that binds them, and
that is accomplished prior to the dramatic tension is the assignment
of sympathies and antagonisms. This is something I've always bridled
a bit against, as the manipulation can be killing. In the wrong
hands it usually is. Challenge is to get it right, to keep faith
with whatever lives in your motive for getting it down on paper.