tension

As a literary term, I often use this in place of “conflict” which is too limiting a term. Tension allows first for a wider variety of relationships between the two or more terms it references, excluding only words like harmony, alignment, or agreement. Tension is complex, nuanced, polyvalent, and/or subtle. It is nearly always subtextual in nature. I do not use it very often in its more traditional meaning, as a form of plot suspense.