writing advice...

from Janet Burroway's Writing Fiction...

When an unpsoken subject remains unspoken, tension continues to build in a story.
If you're trying to build pressure, don't take the lid off the pot.
Once people become candid, once the unstated becomes stated, the tension is released and the effect becomes cathartic...
Then, you want to give yourself space for a major scene. Here, you want to describe setting and action vividly, and render what they say fully. You've taken the lid off the pot and you want the dialogue to boil over.