Use compounding mistakes to drive tension. Oh no, now that I've made X mistake, I can't do Y, and now I can't help but do Z.
Tension rises fastest when problems breed problems, because it mirrors how real trouble actually feels — not one bad thing, but the sense that the walls are closing in and every option left is worse than the last. It works because it removes the reader's sense of safety; if a single mistake fixes itself, we relax, but if it forces a second and third, we lean in, bracing. Picture a character who lies to cover a broken vase, then has to hide the lie from a nosy neighbor, then gets caught in that cover-up and has to tell a bigger lie to escape it. The one caution: don't let the chain feel engineered. If every mistake conveniently creates the next, readers stop fearing bad luck and start noticing the author's hand.
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