Microtension is the subtle but powerful element operating beneath the surface of a scene. It is created through contradiction, emotional friction, subtext, charged description, symbolism, and imaginative wordsmithing. When microtension is present, readers feel compelled to keep reading. When it’s missing, even well-plotted stories can feel flat.
Few writers have ever been taught about microtension in fiction and why it’s so important. And you’ll be hard-pressed to find any books, courses, videos, or articles on it. Yet … without it, your fiction can fall flat.
In Masterful Microtension: The Essential Element of Powerful Fiction, you’ll study how skilled fiction writers create tension at the micro level using masterful techniques such as word pairings, literary devices, motifs, and polarities.
Most books on fiction writing focus on structure, character arcs, and dramatic conflict. While those elements are crucial to a great story, they only address the big-picture elements. Microtension works at the word level, shaping the emotional energy between narrative, actions, and thoughts.
Whether you write literary fiction, suspense, romance, fantasy, or historical novels, mastering microtension will transform your scenes from good to great, to well-written to unforgettable.
It is in presale right now, best seller in many writing nonfiction categories.
Chapter 1: What Is Microtension?
There are a number of “ingredients” that make up a commercially successful novel, regardless of genre. Scenes that end with high moments that deliver a punch in the last lines. Evocative, rich sensory detail. Dynamic dialogue that accomplishes much more than conveying information … and the list goes on.
But the greatest and most understated ingredient of a commercially successful novel (or any other work of fiction) is microtension. And few writers understand what this is and how it can be used brilliantly to elevate writing to a masterful level.
It’s often the case that when you finish reading a novel that knocked your socks off, it’s not just because of the gripping plot and engaging characters. There’s usually something about the writing … and you might not be able to state just what that something is. At least, not yet. But you will once you read this book.
Avid readers of fiction love writing that’s creative, that spurs the imagination, that gets them thinking deeply, that sparks curiosity and questions, and that, sometimes, takes their breath away with the beauty of a phrase. Even though we all have different tastes and are drawn to different types of stories, there is something about masterful writing—in any genre—that makes us long to write like that.
