Micro-Tension, an excerpt from the new Donald Maass book

Donald Maass, one of the top fiction literary agents, contacted me and other bloggers to offer short excerpts from his forthcoming book, The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great. I chose the one on Micro-Tension. I cover this in topic one of the sections in my book with Tess Gerritsen’s take on what Don had to say in one of the workshops she attended.

A literary agent in New York, Donald Maass’s agency sells more than 150 novels every year to major publishers in the U.S. and overseas. He is also the author of The Career Novelist (1996), Writing the Breakout Novel (2001), and Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (2004).

I have all of his books, and have ordered the new one. They’re well worth it. What you may not know is that Maass is also a published novelist and a keen analyst of fiction. For his Breakout book, he analyzed 100 successful novels to detect the commonalities that contributed to their success. The reason he sells them so well is that he understands what makes them sell, and how to make that happen.

Here’s the description he sent of his new book, and then the excerpt. And thanks, Don, for your contributions to all of us wannabe novelists.

In his new book, New York literary agent Donald Maass illuminates the techniques of master contemporary novelists. Some authors write powerhouse novels every time. What are they doing differently on the page? Maass not only explains, he shows you how you can right away use the techniques of greatness in your current manuscript.

Micro-Tension
Conflict is story. We hardly need discuss that any further. Every novelist who’s gotten beyond the beginner stage knows it. What many do not grasp, though, including many published novelists, is that what keeps us turning hundreds of pages is not a central conflict, main problem or primary goal.

Think about it. If that was all it took to get keep readers involved to the end, then all you would have to do is set a principal plot problem at the outset. Then you could indulge yourself however you like for hundreds of pages.

Imagine.

Of course it is not like that. Conflict must be present in smaller ways throughout. Most novelists understand that too, or say they do. Despite that I am able to skim vast swaths of virtually all manuscripts and portions of many published novels.

What is it, then, that keeps us reading all the way? Is it conflict within each scene; a character in every chapter who has a clearly stated goal? Is it avoiding low-tension traps such as back story, aftermath, landscape and weather openings, empty exposition and unneeded dialogue? Is it keeping the action moving? Is it throwing in sex and violence for occasional jolts of adrenalin and allure? Is it luck?

What keeps us reading every word on every page of a novel is none of that. Consider the page turners on your shelves that do open with weather or scenery, or quickly dump in back story, or linger in aftermath and indulge in exposition. How do those authors get away with it?

Conversely, think about those highly-plotted, action-packed novels that didn’t hold your attention. Think about the violence that moved you not at all and the sex scenes that you skipped. Weren’t those novelists doing it right, writing by the rules? How come, then, you set those novels aside?

Holding a reader’s attention every word of the way is a function not of the type of novel you’re writing, a good premise, tight writing, quick pace, showing not telling or any of the other conventionally understood and frequently taught principles of storytelling.

Keeping readers constantly in your grip comes from the steady application of something else altogether: Micro-tension. That is the tension that constantly keeps your reader wondering what will happen—not in the story, but in the next few seconds.

Comments, anyone?

For what it’s worth.

Ray

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© 2009 Ray Rhamey

Comments

[Christine H]

Sooooo.... what IS micro-tension? I guess I have to buy the book to find out!

[Kat]

I agree with Maas - it is the small conflicts that make a story work or not.

However - it takes planning and practice to make those adjustments, without making the characters snarky and un-sympathetic.

It took one pass through "Breakout Novel" for me to get the jist of it. Then it took six months to get my own work to reflect it.

I'm glad that you posted this.

[Sandra Almazan]

I think you also need to be emotionally invested in the story and characters. The book I'm reading now has several subplots, but some of them don't engage me, no matter how much is at stake. The ending of this book is supposed to be a real cliff-hanger, but most of what I'm reading now feels like set-up. There's no micro-tension, and I have to force myself to read. This may be the last book I read by this highly regarded author.

[Kaycee]

Micro-tension - sounds like a new way of saying "keep'em guessin'" to me. ;-) But I do think that is what makes a book hold your attention. That and characters you care about. If you have all the "micro-tension" in the world but the reader doesn't care if your charcters live or die, win or lose - they still won't read.

[professional research paper writers]

Christine H, after reading the post I was asking myself the same question. Looks like that's exactly what the article was aimed at

[ClubPenguinCheats]

Think about the violence that moved you not at all and the sex scenes that you skipped.