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Writing about Tension on Every Page

I have been missing in action from this blog for almost a month.

Usually I return, sneakily, with a hasty look this way and that, but this time is different.

I have been writing pretty regularly, almost 2000 words a day sometimes, and the times I haven’t been writing, I have been reading something that helped me write.

I think I’m ready to regain my balance, continue to write while I blog, eat, pray, love, live :).

To start off, I wrote on my group blog, Does Your Novel have Tension on Every Page?

Mosey over there and leave me a comment please (a comment here would do just fine, too) –a girl’s heart longs for comments after a hiatus!

Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

I appreciate comments, and I always visit back. If you're having trouble commenting, let me know via the contact form, or tweet me up @damyantig !

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4 Comments

  • elviza says:

    Thank you, once again, for showing the way for me. Never know about tension on every page until now. I learn something new every time I click on your link. Thank you, thank you.

  • Damyanti says:

    Thanks for your comment, Scott, and I know what you mean. Someone commented on my post, saying it is a hack-writer's formula, without getting the essence of what Mass says about the importance of conflict.

    Yes, I am writing everyday, and am happy with my progress, even tho I say so myself 🙂

    Payton, you are too kind, as always! Many thanks.

  • I really like the term 'tension quotient'! Donald Maass' advice is great, and I've learned something very valuable from reading the post over at 'If you give a girl a pen…'

    Thank you once again Damyanti for doing three things you do unstintingly: sharing, sharing, and sharing.

  • I don't know about "tension on every page" so much as I think it's important to have conflict in every scene. Which points up the importance of writing in scenes.

    I worry that people are going to take books like Maas' too literally, and will try to write hyperbolic, frenzied narratives that veer wildly into melodrama. Still, conflict being the engine of drama is something we should all bear in mind.

    You are writing a lot! That's great!