Building Tension in a Scene – “The Queen’s Gambit” by Walter Tevis

In The Queen’s Gambit, author Walter Tevis knows how to put readers on the edge of their seats with high-stakes games of chess. The Netflix miniseries adaptation lifts scenes and dialogue straight off the page to portray a character-driven story that’s rife with narrative tension. In this video, I dissect the climactic game between Beth Harmon and Vasily Borgov at the Moscow Invitational—along with techniques writers can use in their own fiction.

Watch the video on YouTube!

Read a text version on Medium!

Check out my behind-the-scenes notes on Ko-fi!