Story Momentum and Counterbalance

You know when you're reading a good book. The pages fly by. You often don't realize that you've been reading for 10 hours until you look up and see it's dark outside. Even if the book was once daunting, and the size of an encyclopedia, you think it too short.

Many factors play into this phenomena. Characters that are believable and relatable are a large part, but so is story momentum. Story momentum is quite literally, the pace of the story.

People interpret this topic in different ways, so I'll only be presenting my view of story momentum here. I believe that story momentum is made up of two different aspects:

1. Story Telling
2. Writing

Story Telling is the act of creating and relaying the story itself. This is where the writer's creative hat comes into play. The ability of the writer to be a story teller is perhaps the most noticeable aspect of story momentum. Persons with story telling ability will know how much character description is needed to give a clear picture, but not too much to overwhelm the reader. They will know how to bring a reader through a scene - slowing down important events and aspects, and speeding up around less important events. Basically, people who are story tellers know, like comedians, how to deliver the punchline.

A person with story telling ability is not instantly a writer, or vice versa. In olden days, story tellers were important to orally pass on traditions and legends before writing was invented or prominent amongst the entire society. For another example, think of your extended family. Everyone has an uncle, aunt, or grandparent who is perfect at telling family stories. When he or she speaks, everyone in the room is enthralled. He or she, then, has the ability of story telling. However, they may not also be a writer. These two abilities do not always come hand in hand. However, it takes both Story Telling and Writing to create story momentum.

When it comes to the writing portion of story momentum, I do not mean that the writer must have perfect grammar or punctuation. Though this is needed in a final draft, an editor can help sort out these problems. The writing portion of story momentum comes from sentence structure. This is the ability of the writer to disperse short and long sentences throughout the scene so that the cadence of the piece is pleasing to the human eye and ear. When you are reading a good book, this doesn't even enter your mind. However, when a book is filling with bad writing, you notice. It seems too choppy if the sentences are all short, and it can be confusing if all the sentences run on.

Another aspect of writing for story momentum is the dispersion of scenes. A professor of mine used the term Counterbalance when explaining this concept to me. Counterbalance is used by the writer sometimes unconsciously. You probably have noticed this being utilized by writers if you read a lot. Basically, the story will be plugging along, focused primarily on one subject or person. But then, the writer will deviate and bring in something else to focus on. This gives a counterbalance to the moving story, and allows the reader to digest what just happened.

If you have read Harry Potter, you know that Harry attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Most of the story focuses on this. However, the obvious counterbalance to Harry's schooling are the Dursleys, Harry's muggle relatives.

Counterbalance can be employed much more subtly, though. In the same book series, Harry usually has some sort of mission to accomplish or problem to solve wherein he must stop Voldemort. If the entire story focused entirely on this mission, it would move much like a textbook: Complete Step A then complete Step B, followed by Step C. But JK Rowling disperses other scenes throughout, scenes that include the protagonist's relationship with other characters and the wizarding world. This is another, more subtle, instance of counterbalance.

So, if you are going to employ the convention of story momentum into your story, remember the two most important aspects: Story Telling and Writing. Work on setting up and delivering your "punchline" correctly. Also, make sure you alternate your sentences between short and long in a natural way, and remember the term counterbalance.