I use the phrase "narrative momentum" in a lot of rejections for submissions to F&SF. As in "for me this needed more narrative momentum" or "the narrative lost momentum for me." (A short expository thread ensues.)

I thought maybe I should unpack what I mean by narrative momentum because it's become clear to me that it's not always clear to everybody else. For me, narrative momentum in a story is a combination of pacing and our engagement with the character or stakes.

Something can be slow paced, but if we are highly engaged with the characters, then it still has momentum. This could be any slow burn story or the camping section of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

On the other hand, something can be super fast-paced but if we aren't engaged with the characters, it can have zero momentum. This is every submission with the "Oh, shit, we're all going to die!" opening scene that doesn't bother to establish why we should care if they die.

(I read those opening scenes, more of them than you would expect literally beginning with a character saying "Oh, shit!" or the equivalent, and think, "Eh, maybe the universe is better if these characters are dead. I dunno. There's nothing here to give me a clue.")

So, for me, narrative momentum in a story is kind of like force = mass x acceleration, where the force of our interest as readers = the mass of the stakes, where I'm defining stakes as our engagement with the characters, x the acceleration of the pacing.

I don't believe there's any one right way or any best way to make a story work using this formula. I like all kinds of different stories with different stakes and different kinds of pacing. But I believe that we need to be engaged with the characters and there has to be movement.

So if I mention narrative momentum as part of my response to a story, one of those elements isn't working effectively for me or the particular combination isn't working effectively. Here ends the thread.

I lied. More people are reading this thread than I expected, so let me add one more tweet. The 70th Anniversary issue of F&SF is currently on sale and it's filled with amazing writers.

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