Story Movement refers to the flow
of your story.
For new
writers, you should try to write stories that take place in a short time
frame.
Longer time frames can slow the
story. I have read many short stories that occur over long periods of
time, but I do think that creating story momentum over long periods of time in a
story line takes a little more finesse.
Action story writers often strive to write peices that have a
fast pace, attempting to hold the readers interest from section to
section.
The easiest method to do this
is to divide the story into scenes, and further divide the scenes.
The basic divisions would be Decision, action,
feelings and retrospect, new decision ... etc.
Each scene should have a clear objective
defined in the Decision section.
The scene will unfold as the character attempts
to reach their objective, and the result of the scene should be TERRIBLE for the
main character. It should place the caracter is a worse position that they
started, forcing them to make an even harder decision to get themselves out of
the new mess.
Only in the climax of the
story should the scene object be resolved - putting the character in more hot
water as a result of their decision is a great way to move the story.
There is also a section between scenes
in which the protagonist thinks about what happened, and makes a decision about
new goals. The length of the characters internal thoughts and feelings
also affects the speed of the story.
I do not wish to tell you not to use
introspection and character self awareness, or even large passages of thought -
I wish to remind you that verbosity can slow a story, especially if it doesn't
move the story along. Look at these parts of your scenes closely, and
consider removal of anything that does not move the story forward.
Some
types of plot, such as plots where the character is in a "Self discovery"
mode lend themselves to longer passages that are not action
driven, and these would be exceptions to this
advise.