The Balance of Power, And How It Can Shift Your Novel

If you've ever watched a fight scene in a movie, or even read one in a comic book, you have an intrinsic understanding of the idea behind the Balance of Power. In short, this balance is a measure of how tense a particular scene is with regards to the capability of those participating. If we see Superman show up in an alley where a guy with a gun just stole an old lady's purse, then we know that mugger doesn't stand a chance because there is literally nothing he can do to actually hurt Superman. As such, there's no tension in this scene.

But if you have random Joe Nobody try to play the hero? Well now we've got a real, dangerous situation. Mugger's got experience and a weapon, but Joe might be a little faster than he's expecting, or a little stronger than your average passerby. Suddenly the situation is a toss-up, and now you're feeling the tension because who is going to win isn't a foregone conclusion.

Ryan Hollinger does a deeper dive on this with a dissection of the movie Old Boy, which you should definitely give a watch.

However, the idea of the Balance of Power is something you should keep in mind when it comes to your stories as well... and for more than just the fight scenes! Because without that inherent tension, your readers may start losing interest, or they're going to start asking questions you don't want them asking.

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The Balance of Plot

Most of us understand that we need to have a challenge when it comes to a fight scene, but too often we forget that the same tension needs to be applied to the rest of the story we're telling as well. It is, for example, the reason Sherlock Holmes stories are told from Watson's perspective rather than from the great detective's... Sherlock knows what's happening 5 minutes after someone walks through his door. Half the time he merely needs to read a letter, or glance over someone's hands, to fit all the clues together. If we read the stories from his perspective, there wouldn't be any mystery to them at all.

So instead we ride along with Watson as he attempts to follow in his friend's footsteps. Because just like Watson we may see the mystery, but we can't always put the pieces together. But just as the good doctor occasionally has moments of great insight, so we might catch the deeper meaning of a clue from his description of the events. This keeps the mystery tense, even though we're pretty sure as readers that Holmes already figured everything out and is waiting for his grand reveal.

And if you need more examples, I've got a few in here!

For those who haven't read my short story collection The Rejects (which you should do as soon as you can, by the by), the story "Suffer The Children" is a great example of this. Our protagonist Malachi is an old-fashioned, Old Testament angel. His antagonist, in this case, is a guy kidnapping children. Not some kind of devil from the deeper hells, not a lost god buried in the sands for a thousand years... just some guy who's kidnapping children and offering them up as sacrifice to a cult of Moloch.

An angel versus basically any mortal is not even a contest. However, what lends the plot tension is that for all of Malachi's power, he is held in check by the rules that govern his very nature. It is not possible for him to go against those rules. Which, for the purposes of this story, means that he can't intervene if the children in question have not been dedicated to one of the Abrahamic faiths. So while he can watch, track, investigate, and understand exactly what is happening, he has to wait for the kidnapper to slip up. And when he does, well, the Lord didn't have any mercy near to hand on the day that he made Malachi for his singular, ugly purpose.

There Needs To Be Doubt and Tension

Most protagonists are going to be good at something, whether they're elite soldiers, half-devil bounty hunters, werewolf enforcers, or ancient vampires. No matter how strong, swift, skilled, or smart that character is, you need to establish that Balance of Power in the plot in order for what they're doing to seem like something other than a foregone conclusion.

Whether that's forcing the character to fight against impossible odds, to try to solve a mystery that might be beyond their skills, tying one hand behind their back through an injury, curse, or other weakness, or simply making them chafe under the rules that govern their very existence, you need to establish that tension.

Because if the protagonist could accomplish something with relative ease and little chance of failure or danger, why are we bothering to tell this particular story in the first place?

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That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my cat noir novel Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

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