Where Sime and Gen Meet, Creativity Happens
Workshop:The Importance of Pacing
by
Beth Cornelison
Perhaps one of the most important aspects of writing the "page-turner" is mastering the art of pacing. Pacing is essentially the speed and flow of your story. If a story starts with a bang then stalls, the reader may set the book aside, never to return. On the other hand, a story that starts with a bang and continues to gallop along can leave the reader breathless and overwhelmed. Finding the right balance, learning when and how to pick up the pace or slow it down can help hook a reader and keep them up reading your story all night long!
Here are some pitfalls to avoid and some advice on adjusting pace to suit the plot's needs.
AN OVERVIEW
When you begin writing your story, have a general road map or plotting plan in mind. If you know when the major plot twists happen and can space them appropriately, you are well on your way to pacing the story. The infamous "sagging middle" essentially means that the pace slowed too much due to the lack of a new plot element or a change in a character's quest for their goal. Even the sketchiest preliminary plotting can help make pacing decisions fall into place.
Different types of stories demand different pacing. A romantic suspense needs quicker pacing to maintain the tension inherent to the genre. A long historical, where setting and characterization might be more important, can unfold more slowly. Don't misunderstand-- every story must keep a good, flowing pace to hold the reader's interest. But the proper pace for a novel is determined by the type of book it is and how many pages the author has in which to tell the story.
Through the course of the book, the pace should alternate from quick to slow in order to keep a balance and maintain a variety that holds the reader's interest. Action scenes should be followed by calmer, introspective scenes. High emotion should be balanced with reflection and regrouping. This alternating structure is important to the flow, because too much of anything becomes burdensome after a while. Even piling action upon action will eventually lose the reader if there is no lull to break the tension. Excitement will become dull and unbelievable if done to death, and that's when the reader closes the book. Balance is the key to good pacing.
GETTING STARTED
So you've opened your first chapter with a marvelous hook, and you've caught the reader's attention. Now what? The temptation is to pile on the backstory, to give the reader all the information about what brought your character to this opening crisis.
Don't do it.
Backstory puts the brakes on your pacing, and this early in your story, you want to keep things moving along. Save the backstory information for later. In fact, save as much character history as possible for after chapter one, and then weave in hints and bits of the background information in subtle ways. Plopping a long block of backstory in the middle of an action scene kills the pace. Try revealing pieces of important information, such as through quick flashes of internalization or secondary character dialogue. Watch out, though, when you use dialogue that it doesn't sound forced or stilted. Your heroine's mother, who would be fully aware of the fact that your heroine was jilted by Joe Blow, wouldn't say to your heroine, "Remember how Joe left you at the altar three years ago and crushed all your dreams of happiness?"
Uh, yeah, Mom. I was there. I remember.
However, Mom might say, "Honey, don't let what happened with Joe hold you back any more." The heroine knows what her mother is referring to, even if the reader doesn't, and the dialogue sound much more natural. What the reader does have is a hint that something important and life altering happened to our heroine because of Joe, and the reader will read on to find out what it was! So, don't overload the reader in the early chapters with too much information. Keep the story moving.
PICKING UP THE PACE
A faster pace can be achieved in several ways. For example, snappy dialogue (quick one liners between characters, not long monologues) moves the story along. Beware of using speech tags, the dreaded "he said" and "she said." Not only do speech tags slow your pace, often it is quite obvious to the reader who is speaking. Strategic lines describing a gesture or a character's reaction to something said will suffice to identify a speaker.
Another way to increase the pace is through writing mechanics. Short sentences, paragraphs, and scenes move more quickly when you want to achieve tension or a fast pace. In quickly paced scenes, your characters should be acting, doing. Limit the descriptions and internalization in these scenes where a faster pace is desired. There will be time for reflection after your heroine escapes the monster chasing her!
Word choices can also affect pacing. Specific nouns and vivid, active verbs help speed the pace. Shorter, simple words that don't distract the reader from the action work best for a quicker pace. Imagine how stumbling over a long, unfamiliar term would pull your reader out of the action. Don't have your heroine perambulate though the dark halls of the haunted mansion, let her creep or tiptoe. See the difference?
WHEN TO TAKE A BREATHER
Like a hiker who has been climbing those plot peaks with your characters, the reader needs a chance to catch her breath after an emotionally intense or action-packed scene. This is a good time for a sequel, those moments where the characters are reflecting on the action, weighing their options and deciding a new plan of attack. Sequels slow the pace and give the characters and reader a chance to regroup. Now is the time for description, setting, and internalization. The length of a sequel varies from a sentence to several pages. Your story and characters will dictate how long the sequel needs to be.
Where "short" sped the pace, "long" slows things down. Longer sentences, paragraphs, and narrative passages slow the pace. Passive verb construction can be used in these slower pages when handled carefully. The backstory that you've saved from earlier chapters can be sprinkled in more heavily. Avoid needlessly repeating information, though. Repetition becomes boring and will slow your pace too much.
The force that will pull your reader along and keep pages turning is change. A change from action to introspection. A new challenge for your character. A different character's point of view. Anything new and fresh keeps the reader plowing through the twists and turns to see what will happen next. That is the essence of pacing.
As you see, many factors contribute to the pace of a book. Pacing is, admittedly, one of the most difficult aspects of writing to master. Perhaps the best way to get a feel for pacing is to notice how your favorite authors pace their books. Learn the rhythm and flow of the books in the market you are targeting. With practice and patience, proper pacing can (and will!) become easier, almost instinctive as you create your stories.
***
About the author--
Beth Cornelison started writing stories as a child when she penned a tale about the adventures of her cat, Ajax. A Georgia native, Cornelison received her bachelor's degree in Public Relations from the University of Georgia. After working in Public Relations for a little more than a year, she moved with her husband to West Monroe, Louisiana, where she decided to pursue her love of writing fiction. Since that time, she has written many more books, including her romantic suspense CHASING A DREAM, which reached the final round of the 2000 Golden Heart Contest sponsored by the Romance Writers of America. In the Spring of 2000, she fulfilled her dream of publishing when Avid Press offered her a contract on CHASING A DREAM. Nominated for the Frankfurt E-Book Award, CHASING A DREAM is available at or at 1-888-AVI DBKS.
Cornelison lives in West Monroe, Louisiana, with her husband and one son.
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