Pacing

Pacing is an important part of writing any story.

What Is Pacing?

Pacing is the speed at which your story unfolds. The pace that your story moves at must be balanced. If a story moves too quickly, readers will feel rushed and you will lose impact; if your pacing is too slow, readers can lose

Try utilising the following tips to vary the speed of your writing based on the impact you want to make. Every section of your story can be paced differently, and this will help your story flow as a cohesive whole. Pacing your story will enable you to develop plot and characters more effectively and will improve readability.

Tip One: Breaking down story structure

You can break down the structure of your story at any time; when you are outlining your story or after your first draft. Breaking down the story will help you analyse each section. You can do this by using scene cards or just writing a basic breakdown by scene or the main events that need to happen within your narrative.

Once you have done this, you can look at each section and make decisions on the pace. When making these decisions, you could consider where you need more suspense or tension and where the story can be slowed down a little. Having an overall view will help you create a narrative that rises and falls throughout the story.

Multi-Chap Tip: Writing a breakdown by chapter will help you with pacing over the entire story.

Tip Two: Sentence and paragraph length

Sentence and paragraph length is one of the easiest methods of implementing a faster or slower pace within a story.

Short and choppy sentences make the story move faster and give a sense of urgency. Shorter paragraphs have your reader moving quickly through fast-paced action. These are the sections where you want more excitement.

Multi-Chap Tip: To create tension in longer works, try ending a chapter on a cliffhanger.

Longer sentences can help slow things down and will have readers taking their time on important details. Longer paragraphs can include more information and in-depth description. This is a good technique for sections where you want to delve deeper into characters.

Tip Three: Slowing down with detail

Sometimes you will want to slow down the pace for a single, essential moment in the narrative. Maybe because you have something important that you want to highlight. Adding extra detail will slow things down, forcing readers to pay closer attention to what you want them to pay closer attention to. This method is particularly effective when a fast-paced section juxtaposes it. It can accentuate a climactic moment.

Tip Four: Using introspection

Introspection is useful in a number of ways. It slows down the story. It can create empathy and understanding for characters. For the plot, it can reveal motives and other important details. Introspection looks deeper into the consciousness of a character—this can be through an internal monologue. If you manage to do this right, you will control the pace of a story while giving further character and plot development.

It’s important to note when you use a technique like this, in the middle of a fast-paced scene with lots of tension, for example, it will slow down the action and ruin this part of your story. Introspection can work very effectively after a faced-paced scene, creating the rise and fall, which I pointed out earlier.

Tip Five: What’s needed?

It is important in pacing to know when you need to be economical, which doesn’t just mean looking for those run-on sentences that can be shorter and tidier; it relates directly to the content of your story.

Ask yourself what is necessary to the story that you are trying to tell. Read the story, and ask yourself the following questions about each element:

What contributes to the plot and what detracts from it?
Does it contribute to character development?
Does it contribute to the reader’s experience?

If the answer to any of these questions is ‘no’, the chances are that this is a part of the story that is negatively affecting the pace. These sections could be contributing to long, dull stretches.

The tip here is: Kill your darlings!

Be brave and cut sections that need to be cut. It can be hard because some of them might be your favourite bits of writing, but you may need to let go of these gems.

Some of the greatest authors have to do this, including J.K. Rowling. Did you know that Dean Thomas, a presumed Muggle-born, is actually a half-blood? His father was a wizard who got killed due to refusing to join the Death Eaters. This subplot was cut from the novels because it didn’t affect the main story. It’s such a lovely interesting ghost plot (as JK calls them), but it would have slowed down the narrative because Dean Thomas is not that important to the main thread of canon.

Finally, you should use this step in conjunction with the next step: Beta’s!

Tip Six: Ask for critique

Sometimes we think that we should be able to get it all done ourselves, that if we need to have our work checked over multiple times, it somehow means we don’t write as well as our beta. Wrong.

If you don’t have a beta, get one!

A reader’s perspective will always highlight issues that you will not notice.

If possible, have an ongoing beta. Having a close relationship with one beta reader is important for a few reasons:

You know what to expect
You build a rapport that enables you to be candid
Your beta reader will learn to understand your style.

2. Specifically ask them to consider your pacing

As I said in the ‘Kill Your Darlings’ section, sometimes it’s hard to cut your favourite parts. A beta reader is more detached and can suggest the changes that need to be made.