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Along with the million other things writers must worry about, there’s pacing!  Basically, pacing is how fast the story moves.  Ever hear someone describe how a book took off running from the first page?  Or how it started slow, but picked up toward the end?

What creates those impressions?  How do you control them?

Each individual sentence of your story has an effect on overall pacing.  If it’s advancing the plot in a meaningful way, then it’s on the “fast” track.  If it has nothing to do with the plot, it’s on the “slow” track.  Physical length of the lines, and the portrayal of time passing, can also contribute to a fast or slow sense.

Every story will feature a combination of fast and slow sentences, paragraphs, and scenes.  How you arrange these, and how many slow ones you allow to exist, determine pacing overall.

Here are some specific examples of fast pacing:

• Terse, conflict-laden dialogue.  Characters hashing out a plot-related conflict through words, and/or trading only a few words at a time.
• Short sentences and paragraphs.  These are fantastic for moments of action, or calling attention to important details.
• Action scenes.  Characters doing stuff, or events happening, to move the story forward.  By “action,” I don’t necessarily mean explosions and car chases.  One character interrogating another for critical info can be “action” too, as long as their exchange doesn’t wander off-topic or draw out too long.
• Summaries.  Instead of explaining how Johnny drove home, brushed his teeth, put on his jammies, went to bed, then woke up the next morning, simply saying, “Johnny went home to bed.  The next morning…” to leap forward to the next time of actual interest.

Keeping things moving is important.  Your reader should never be thinking, “Where is this going?” or “When will this be over?”  A reader who can’t justify why he’s reading anymore will quit on the story, one way or another.

On the other hand, there are times when hitting the brakes on your pace is a good thing.  You want to linger on important moments and feelings, draw them out.  When your main character’s best friend dies, for instance, he shouldn’t be over it two sentences later.  His grief process, and its duration, give the reader a better sense of who he is.  The reader “grieves” too, and is now more attached to the story.

Anything that hits the pause button on your plot slows the story’s pace.  Specific examples:

• Long and/or conflict-free dialogue.  It can be informative, but also potentially dangerous, because there’s potential to wander on too long.  (I never have this problem.  Ahem.)
• Big paragraphs.  More words to read serves as a physical hurdle for the reader, creating a sense of more time passing and things happening.  If that’s the effect you’re looking for, good!
• Characters pausing the narration to think.  Their thoughts are important for explaining their actions and attitudes, but remember, you’re calling timeout on the story to put them in.
• Scene descriptions.  Significant places deserve a great setup.  This isn’t as critical for minor or mundane locations.
• Flashbacks.  I hate flashbacks, myself, but other people use them.  If you insist on dreaming or time-jumping, be as clear about it as possible.
• Backstory.  Try to incorporate backstory in small doses, and interesting ways.  Do not halt the plot to present pages of information (Dammit Jim, it’s a story, not a dossier)!  Don’t begin the story with backstory, either- that was one of my big weaknesses once.  I now avoid writing an intro whenever possible.
• Dragging out detail.  Instead of saying “Johnny got stabbed,” explain how the knife went in, when it began to hurt, etc.  You definitely want to highlight big moments this way.

A slow pace can establish a mood, draw attention to something important, create and lengthen tension, drum up reader empathy, and give a sense of more time passing- but be careful not to slow things down to a crawl.

How can you tell if your story is paced well?  You must have a finished draft first.  Spend a little time away from it, then go back and read it as though for the first time.  (Printing it out, or selecting a different font in your word processor, can help trick your brain into thinking you’ve never seen it before.)  At what parts do you think, “Man, I wish there was more here?”  Add in what your brain was craving.  At what parts do you think, “Geez, get on with it already!”  Make that stuff shorter.

It’s also critical to get other people to make the same review.  If there’s consensus as to what parts need to be faster or slower, take heed!  Once you fix those parts, you’ll be glad you did!  (I have more hints for eliciting great feedback here.)

Do you have any other tricks for managing pace?  Drop me a line in the comments and let me know!