{"id":444,"date":"2014-08-18T10:37:30","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T15:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/?p=444"},"modified":"2014-08-18T10:38:49","modified_gmt":"2014-08-18T15:38:49","slug":"pacing-seize-control-of-your-storys-tempo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/pacing-seize-control-of-your-storys-tempo\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacing: Seize Control Of Your Story&#8217;s Tempo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/footprints.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-660\" src=\"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/footprints.jpg\" alt=\"footprints\" width=\"427\" height=\"494\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/footprints.jpg 427w, https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/footprints-259x300.jpg 259w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 427px) 100vw, 427px\" \/><\/a><em><small>(Image credit: <a href=\"http:\/\/imagebase.net\" target=\"_blank\">imagebase.net<\/a>)<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Along with the million other things writers must worry about, there&#8217;s pacing!\u00a0 Basically, pacing is how fast the story moves.\u00a0 Ever hear someone describe how a book took off running from the first page?\u00a0 Or how it started slow, but picked up toward the end?<\/p>\n<p>What creates those impressions?\u00a0 How do you control them?<\/p>\n<p>Each individual sentence of your story has an effect on overall pacing.\u00a0 If it&#8217;s advancing the plot in a meaningful way, then it&#8217;s on the &#8220;fast&#8221; track.\u00a0 If it has nothing to do with the plot, it&#8217;s on the &#8220;slow&#8221; track.\u00a0 Physical length of the lines, and the portrayal of time passing, can also contribute to a fast or slow sense.<\/p>\n<p>Every story will feature a combination of fast and slow sentences, paragraphs, and scenes.\u00a0 How you arrange these, and how many slow ones you allow to exist, determine pacing overall.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some specific examples of <strong>fast<\/strong> pacing:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Terse, conflict-laden dialogue.<\/strong>\u00a0 Characters hashing out a plot-related conflict through words, and\/or trading only a few words at a time.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Short sentences and paragraphs.<\/strong>\u00a0 These are fantastic for moments of action, or calling attention to important details.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Action scenes.<\/strong>\u00a0 Characters doing stuff, or events happening, to move the story forward.\u00a0 By &#8220;action,&#8221; I don&#8217;t necessarily mean explosions and car chases.\u00a0 One character interrogating another for critical info can be &#8220;action&#8221; too, as long as their exchange doesn&#8217;t wander off-topic or draw out too long.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Summaries.<\/strong>\u00a0 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, &#8220;Johnny went home to bed.\u00a0 The next morning&#8230;&#8221; to leap forward to the next time of actual interest.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keeping things moving is important.\u00a0 Your reader should never be thinking, &#8220;Where is this going?&#8221; or &#8220;When will this be over?&#8221;\u00a0 A reader who can&#8217;t justify why he&#8217;s reading anymore will quit on the story, one way or another.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, there are times when hitting the brakes on your pace is a good thing.\u00a0 You <em>want<\/em> to linger on important moments and feelings, draw them out.\u00a0 When your main character&#8217;s best friend dies, for instance, he <em>shouldn&#8217;t<\/em> be over it two sentences later.\u00a0 His grief process, and its duration, give the reader a better sense of who he is.\u00a0 The reader &#8220;grieves&#8221; too, and is now more attached to the story.<\/p>\n<p>Anything that hits the pause button on your plot <strong>slows<\/strong> the story&#8217;s pace.\u00a0 Specific examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Long and\/or conflict-free dialogue.<\/strong>\u00a0 It can be informative, but also potentially dangerous, because there&#8217;s potential to wander on too long.\u00a0 (I never have this problem.\u00a0 Ahem.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Big paragraphs.<\/strong>\u00a0 More words to read serves as a physical hurdle for the reader, creating a sense of more time passing and things happening.\u00a0 If that&#8217;s the effect you&#8217;re looking for, good!<\/li>\n<li><strong>Characters pausing the narration to think.\u00a0<\/strong> Their thoughts are important for explaining their actions and attitudes, but remember, you&#8217;re calling timeout on the story to put them in.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Scene descriptions.<\/strong>\u00a0 Significant places deserve a great setup.\u00a0 This isn&#8217;t as critical for minor or mundane locations.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Flashbacks.<\/strong>\u00a0 I hate flashbacks, myself, but other people use them.\u00a0 If you insist on dreaming or time-jumping, be as clear about it as possible.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Backstory.<\/strong>\u00a0 Try to incorporate backstory in small doses, and interesting ways.\u00a0 Do <em>not<\/em> halt the plot to present pages of information (Dammit Jim, it&#8217;s a story, not a dossier)!\u00a0 Don&#8217;t begin the story with backstory, either- that was one of my big weaknesses once.\u00a0 I now<a href=\"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/writing-good-intros-dont\/\" target=\"_blank\"> avoid writing an intro<\/a> whenever possible.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dragging out detail.<\/strong>\u00a0 Instead of saying &#8220;Johnny got stabbed,&#8221; explain how the knife went in, when it began to hurt, etc.\u00a0 You definitely want to highlight big moments this way.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>How can you tell if your story is paced well?\u00a0 You must have a finished draft first.\u00a0 Spend a little time away from it, then go back and read it as though for the first time.\u00a0 (Printing it out, or selecting a different font in your word processor, can help trick your brain into thinking you&#8217;ve never seen it before.)\u00a0 At what parts do you think, &#8220;Man, I wish there was more here?&#8221;\u00a0 Add in what your brain was craving.\u00a0 At what parts do you think, &#8220;Geez, get on with it already!&#8221;\u00a0 Make that stuff shorter.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also critical to get other people to make the same review.\u00a0 If there&#8217;s consensus as to what parts need to be faster or slower, take heed!\u00a0 Once you fix those parts, you&#8217;ll be glad you did!\u00a0 (I have more hints for <a href=\"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/be-a-beta-star-part-ii-getting-great-feedback\/\" target=\"_blank\">eliciting great feedback here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you have any other tricks for managing pace?\u00a0 Drop me a line in the comments and let me know!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- Place this tag in your head or just before your close body tag. --><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/apis.google.com\/js\/plusone.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><!-- Place this tag where you want the widget to render. --><\/p>\n<div class=\"g-post\" data-href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/106756336697302613382\/posts\/Ki2hs5Agndb\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Image credit: imagebase.net) Along with the million other things writers must worry about, there&#8217;s pacing!\u00a0 Basically, pacing is how fast the story moves.\u00a0 Ever hear someone describe how a book took off running from the first page?\u00a0 Or how it started slow, but picked up toward the end? What creates those impressions?\u00a0 How do you control them? Each individual sentence of your story has an effect on overall pacing.\u00a0 If it&#8217;s advancing the plot in a meaningful way, then it&#8217;s&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/pacing-seize-control-of-your-storys-tempo\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2,8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advice","category-editing","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":675,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions\/675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}