o. writing help

THE PACING OF A STORY

to help your

story have a

good pace

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ACTION. action scenes are where you "show" what happens in a story, and, when written in short- and medium-length sentences, they move the story along. action scenes contain few distractions, little description, and limited transitions. omit or limit character thoughts, especially in the midst of danger or crisis, since during a crisis people focus solely on survival. to create poignancy, forgo long, descriptive passages and choose a few details that serve as emotionally charged props instead.

CLIFF HANGERS. when the outcome of a scene or chapter is left hanging, the pace naturally picks up because the reader will turn the page to find out what happens next. readers both love and hate uncertainty, and your job is to deliver plenty of unfinished actions, unfilled needs, and interruptions. remember, cliff hangers don't necessarily mean that you're literally dangling your character from a rooftop as the scene ends. if your characters are in the midst of a conversation, end the scene with a revelation, threat, or challenge.

DIALOGUE. rapid-fire dialogue with little or no extraneous information is swift and captivating, and will invigorate any scene. the best dialogue for velocity is pared down, an abbreviated copy of real-life conversation that snaps and crackles with tension. it is more like the volleying of ping-pong or tennis than a long-winded discussion. reactions, descriptions, and attributions are minimal. don't create dialogue exchanges where your characters discuss or ponder. instead, allow them to argue, confront, or engage in a power struggle.

PROLONGED OUTCOMES. suspense and, by extension, forward movement are created when you prolong outcomes. while it may seem that prolonging an event would slow down a story, this technique actually increases the speed, because the reader wants to know if your character is rescued from the mountainside, if the vaccine will arrive before the outbreak decimates the village, or if the detective will solve the case before the killer strikes again.

SCENE CUTS. also called a jump cut, a scene cut moves the story to a new location and assumes the reader can follow without an explanation of the location change. the purpose is to accelerate the story, and the characters in the new scene don't necessarily need to be the characters in the previous scene.

A SERIES OF INCIDENTS IN RAPID SUCCESSION. another means of speeding up your story is to create events that happen immediately one after another. such events are presented with minimal or no transitions, leaping via scene cuts from scene to scene and place to place.

SHORT CHAPTERS AND SCENES. short segments are easily digested and end quickly. since they portray a complete action, the reader passes through them quickly, as opposed to being bogged down by complex actions and descriptions.

SUMMARY. instead of a play-by-play approach, tell readers what has already happened. because scenes are immediate and sensory, they require many words to depict. summary is a way of trimming your word count and reserving scenes for the major events. you can also summarize whole eras, descriptions, and backstory. summaries work well when time passes but there is little to report, when an action is repeated or when a significant amount of time has passed.

WORD CHOICE AND SENTENCE STRUCTURE. the language itself is the subtlest means of pacing. think concrete words (like prodigy and iceberg), active voice (with potent verbs like zigzag and plunder), and sensory information that's artfully embedded. if you write long, involved paragraphs, try breaking them up.

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