Writing Blog Number 2 (continued)

20260213 Pacing

Pacing

From a Jed Herne video, this explains what needs to be done to get the pacing of a story right. This is mainly for genre fiction; literary fiction has its own rules.
         First, though, pacing is the “sense of progress your readers gets as they go through the story.” (direct quote by Jed). Pacing can be fast or slow, depending on the type of story and what you want to accomplish. And good books tend to have a mixture of both.

So, here are the 7 ways to improve the pacing of your story:

1) Ratio of action scenes to reaction scenes
This is where a lot of people let their stories down – too little action, or too long between the action… or too much action and no time for characters to react and learn and grow. Not necessarily big actions (like fights or escapes) but when the PoV character is trying accomplish something, even if seemingly minor. Reaction scenes are slower as this is where the emotional aspect of the story comes out. Juggling these can be tricky. Cycling through this back and forth really affects the pace a lot.

2) Rate of revelation
The speed at which new revelation/ information is given to the reader. Too quick, it’s an info-dump. Too slow and the reader might lose their attention. Also be aware of repetition of information or sentence structure. High rate of revelation is not needed, but it cannot come across as a deus ex machina through sudden knowledge when needed. This also applies to backstory and lore.

3) Signs of progress
The reader needs to feel they are getting closer to the finale and not treading water or just going off on an irrelevant tangent. So there should be some change/ growth each chapter (or two).

4) Sentence length
This is the one I first learnt. And in horror, it is vital. Vary sentence length. Long sentences can create a drawn-out pacing. Shorter sentences feel like breathing heavily. Or not even sentences, but clauses. And in one paragraph, it should not be a monotonous sentence structure. Also vary the starting words (even letters) of a sentence.

5) Chapter length
The shorter the chapter, the faster the pacing. This is not only because it feels like things are happening in the reader’s mind, but also because a chapter has action scenes throughout and ends with some sort of growth/ change.
         On a side note, this also adds white space to a book, at the end of the chapter, so readers get through it faster. And then some publishers use a larger font so readers also get through a book faster, thus artificially increasing the sense of pace. This physical turning of the pages is psychological but it works.

6) Abbreviation and time skipping
“Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.” (Alfred Hitchcock)
         We don’t need every detail of every day and every waking hour. This is one of the few cases in a story when telling as opposed to showing works, as we montage in writing what happens that is unimportant.

7) Communication
This is how we the writer communicate what is happening to the reader. We let our readers know what is happening in a story through action, dialogue, description, and internal thoughts/ emotions. Each affects the pacing.
         Action is the fastest, and often we read it faster than the action is happening.
         Dialogue is time equal – how long it takes us to read it is how long it takes in the story world.
         Description slows down the pace. The reading takes longer than noticing the thing being described.
         Internal though can either be time equal or slow down the pace, but most readers see it as a slow-down.
         You need all four of these elements, and how you use them will dictate the ultimate pace of the story.

There are no hard and fast rules for how much of each of these factors, and how much pacing you need! It depends on the story, what you want to happen, and the time in the story. Use all of them in different amounts to make your story come alive and not be one note.