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The story pacing is really important if you want to keep a reader engaged. Especially if it’s a long story because that means you have to keep them engaged for longer.
If pacing is too slow, you’ll bore the reader – they’ll lose interest and put the book down. If it’s too fast, you’ll overwhelm them with information – they’ll get confused and put the book down. You don’t want either of these things to happen.
Good pacing is about variety. Sometimes it’s slow and sometimes it’s fast. This keeps the reader on their feet, so to say, and intrigued, pulling them forward along with the story.
When to have fast or slow pacing
The trickiest part of story pacing is figuring out when to slow it down or speed it up. This quote by Lee Child sums pacing up well:
“You should write the fast stuff slow and the slow stuff fast.”
Lee Child
The fast stuff, like action, should be written with slow pacing. There’s so much going on that it needs to be slow to be understandable. And it’s interesting stuff – the reader wants to know more! Tell me exactly where they stabbed the knife – was it a life threatening injury? Give me all the details of their escape plan. Explain every single action and reaction when there’s tension in the room.
The slow stuff, however, should be written fast. Things like hiking for a month to get to a new destination. If all they’re doing is walking, I don’t want to read a month’s worth of that. If they’re sleeping, I don’t want every detail of what they’re dreaming about unless it’s plot-related. And if they’re relaxing in the bath, limit the amount of slippery-skin and bubbles description (unless you’re wanting to get into erotic-fiction territory).
To help you vary the story pacing, there are some things you can do. These are tips, not rules. Hopefully they’re a helpful starting point for varying story pacing.
To make the story pacing faster
- Use shorter sentences and paragraphs.
- Avoid the narrator interrupting.
- No info dumps – and avoid lots of new information.
- More action – emphasise physical actions.
- More dialogue.
- Less introspection.
- More suspense – use cliffhangers or surprises.
- More tension – push characters to make snap decisions.
To make the story pacing slower
- Use longer sentences and paragraphs.
- More information (this doesn’t mean info dumps, still weave the info in gradually) – backstory or narration.
- Less action – let the characters rest.
- Less dialogue.
- More introspection – reveal motivations and internal conflict.
- More description.
Resources
Effective Editing: How to Take Your Writing to the Next Level by Molly McCowan