The right pacing can cover a lot of sins, and
each genre, age group, and storytelling style has its own sweet spot when it
comes to pulling the ready along at the proper speed. But what if you haven’t
nailed that perfect pace yet? Here are some tips to help.
Too Slow
Is there
at least a small amount of conflict pulling readers along in each chapter? On
each page? Pull out your handy highlighter (or virtual highlighter) and
actually walk through your chapters with this in mind. Highlight the conflict
or stake on each page, and you’ll begin to see where the story drags. If you’ve
got a handful of pages with no highlighter, that’s your trouble area. Focus
there.
Another approach is to assess the beginning and end of each chapter to measure
plot progression. Read your first sentence in the chapter. What’s happening?
What’s the main problem? Now, read your last sentence in the same chapter. Nine
times out of ten, you’ll want to end with the original problem solved (or made
worse) and a new problem introduced. Can’t go letting our characters to get bored,
after all, can we?
Is that
half-page-long description really necessary? Ask yourself this question and
be firm on the answer. And then go ask a bunch of your crit pals who bring more
distance to their assessment than you do. If it’s not needed or you can get
away with less, do it! Remember, tightly written description often is the most
powerful.
If you and the crit brigade are absolutely onboard with leaving it in, ask
yourself the next question. Is it
necessary HERE? All of it? Or, can you sprinkle it across multiple pages in
the chapter, interspersed with action and discovery. Sometimes, that simple
type of change makes all the difference in pacing.
Does your
flowery prose need a trim? If your action scenes consist of sentences like:
Ryan stretched his long, cargos-clad legs
and leapt like a spooked gazelle for the rusted, cracking fire escape,
retrieving his heavy black .45 from the leather side holster on his braided
belt along the way… You’re probably overwriting.
These sentences can be tricky to spot at first, but cleaning them up tightens
your pace AND your word count. This exercise can help.
Should
you consider adding fresh plotlines or twists? If you’ve run through the
above and your manuscript still feels sluggish, it’s possible there’s just not
enough going on yet to spark the pace. You want to be careful about adding
plotlines or twists simply for the sake of complicating the story, but adding a
layer of threat, complication or motivation can really up the pace.
Imagine the Harry Potter storyline without Sirius Black. Harry would face just
a teensy bit less mystery, lower personal stakes, and fewer external pressures
and motivations to drive his actions and the series’ pacing.
Too Fast
Even if
the pace if quick, are you increasing the stakes? One of my recent reads
had this problem – and note this was on a book I still enjoyed. I loved the
pacing, but realized that 100 pages in, the stakes were essentially what they’d
been on page 1. We just kept getting whisked along so quickly there wasn’t time
to stop and think about it, or from the author’s perspective, to build those
stakes. To me, this puts a story in danger of remaining shallow, when it could
be much deeper and more developed.
Do your
characters have time to process and reflect after big moments? This can be
as simple as a paragraph or two, but it’s important to slow things down
occasionally to let characters react, grow and change. These are the parts of
the book that help us feel the pace
because of their momentary contrast with fast action.
Are you
going as deep into the plot as you could be? While I enjoy hyper-paced
books, they also risk irritating me by breezing through important plot points
or simplifying aspects I wanted characters to investigate further. Don’t
abandon plot depth for pacing. Ask yourself if you’re allowing your characters
to question the situation enough, to respond to alternate solutions, to dig
deeper into mysteries you’ve left hanging. Remember, plot loses most of its
power if readers stop caring about and relating to your characters.
So, there you have it. I feel like I should cue one of those
fast-voiced legalese announcers to read pacing disclaimers and inspirations to set the mood for that nail-biting pacing you’ll crank out next time you open
your manuscripts!
