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Pace in writing

Alile

Scribe
I know it's probably not a question for a first draft. But do you think about pace when you are writing? What is your pace like?

Some authors use long, flowery, descriptive sentences, rich and blooming. Some authors just seem to take it slow, going behind the things that happen, for example (in my opinion) like Tad Williams in his "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" series, it begins with the book The Dragonbone Chair. There is a lot of writing over not a lot of action, it took me a while to get used to. However, it's a very entertaining read! Others keep a much faster pace, important things happening several times a chapter, has you hanging on every word, dramatic events galore, every chapter designed to make you go on reading, action-packed and exciting. One example (I know it could be called sci-fi) that many have probably read, is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I found the book very fast-paced; lots of stuff happening all the time.

Has anyone read the book "The 100", and seen the tv-show "The 100", and compared them? For one thing, the books are slow and crawls along, lots of background stories (memories and flash-backs), not a lot at stake and not packing a lot of dramatic happenings, in the three books. Well written, but slow and rather calm. But the tv-show, which is only loosely based on the books, has a lot of very dramatic action going on all the time, a lot is at stake for every character, there is danger, enemies, making friends, war, a hard-won truce that lasted less than half an episode... In every episode the stories flash by fast, people risk their lives, every episode has a quick pace and a lot happening. To compare these two really shows you the difference of pace in storytelling. I'd love to get my hands on the script of the show. It might be unfair to compare books to a tv-show, but after all the tv-show was also written.

So to look for what I mean; here is what the dictionary said:
a rate of movement;
a rate of activity, progress, growth, performance, etc.; tempo.

By pace I think about the ebb and flow of sentences, the tempo of your writing, that and how the plot moves: the activity leading to more activity, how a story can grow more exciting; how you use short clipped sentences to convey emotion like frustration, or break the rythm -like so- in your words.

We are word-smiths. I think it's important to think about the craft of writing. Pace is very exciting to look for in novels.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Pace is important. There are variations on this. There is pacing within sentences and paragraphs, the wordsmith-y pacing that makes it a joy to leap from sentence to sentence. The deliberate choice by the author to chop and stretch at just the right points.

Pacing also applies to plot development, how many action scenes, the placement of description, details of character. This, too, is important.

I do not like to compare to how movies or television work. To me, it's like comparing a novel to a painting or a ballet. It's a different art form. Video gets to do things we cannot in print, and vice versa. This applies very much to pacing.

As for what works, that's really up to the reader. I found Hunger Games contrived and not very well contrived. I was constantly seeing the author work, rather than being caught up in the story. Many other people, though, were captivated, so there you go.
 
I actually logged in to post a pace question and found this! I like to think of my tempo or pace in terms of eye blinks and private thoughts. The first helps establish the physical surroundings regularly, except in foreshadowing I like to keep character thoughts to a minimum outside of character to character interaction. For instance writing a chapter with many characters in scene versus say one is totally different. The previous has opportunities for dialogue which is the main means of keeping tempo when something important isn't happening. In the second instance every moment is deferred to because we are now watching an individual versus listening to a group, and of course there is some intercourse and nothing I'm saying is strict but it's one system.

Pace is a challenge, for instance in LOTR by JRRT sometimes what took weeks happened in the blink of an eye because Tolkien focused on lore, at times it took away from the story because it was unbelievable. How do you fill the gaps? For one thing, character development. There are opportunities for this at any point in the novel and the beautiful thing is if you can master the balance pace is eliminated because what you're really doing in developing a pace is fooling the reader into a journey.

Anything from a cart ride to the need to hunt for food becomes an opportunity to advance your story to the end in inventive ways, which in our deciept to the reader is the future. I'm trying to make time a 2D element in my book so to speak, it's visible but it really isn't substantial.

As far as flowery descriptions versus action words there is a balance there too. I'm reading the Wheel of Time(slowly). Robert Jordan is a master of vicinity but all the flowers get old when you only have two varieties. Be flowery when you describe, when there is an act, when there is some logical obstacle. Use action words for action. K.C. May's Kinships Saga is a light read, and in that it's good but her action words are her most effective tool. When something's happening there is sufficient material for you to be satisfied with the read but her actual pace is so and so said and so and so said OK to that end of chapter, literally. I realize not every book is an epic, but it's probably the reason for her low word count. Some things are to be savored and that savory incursion is what makes the reader feel like they are moving.

Hope it helps.
 
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Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
I think about it... often. My invented term for what I was shooting for with my writing was "breakneck epic"... so, maybe a speedy snail, LOL. In first draft, this left out too much world building and such, but I'd rather add than cut, and several readers have comments about how fast they're pulled along.

Another way to describe what I was aiming for was a "skim-free" Game of Thrones type experience, where I enjoy the story and whatnot, but Martin's wordiness just flat drives me crazy at times.

So pacing, both macro and micro are something that has been on my mind a lot while writing.
 

MAndreas

Troubadour
I don't think I really thought about it in my first books- at least not in the first draft. But I do now many books later. I write fast books--they aren't ones where folks are pondering things too long. So I try to be very aware of slowing issues (and when I don't catch them, my editor kindly points them out ;)). That being said, I do think books need to have down time, let the characters and the reader process what's happened, maybe relax a bit...then ya hit them again ;).

Your pacing is also going to depend on the type of book you're creating. Something fast and funny like mine is going to have massively different pacing, chapter size, word usage, etc than a massive epic like GoT or any Terry Brooks book.
 

Ronald T.

Troubadour
You're right, Alile. Appropriate pacing is a very important part of writing well. And, from what I've read, unless it comes naturally to a writer, it's one of the more difficult aspects of the overall process for an author to learn. But it is an extremely important part of writing if the author wishes to keep a reader interested.

Like so many other issues necessary to professional writing, it can't be ignored. Because when it's done correctly, you can actually see it on the page

Search the web. Learn what pacing really means, and them practice applying it to your own writing.

You will probably see an immediate difference. I certainly did.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
I know it's probably not a question for a first draft. But do you think about pace when you are writing? What is your pace like?

It is totally a question for a first draft, which is your foundation btw. So, yes, do your best job at pacing from the get go. Although once you start editing and changing things, that changes the pacing too, right? It's a tricky thing. If pacing is something you struggle with, the best thing I can say to try and help you is to just listen to your gut. Write from your creative voice, staying in the zone as best you can. Use timed word sprints to help you retain consistency (meaning, it's impossible to keep in the zone for hours at a time).

Pacing depends on the story you're trying to tell. On the tone. On the plot. On the scenes. Some scenes will have faster pacing while others will have slower. Then there's pacing when it comes to the plot, and releasing morsels of plot as you go along. Really, the only way to do this is to practice practice practice and figure out what works for YOU and your process.

When I draft, I can do 1-3 scenes per day depending on the word count. So I divide the work into sections, which ultimately helps with pacing. But it's not something I really think about. I just write. If it's an introspective scene, I slow myself down. If it's a dialogue scene, I speed it up and try to keep momentum really flowing because people are talking and I need everything to come out as naturally as possible. This has been what's worked for me all of these years.
 

oenanthe

Minstrel
Basically if i'm bored writing it, i'm probably going to cut that bit.

pacing for me is all about narrowing the pov character's choices until there is only one choice left. it's not really anything else for me. I hear talk about sentence length or whatever, but that's not really something I worry about until the last stages of editing.
 

Peat

Sage
Agreed with Chessie its a question for the first draft alright. The idea of trying to change pacing on a redraft sounds pretty nightmarish.
 
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