101 Writing Tips from an Exhausted Reviewer

Pacing

It's taken me a while to write this up, and I have a very good reason for it!

I got a new laptop, which is great and all. Except. Except! The power button is right between my backspace button and delete button. And, as someone who overthinks everything I say and uses the backspace button more than bad boys in Wattpad novels use their smirks, it has been... an experience!

Anyways! Let's talk about pacing.

Pacing is everywhere. It's in music -- it's why most popular songs tend to have a rough time frame of three to four minutes. It's long enough to get us accustomed to the melody, but short enough to not make us sick of it (unless it's Call Me Maybe).

There is also pacing in the shows we watch, or even presidential and political speeches that address the public (in which most speeches are awfully paced, which is why I sort of maybe don't really know who my prime minister is even though he's been running my country for nearly three years).

In fact, even this chapter has pacing! While this book simply contains writing advice, rants, and fun facts about geese (did you know that geese are very loyal, and are mates for life? pay attention, ex-boyfriend. be more like geese.), it still has to have pacing. I could make all of you switch off and ignore everything I say by going on and on and on about boring contents about coffee makers and avocados, or I could go too fast and give you whiplash by tossing punctuation mark rules at you.

Pacing matters!

Think about a marathon. If you go too quick, you get too tired and exhausted to finish up. If you go too slow, and take a step once every half an hour, you... well, it'll take you years to finish. But also. This would be me in a marathon.

With writing, it can refer to a few things. On one hand, it can be about how quickly your plot progresses. However, sometimes, it can simply be about how your organise the information that is your book.

I'm going to start this chapter with some general advice. Then, after that, I'm going to categorise the rest of the chapter into two questions: "What do I do if my pace is too fast?" and "What do I do if my pace is too slow?" Hopefully, that'll make it easier to find specific advice!

Before we launch right into it, I want to say that pacing and writing style, in my opinion, are pretty intertwined! A good writing style encompasses a great sense of pacing. If you need more tips here, I would recommend giving that chapter a read (it's the one just before this one!).

Onto the chapter!

GENERAL ADVICE:

Balance.

Let's go back to the marathon. If you somehow have the bravery to sign up for one, you want to be using your whole body to run this race. It's not just your legs moving, but it's also a mental game -- you need a lot of willpower. It's a combination of both.

Willpower alone will not take you to the end, if you don't even have legs. If you've got no legs... well, I guess you can roll to the end? Like, roll like a sushi roll? But that's a lot of friction burn.

Sorry. Now I am just imagining someone lying down on the hot ground, and just rolling their way through a ten mile race. I can even hear the distinct but faded, "Wheeeeeeeeeee!"

Back to focus.

In a story, you need balance. It's not just an action game. It's an emotional one, too. Make sure you are balancing action scenes with reflective scenes, or ones that build emotional relationships instead of direct plots. It's not necessarily the frowned upon "filler" just because there's no direct action and someone isn't stabbed. As long as there is growth or purpose in some way, then it's perfectly reasonable and effective as a chapter!