Guide to Writing

Writing Tip 24: Pacing

Annie was just an ordinary girl, when one day a new boy called Ryder moved to her school. Within a week they fell in love, and-

If your story reads like this, you might want to slow down.

In the morning, Annie got dressed. She put on a yellow top with a picture of a rainbow on it. There was also a small leprechaun in the corner of the rainbow. Annie didn't really care about leprechauns, but the top had been cheap at the store. She then paired the top with a pair of dark wash denim jeans -the denim was old and worn from years of use, but she wasn't going anywhere special. Completing the outfit was a pair of heels that she had never worn before, and they would probably make her feet sore and...

If your story reads like this, you might want to speed up.

The pace of a story is probably more important than new writers realise - move too fast, and your readers won't care about the characters or plot. Move too slow, and you'll bore them. It's important to achieve that balance, because without it your story could become a total mess.

Slow down, Speedy Gonzales!

Newer writers typically make the error of having their plot go way too fast, especially at the start of the story. When reading your chapters over, consider these questions:

- Are the readers invested in the characters? If something happened to them, would they care?

- Is it clear what's happening in the story?

- Is the setting established? Could your reader visualise this scene just by reading it?

If you can't answer these questions, then there's a chance your story may be moving too fast. You're not giving your readers time to get invested in the story, and that makes it forgettable if they finish it. A great story is one that we remember afterwards, and if your whole story feels rushed, readers end up annoyed.

Your characters need to be established, because this means we as readers will care about them, and want to see what happens to them. The setting should be clear for us to follow the story, and the plot should never confuse your reader, because that's the first thing that will stop them from reading. It can be tempting to try to skip over these things, but failing to do so could ruin a great story you have.

It can be easy to fix this, however. Just make sure to add in a little more information so that people aren't confused. With characters, we can elaborate more. In the example above that was too fast, we called Annie ordinary. This could mean anything! However, if we then described Annie as a high school student that was struggling to pass maths, you'd be more interested in her because you can potentially relate - even if you didn't struggle with maths, it's a subject you know and understand.

You can similarly use this technique with the other two points. It's rare that people fall in love in a week unless the circumstances are extreme, so maybe make the time period longer. Let us know who Ryder is. Tell us why Ryder and Annie are compatible and why we should root for them.

Of course, don't forget to describe this school to us! Where is it? What's the weather like outside? What does it feel like to be in the hallways? Is this your stereotypical American school with lockers, or is the school somewhere else? These things are important, because they help with visualisation, and therefore get readers invested.

What were you saying? I kind of stopped paying attention...

By contrast, there are times where you might want to speed things up a little. If you're unsure, you might want to ask yourself:

- Could I cut this, and have the readers still care? Is it possible to sum this up with far less words?

- If this wasn't my own story, would I skip this?

- Is there actual action going on here? And if not, is this information going to actually be relevant?

- Am I just dumping information on my readers, and haven't had dialogue in a while?

If you can say yes to these, you may want to speed things up.

On the bright side, people who have to speed up their plot typically fail because they simply have written too much - this means that all you really have to do is cut information out. Maybe this is a scene when you've gone into a bit too much detail in describing someone's outfit, or copied in the entire lyrics to a famous song you didn't write. The point is, your readers shouldn't want to go to sleep, or be skipping half the chapter.

What keeps readers hooked is action. This doesn't have to be a great big war or explosion sequences - it can be something as small as parents telling characters off! But if the plot isn't moving along, readers are bound to end up bored, and likely will stop reading. More frustrating is when readers skip over sections to get to the action, only to then find themselves confused by a plot detail that occurred in that skipped section. Make sure that something is always happening, even if it seems minor.

Taking what we have above, a more effective extract might be:

Annie was nervous. She had never been on a date before, and she really liked Ryder. He'd told her to just "dress casual" (whatever that meant) and now she was pacing back and forth in her comfy top and jeans. She contemplated wearing her new heels, but decided against it - twisting her ankle and getting blisters was not the way to impress.

She had just passed the tiger ornament in the hallway for the fifth time when the doorbell rang. Brushing back her hair and pasting a smile on her face, she opened it to see the guy who had been stuck in her mind for the past week.

We hope this helps you all with your pacing! How do you get the perfect balance?

What others have had to say

KatherineArlene "Some scenes require faster pacing, and some you won't want to rush. For instance, you'll want to draw out a scene just before a first kiss, but if someone is being chased by a killer, you'll want a faster pace. Be sure to match the pace to the type of scene (or story) you're writing."

xFakingaSmilex "Stop and smell the roses, not everything needs to be rushed. Everything takes time to grow and build, stories included." 

Ammelia11 "There are times when your story needs to move fast, and times when it needs to move slow. This depends entirely on the events happening at the time. Remember that slowing the pace tends to emphasise the scene, whereas speeding it up tends to be useful for moments where a lot of action is going on - you use it to build excitement.

Always consider the time frame in which things are happening, and whether the scene has any relevance. Falling in love, for example, rarely happens in a week unless the circumstances are extreme, and even then it can be hard to believe, so consider dragging moments like that out. If possible, get someone to read over it and tell you if they think something feels rushed, or if it felt boring. If that's the case then you'll either need to flesh things out or cut scenes."

K. M. Weiland "How you pace your story will vary from book to book. Some stories demand an almost continual breakneck speed; others rarely emerge past a leisurely walk. But all stories depend upon pacing to accurately convey the writer's message."

We hope this helps you, and have fun writing!