Do you find yourself 90% of the way through writing your novel, but with a lot of action left to cram in? Or have you galloped through your main ideas, only to find there's another 40,000 words left to write?
Pace is one of the trickiest things to get right, and one of the most important things to plan. At school, children are taught that a story should work like a mountain. The introduction to the characters and the story starts on a gentle slope, gradually leading up to the peak (climax of the story), which then falls away to the other side (conclusion).
This is a simplistic way of looking at it, but even as adults we can learn from it. If you sketch out your plot, you can see from your mountain shape where it may need work.
If your novel is all high-pitched action - you are looking at a steep, table-topped picture. If you have no conclusion after your climax - the mountain won't come down again. If your story is lacking in events, you'll see a gentle undulating slope. A novel with three or four main events will look like a mountain range, and can work well, if the introduction and conclusion are well balanced.
Experiment by moving around the story's main events, and see how the shape looks. You could start with a dramatic event, then drop down into introduction before leading gradually back up again.
Think about how you are leaving your reader. A dramatic ending can leave them feeling unsatisfied or startled, but too much conclusion can be boring.
The hardest writing to pace is the short story, as you have so little time to develop your plot. Decide what element you really want the reader to focus on and make sure you give that enough space.
What problems have you had with pacing? And what has helped?
Cressida
(editorial consultant)
Hi Cressida. [My first comment, after joining a week ago.] I have only written two pieces of fiction (unless you count 35 years of local government bumf before ‘retiring’). Pacing and planning sounds a good approach, and one that I will try – really honestly.
However, so far my ‘writing style’ (pause for embarrassed cough) seems to conflict. My novel developed in a totally different way to that I had envisaged 15 months ago, thanks to one of the characters changing as the thing wrote itself in chunks of time. So it started as intended, and ended geographically where I intended, but not as I intended. It’s some 115k, which I gather is too long for a first submission, but that’s what the story required. Ho hum.
The other piece was ‘your’ W&A/A&C Blacks’s short story competition. I noticed it Wednesday – “What?”; and had an equally blank mind Thursday. Friday night, I thought of a possible situation, then a beginning and an end before sleeping Saturday night. I started at 0900, and it finished its first draft 1600 Sunday afternoon at 2,067 words. Trimmed happily to a tad below 2,000 words. Submitted at sunset. Made Valentine meal - now those three courses really did take pacing!
Cheers
John
That is such a helpful idea. I am at 50k in my first attempt at a crime novel and had been writing into the wee small hours. I must have been more tired than I thought as I had someone taking a taxi to the west end of London when in fact he had been killed off in chapter nine.
Thank you for that great tip.
Regards
Harry Dunn
I was given some extremely valuable advice by Marion Urch, from Adventures in Fiction, after I submitted a previous manuscript for some editorial scrutiny. And that is to write out a chapter listing with a simple paragraph describing the essential events in each chapter and the impact they have.
This means you can plan the entire storyline, the characters and how they'll interact with each other in a way that ensures you'll keep your head above the writing waterline. It basically stops you from drowning in information and makes for easy referencing throughout the entire novel, but more importantly it provides you with a sneak peak of the forthcoming pace, giving you ample time to make any necessary adjustments before you hit that inevitable mountain range.
I'm now using this method to great effect with my current manuscript, which I hope to complete by the end of June.