writersguide

    Pacing is the rhythm of a story. The momentum. The happening. It goes hand in hand with plotting, but the pace controls ebb and flow of the reader's reaction to the progression of the plot. Pace is a balanced mix of background, dialogue, friction, tension and action. The aim of good pacing is to make the entire story an emotional experience for readers.
    Action in fiction, as in life, must be logically motivated. Think of life as climbing a series of hills, getting to within touching distance of the peak and plunging back into the valley, and at times into an abyss. This equals pacing in our manuscripts. Variety is essential if we hope to hold a reader's interest.
    Before beginning to write, carefully craft major conflicts. Ask yourself if they are colossal enough to sustain the number of chapters needed for the length of book you intend to write.
    Divide the pacing process into four equal parts:

1. Beginning.
2. 1st half of middle to mid-point.
3. Second half of middle to crisis climax.
4. Ending.

    Divide each section into chapters and the chapters into scenes. The chapters are fairly easy. The scenes are slightly more difficult for beginning writers. The more a person writes, the easier it is to understand scenes. Each scene has action, reaction, tension and a stumbling block. Every so often the stumbling block becomes a road block, forcing the lead character to reassess and take a new route.
    Perhaps the biggest mistake made by beginning writers is to draw wonderful characters, yet move them from scene to scene where nothing of consequence happens. What the writer has is great character sketches, or sometimes mood pieces. Overall the work has nothing to sustain a full-length story and so the story dies.
    At the end of the first chapter, ask yourself: Will the reader sympathize with my character's actions and reactions? Will the reader have a sense of urgency, or a sense of well being? Or will a reader be inclined to go to bed and sleep? Check to see if the conflict in the scenes are appropriate to the story. Are they plausible? This is a good exercise to go through at the end of every chapter, until you get a feel for pacing.
    Remember as you go back over your work—readers want to follow a logical chain of events. If in chapter one John and Mary are being chased, the reader wants some kind of settlement to their plight before you dash off to show us what's happening to Dick and Jane. The reader has no vested interest in Dick and Jane.
    Each scene starts with a goal. What does your lead character want? Why does he want it? What is he willing to do to get it? For instance: Does he want to possess something? Love, money, power, information, etc. Or, does he want relief from something? blackmail, pain, fear, guilt. Or perhaps he's motivated by revenge.
    As you approach each scene, decide what block will keep your character from reaching his or her goal. Decide who or what will stand in the way. Set the pace.
    A lead character's past experience has an effect on how he/she acts in the future, i.e., past fears, failures, disappointments, etc. Interests, skills, gifts or flaws influence behavior and impacts the pace with which the character moves through the story.
    Look at plot first. Chapter one introduces main character, spells out his or her goals and at least one conflict to the reader. Chapter two shows what happens in the character's life to set his course of actions. This is where the reader learns what your character wants. By the end of chapter three, your lead character should reach his or her first turning point. It should send your character into a new or different direction.
    Then comes your advance/retreat scenes. The number of these is determined by the length of your book and the complexity of plot and sub plots. Once you have plot set on a graph or story board, then begin pacing. How quickly will characters reach those turning points, conflicts and abysses?
    In work and in life in the real world, we all like a change of pace. So it is true in reading. Studies show that as a whole, people have become more impatient in areas of work, shopping, driving, etc. So it is logical to assume they've also brought impatience to the magical fantasy you are unfolding in your story. Approaching mid-point in your book, a reader is ready to see something new. A change of scenery. A colorful setting. A tense argument. In a mystery give the reader a plausible red herring. An ah-ha!. Don't let your characters do more in one day than is credible. Too many fast-paced days leave readers out of breath. They need some breaks. This is where you employ advance and retreat scenes. This is where you write in night shadows, moon streaks, evocative music. Use background to ease out of a tense scene. After a fast chase scene, a lead character may escape into a small, smoky, after-hours bar. He sees a single piano-man with a dangling cigarette. A few lonely drinkers, maybe a sexy blonde torch singer. He takes it in, sees no threat and breaths a deep sigh of relief. As does the reader.
    Sunrises, majestic mountains, hawks floating lazily in the sky will always convey to your readers a sense of hope—a new day breaking is symbolic—your characters have once again triumphed over the evils of darkness. It's a subtle transition. The reader doesn't consciously realize that the pace has slowed. Humor is a good transition from tension, too. Remember that we as readers want first and foremost to be entertained. Transitions should be visual. Backflashes as a rule jar readers. Very few authors have the expertise to use backflashes effectively. Most readers like chronological, believable progression. But believable doesn't have to mean predictable. Always hold something back. These tidbits build into the realization scene. In a romance that is the declaration of love, in a mystery the detective finds out who the killer is, etc. This plunges your story immediately into the darkest hour. At this point your reader must believe the lead character has no way out. The detective will not catch the killer. Indeed, this is the point where you see him being stalked. The adventurer will not get the gold. The lovers cannot get married, etc. At this point you are approximately two-thirds of the way through the book. You are facing the final turning point. This is the scene that flips your story into climax and resolution. Again, your main character is forced into action and the pace picks up even though some turning points are subtle, some are blatant.
    If your book is paced correctly, your reader will anticipate your pay-off scene. They want this—to see the goal in sight.
    To revisit those all-important middle chapters, use cliffhangers at the end of middle chapters as a device to keep the reader reading. Use foreshadowing. Restating the problem, worrying the reader, or flat stopping the scene with the wheels of the car over the edge of a hundred foot embankment. To keep from suffering the sagging middle, make sure something important crops up. If you don't have a major complication, introduce a new sub-plot that throws a monkey wrench into the works.
    Pacing is a series of pivotal scenes that will cause your main characters to confront each other frequently on intense emotional levels. Scenes should escalate in intensity over the first two thirds of your story. Try to provide physical action in each chapter, not just verbal action. Physical action builds tension more quickly.
    When you are writing scenes to move the plot, remember that happiness is boring. Conflict, danger, emotional crisis—these are exciting things that start our juices flowing and keeps adrenaline pumping. If you reach the middle of your story and it feels ho-hum, then that's exactly how your reader will feel. Pump life into a sagging chapter by adding conflict. Make things a little harder for your lead character. Give him a new, unexpected crisis. Toss in a moral conflict where he's forced to make an instant "right or wrong" decision. You already know how things are going to end, so beef up the stakes. Bring out a flaw. Ideally, at mid-point your main characters should be at total cross-purposes.
    At the beginning of each chapter, ask yourself—what is my book about? How close is my main character to his or her goal? To date, what events have advanced my plot? You should see a dramatic unfolding of events. Some gripping, some sad, all powerful. Vary the pace, but give the reader time to develop his or her emotional response. Anger, sympathy, sadness, etc.
    Remember, description slows action, so salt it in sparingly. Pacing is not measured in events, but in the reader's emotional involvement in the lives of your characters.
    Where you place a character is part of the plot. The pacing comes from giving the character reasons and situations that drive him to achieve his objective. Readers are always subconsciously asking "what next?" If nothing happens, they quit reading—it's that simple.
    The pace at which a story unfolds makes it seem real. It's your job as a writer to provoke, stimulate, arouse, challenge and change the main character.
    Pace your story's energy from highest point to lowest point. Action should be based on crisis decision. Do or die, no rescue by the cavalry. Don't use false mystery or cheap surprises. Keep the crisis real. Leave it in the hands of your main character. Whenever it seems you are having trouble moving the story, always go back to the characters. It is, after all, their story. Contemplate their motivations—their emotions. What to they want. What do they not want. i.e. security, revenge, greed, lust, fear, love sentiment, or responsibility vs. desire, what is acceptable to society, what is good and true, attitudes and values.
    A good rule for pacing is to start with action using dialogue and move it fast. Every chapter must contain action, conflict and decision. More than that, every scene.
    There is no magical secret to pacing except that the writer controls the pace by the way he or she moves from scene to sequel. Big scenes grab the reader's interest. A writer has the power to space those action scenes which grip the reader by the throat. If you jump from death threat to fist fight to rape to ambush in the first three chapters—what do you have to hold the reader's attention throughout the second half and final pages of the story? In essence—what do you do for an encore?
    Step outside your story and look at it objectively. Does it drag? If so, kick up the pace by adding a higher level of tension. Although pacing is a matter of the writer's taste. Most writers view the composite story as a mountain range—a series of peaks and valleys. There is no right or wrong way to string them together. Just remember that too much intensity too soon may mean all that follows will seem anticlimactic to readers.
    Dwight Swain, in Techniques of a Selling Writer says: "It makes sense to arrange high peaks in your scenes in order of ascending importance." He says to group as much significant action as possible into each scene. Too often writers offer a loosely connected series of trivial scenes. The difference: A buzzing fly might be an annoyance—a buzzing rattlesnake encourages the lead character to do something—i.e., action/reaction, then conflict (What shall he do?). If the rattler is in his yard at dusk, he may put off hunting him till daylight. If the rattler is in his bed, both he and the reader feel a greater sense of urgency. The sense of potential danger keeps the reader hooked and reading.
    So we control the pacing by building and controlling tension. But how? Think about what tension does to you. Your reactions heighten. You move faster. You respond quicker, yet time stretches out. There's a jerky, staccato, exaggerated quality to everything you say and do. These are the elements you interject into your chapters. Short words conveys tension. Harsh words, pointed words, slashing words. You want terse writing, action writing, short sentences, short paragraphs, tunnel vision shutting out everything except the moment of danger which stretches like a rubber band.
    To reverse and bring the reader down, lengthen the sentences, the paragraphs, work toward flow and less staccato—focus on less immediacy and more on search. It's a regrouping, rallying inner resources, it's decision time—which way to go. Maybe your character gets roaring drunk. Maybe he or she gets in a car and drives up the coast, maybe he/she finds a priest, a buddy, a cop. Each incident serves to slow the action and let your reader's heart settle. You can also decrease sense of urgency by placing your character in a position where he/she cannot do anything until the next day. A snowstorm, phones out, only contact unreachable etc. This may also be where you switch viewpoints. A new viewpoint slows the action. Why? Because the reader is FACEd with an entirely new set of possibilities—a new situation—new attitudes.
    Pace so that your mid-point doesn't merge with the ending. Sever the threads, says Dwight Swain. Don't get caught rehashing for the sake of wordage. Start clearing out sub-plots instead. Don't make the mistake of reaching the last three pages and laying out the results of twenty chapters worth of crisis. The reader feels cheated, and resentful. Let change or the unexpected replace repetition. Give readers a twist. A story that doesn't stand still.
    How do you end a fast paced story? Set up a situation where your lead character must choose between two specific, but concrete alternative courses of action. Reward or punish him for his choice in accordance with poetic justice. What does the character deserve? What does he get?
    Pacing is the story. It's how your primary character FACEs and deals with the maximum danger. The story begins when desire bumps into opposition and the focal character commits to fight for what he wants. Hand him multi levels of conflicts, suspense and tension as pitfalls along his path. Mid point, build or intensify these elements. Conflict grows sharper, suspense mounts, tension rises. Add twists, turns, red herrings, wrong choices until your character reaches the moment of truth—the final decision that tests his courage, where the reader knows his intelligence and strength will no longer carry him through. There is only one recourse left.
    Maybe you don't want him to have to think, i.e., he throws himself between the child and a speeding car. But maybe he has to speak the truth when silence would be more self-serving.
    This is the reader's favorite part. The reason you've written the story. Chances are, it's the reason an editor wants to buy the manuscript.
    So above all, don't cheat the reader. The principle must mean more than the victory. The right decision is generally the character's hardest decision. Sometimes he's torn between right and wrong. Good and evil, principle and self-interest. A reader wants to see the lead character make that decision. Don't say—oh by the way—in an epilog. Once the decision is made, focus the reader's fulfillment into one punch line and the story ends. Deliver his reward. Don't drag it out.
    What I've just given you are not my own opinions, but a composite of those from writers whose use of the craft I respect. I'm sorry if I've made it sound exasperatingly easy. It isn't. The job of writing a salable manuscript is work. I wish I could say to you, pick up one of my books and see how perfect pacing is done. I can't. Pacing is tough for all but a few gifted writers, I suspect. But I do love to read a well-paced book, and I continue to strive for that goal. I am sure that working hard to pace a book correctly will only make it better. Writing better books is my first priority. Isn't it yours?

A secretary by trade, Roz Denny Fox began her writing career in 1986 by free-lancing a series of self-help articles. She sold a short story in 1987 and after much prodding from her then high school age daughter, began to try her hand at contemporary romantic women's fiction. Until June of 1995 Roz worked full-time. To date she has written fourteen Harlequin Romance and Harlequin Supperromance novels under the pseudonyms Roz Denny and Roz Denny Fox. Roz's second book was a 1992 Romance Writers' of America Rita Finalist in the Traditional Category. Her books have appeared on the Waldenbooks and B. Dalton best sellers list for series romance and have been published in 15 languages. The August 1998 issue of Affaire de Couer refers to her as "an icon in the romance writing field." Currently Roz resides in Tucson with her husband, Denny. They have two daughters. You can e-mail Roz, or visit her web site.