5 Tips for Pacing in Your Story

Hi everyone!

Today, I’m going to be discussing pacing and tips to better achieve a good flow within your story. First off, pacing is how fast or slow your story is moving and this is determined by how the writer distributes information. This is something that is very tricky to nail down, especially if your story spans several books. Plotting is something that is very important when it comes to pacing. I have a post on the types of plots linked here if you need more information on that.

#1 Sentence length

Varying sentence length is important in general, especially with exposition and narration. If your sentences are consistently short or long and not varying, this can risk disrupting the flow of your story. A rule of thumb:1. Use shorter, choppier sentences for fight scenes to add tension and excitement2. Use longer sentences and add more detail to slow things down and to add suspense.

#2 Paragraph length

Paragraphs should never be too long. If they go on for even a page, you’ve done too much. I’ve learned a trick to help me out in this area. Imagine a camera moving through your story. If the camera pans to another character or different action, start a new paragraph. You should always start a new paragraph for dialogue, especially between characters. If a new character is speaking or moving around, the camera pans, and thus a new paragraph should begin.

#3 Keep track of conflicts/subplots

An important part of pacing is to keep up with conflict and subplots. The central conflict/inciting incident should present itself around the third chapter of the book. It should remain prevalent for the entire course of the story. Some authors like to write different conflicts for every book released (typically seen in graphic novels), but a great series is centered around one conflict that takes a couple or even a few books to complete. By keeping track of the conflicts of your plot and subplots, you are able to better keep pace. If your character has a love interest and that’s the subplot, why haven’t we seen them in four chapters? If they’re overtaking a great, untouchable drug lord, why did it only take half of the book to defeat them?

#4 Cut unnecessary bullshit

I’m sorry to tell you, but excessive wordbuilding counts as unnecessary bullshit. We don’t need to know the name of every single town in every realm of this continent. We don’t need to know what kind of fabric the clothes in this world are woven or what the fabric is made from unless your main character works in the clothing district or this is vital to the plot. Descriptions should not go on and on until it takes entire pages to explain that we’re on the side of a mountain. Unless you’re writing poetry, vague and long descriptions distract from the point of the story or scene and are often just boring to read.

#5 Telling vs Showing

It’s common for people to explain things rather than show what happened. The majority of your story should be carried by scenes and dialogue, not exposition and narration. Showing instead of telling helps the reader become more grounded in the story, and it causes more connection and emotional attachment between your readers and the characters.

That’s all for today. Hopefully, this helps you on your writing journey!