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When you have 5k-12k to tell a story, moving to slow is a constant worry. Multiply that into an 80-100k novel - it's a major concern. As writers, we hope that someone will devote several hours, at least, to reading our book - finishing it - and liking it.
There are lots of things that can turn a reader off from a book, but I know that if the pacing is fine, I'm more forgivable in other areas because I want to see what happens next. So what if the heroine gets on my nerves a bit, I want to find out if she finds the missing sword to Babylon. However, if pacing is slow, I find myself much more critical of everything else.
This past week or so, I've been reading like crazy. I think I finished five novels. Half of them had great pacing and you know what? I went to those authors Web sites to find out when their next books were coming out. The other books with slow pacing, I didn't bother. I forced myself to finish two of them because I'm not someone who can start a book and not finish it.
So, after reading several articles on help with pacing, I've gleaned a few things that writers should watch out for that could slow down pacing:
- Opening with backstory or not jumping right into the conflict - reader may not be hooked right away and you may never get their attention back
- Long chunks of narrative - dialogue seems key to moving pace, and action, along
- Info dumps, flashbacks, and backstory - good writers can weave in backstory without making it obvious...hopefully I'll get to that point soon ;-)
- Characters thinking, analyzing, talking things out with themselves, etc - use dialogue with someone else to put that info forth
- Useless scenes - if it doesn't move the plot and story forward, cut it out, who cares if the heroine is allergic to water, unless it ties directly to the plot
- Predictability - nothing seems more annoying to me than guessing the ending early on, then reading just to see if I was wrong then finding out I wasn't and having wasted that chunk of my life on reading a predictable book
- Too much explanation - a writer needs to assume the reader will have some level of understanding coming in, so there's no need to explain simple things that don't need to be explained
I need to apply these things to my work...
3 comments:
Great post!
I would add too much fast-paced scenes can be overwhelming and have the opposite effect. Readers need a little down time between fast action sequences - the valleys between the mountains. Nothing's more draining than action after action with no time to rest.
Wonderful list, Lisa!
Thanks :-)
Great point! It also brings a bit of unrealisticness (is that a word?) into the story. Can they really be running non stop, action all the time, and still have an opportunity to fall and love and boink?
Ooh, this post couldn't have been timed better Lisa! Thank you. I was a little worried about a nasty hunk of narrative, and now I know that I should be.
And I totally agree on the too fast plots. I once came across a book like that and would have to take breaks while reading so that I wouldn't exhaust myself. How sad is that?
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