Well I've been told a couple of times that my pacing was too slow. Not sure how I can fix this. Anyone have any ideas or any websites/threads that could help? Thanks!
Pacing
- Thread starter lrs
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The answer to almost all of my writing problems is - add conflict! maybe in the build up to your main conflict it would help to add minor conflicts to increase the tension?
The other thing I look for when I find the story's pace dragging are "my babies" - those scenes or snippets of dialogue that I love but when I try for a dispassionate reader's eye - well, they don't advance the story or reveal character at all! Scenes or description (padding) can screw up pacing.
And a little bit of a real story. Romance at Heart epublishers published my first ebook and the editor there was great. I remember one of her comments was "I like interior decorating as much as the next person, but - not here!" I'd gone overboard on the description when it didn't add anything to the story. That bit was completely re-written.
The other thing I look for when I find the story's pace dragging are "my babies" - those scenes or snippets of dialogue that I love but when I try for a dispassionate reader's eye - well, they don't advance the story or reveal character at all! Scenes or description (padding) can screw up pacing.
And a little bit of a real story. Romance at Heart epublishers published my first ebook and the editor there was great. I remember one of her comments was "I like interior decorating as much as the next person, but - not here!" I'd gone overboard on the description when it didn't add anything to the story. That bit was completely re-written.
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Copy and paste your whole book into a new file.
Then cut the page count by half. Delete the fat, leave in only what's absolutely necessary to the story. Be merciless.
Then go over your original file and compare.
Another thing to try is highlight only the most necessary dialogue in yellow, plot points in green, only the truly necessary descriptive in red. You may find a lot of white space of stuff that isn't needed.
And finally--read really good mystery writers to figure out how THEY did the pacing in their books. Classic stuff by Agatha Christie--who was an expert at plotting/pacing--will totally help you.
Reading plays will also help, along with TV scripts, which tell a whole story within 40 minutes. Read a book on script writing, which tells how those 40 minute stories are paced. They have to fit that story in between commercial breaks. Law and Order is a good series to study for pacing. The first half is about the crime and getting the badguy, the last half is the court time. They cover a LOT of ground! Somewhere there will be transcriptions of the scripts up on line.
Good luck!
Then cut the page count by half. Delete the fat, leave in only what's absolutely necessary to the story. Be merciless.
Then go over your original file and compare.
Another thing to try is highlight only the most necessary dialogue in yellow, plot points in green, only the truly necessary descriptive in red. You may find a lot of white space of stuff that isn't needed.
And finally--read really good mystery writers to figure out how THEY did the pacing in their books. Classic stuff by Agatha Christie--who was an expert at plotting/pacing--will totally help you.
Reading plays will also help, along with TV scripts, which tell a whole story within 40 minutes. Read a book on script writing, which tells how those 40 minute stories are paced. They have to fit that story in between commercial breaks. Law and Order is a good series to study for pacing. The first half is about the crime and getting the badguy, the last half is the court time. They cover a LOT of ground! Somewhere there will be transcriptions of the scripts up on line.
Good luck!
Wow, good ideas Gillhoughly. I'm off to get some books at the library! I do tend to overwrite so that must be the problem, i just need to edit.
Hi Iris
Here's an article that helped me. [URL="http://www.fictionfactor.com/guests/pacing.html"]PACING[/URL]
ElleFX
Here's an article that helped me. [URL="http://www.fictionfactor.com/guests/pacing.html"]PACING[/URL]
ElleFX
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