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Rushing

Allaboutwords13

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This thread has been so helpful to me (even if I wasn't the one asking). I also write scenes fast, though it actually never feels like it. They're not particularly fleshed out and I end up thinking about how it doesn't work. Anyway, I'm learning. Slowly. ha
 

BethS

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I've been told I have a tendency to rush in my scenes. How can I avoid this?

I'm assuming you mean that the final product, or at least the version you give to beta readers, comes across as rushed, which I also take to mean that things happen quickly and are over quickly.

This can be fixed in rewrites. In practical terms, it can be a matter of fleshing it out more--adding more pauses/beats to the dialogue, more general underpainting (the incidental and/or important details that bring a scene to life), more internals.

But it could also be that what readers see as rushing is a lack of development of the scene's central conflict. Maybe it's too shallow or too easily resolved or escalated.
 

Jeff Bond

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To echo what BethS said about "too easily resolved", another way to address a scene that goes to fast during revision, apart from adding setting/detail, is to brainstorm more obstacles. You have to be careful with that--your protagonist doesn't need to find her shoelace untied, then suddenly get an inconvenient text, then be struck with a sudden pang of regret, etc--but generally, if you sit down and think about organic, realistic things that could go wrong, you can write them in and they're likely to succeed in pulling your reader deeper into the scene. Even if they may feel (to you, who's pulling the strings behind the curtain) gratuitous or tacked-on.
 

Punk28

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Rushing while writing is never a good thing to do. It usually happens when trouble comes up, and trouble usually arises after it because, when you go to edit, you get all confused and start pulling hair. Slow down and think your scenes out before writing them (this is what I do now and, so far, it's working... though, I'll admit, is slower than my usual technique of putting words to document).
 

Hbooks

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I find I always rush through the first draft and then go back and flesh out on subsequent drafts. For me, it's easier to do it that way than try to get EVERYTHING down in a fully fleshed version on the first try. I need that framework of the scene in place or my brain goes crazy.
 

celticroots

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Good advice guys :) i find adding in more details regarding setting , character thoughts, helps me slow down. Sometimes a scene just feels finished. Trying to add more in those circumstances doesn't feel right.

Anyone else had that?
 

mccardey

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Good advice guys :) i find adding in more details regarding setting , character thoughts, helps me slow down. Sometimes a scene just feels finished. Trying to add more in those circumstances doesn't feel right.

Anyone else had that?
I do know that one. Sometimes for me it means that that bit isn't a chapter on its own - it's a foreshadowing of action or intention and it sits at the end of a chapter, rather than being a chapter entire and of itself. Sometimes it needs to be cut sharply down, and then expanded when it reappears a little later. But that's for me - and I can get a bit convoluted.
 

Natasitsa

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I would add that you could use longer sentences and paragraphs. Usually when readers see longer passages, they feel that the pacing slows down. On the contrary, short phrases and short paragraphs equal fast pacing, best used for action scenes. I would also make sure my characters are three-dimensional and well-developped. Shallow characters have shallow reactions and make shallow decisions, thus resolving the conflict quickly (as Beth said) or acting in melodramatic ways that never end the conflict properly. Make sure your characters have clear personalities, goals and motivations, imagine being them, and your scenes will instantly become richer, longer and slower.
 

indianroads

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I would add that you could use longer sentences and paragraphs. Usually when readers see longer passages, they feel that the pacing slows down. On the contrary, short phrases and short paragraphs equal fast pacing, best used for action scenes. I would also make sure my characters are three-dimensional and well-developped. Shallow characters have shallow reactions and make shallow decisions, thus resolving the conflict quickly (as Beth said) or acting in melodramatic ways that never end the conflict properly. Make sure your characters have clear personalities, goals and motivations, imagine being them, and your scenes will instantly become richer, longer and slower.

Exactly. As a reader, if I don't like the characters I don't give a darn if they are in peril or not. Ideally I want my readers to relate and engage with as many characters as possible.

Sentence structure is an interesting subject for many reasons - what I'm thinking of now is pace and mood. Action scenes with short sentences feel immediate. Descriptive passages about a location I usually end up making longer because I want the reader to slow down and see what I see. Mood is interesting too... in my WIP the MC attends the funeral of a close friend, and has to hold his wife when she attempts to jump into the grave with her departed husband. The MC had to pull his own emotions away to handle the situation, so I used short sentences that were more or less just statements about what was going on. I think it worked well.
 

James Ryan

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I kind of have the same problem. I can only speak for myself, but for me it gets better in the rewrites. My rushing happens for a couple of reasons, (a) I'm not very confrontational myself and so I try to spare my characters from having confrontations (without even realizing that's what I'm doing), which means that I gloss over conflict instead of going deeper into it; (b) my draft is written in an unintentional third-person-objective POV so it reads as a narrative of what's going on and how people feel. When that happens, I try to find some space by myself and shut my eyes and imagine myself as my POV character, and put myself through the scene step by step. Then I write down what I, as the character, am thinking and feeling as well as what's going on. And that often changes what the characters do in the scene, as well as making it more lifelike and giving the reader a closer POV.

I sometimes don't recognize when I'm rushing, but I'm lucky to be part of a wonderful critique group that calls me out on what isn't working, and that gives me a chance to go back and do a better job of it.

As soon as I read this I screamed, THIS IS ME! Thank you for saying this I feel better about my writing already. I also rush because I am afraid I will forget that great thing I want my character to say or do.