Narrative Pacing

Pacing is moving your story forward smoothly, at your speed. Not everyone wants a taught and thrilling race through the pages; not everyone wants a country stroll either.

The goal of mastering pacing is to help you take control of your writing pace — to make your story travel at the pace you want, so that you can tell the story you want to tell at the speed you want to tell it.

Get to the point -

Start in the middle of the conversation, with the first thing the character says being related to the conflict or problem of the scene. For example:

Avoid Most Descriptions -

Just give the barest outline of what is being seen or what is going on.

Use more description of what characters are doing, where they are, and so on.-

Go past your main point in concluding the dialog -

Let your characters wander into other topics to hide secrets you may have revealed about your story’s climax or resolution. It’s great for making major story points subtle instead of emphasizing them and making them too obvious to your reader. It is a great way to tip your hand a bit so that when you make the big reveal at the end it feels more fair while being sneakier.

Activity

Write four short paragraphs that use the pacing techniques we have discussed in class. The paragraphs DO NOT have to be related to each other.

• Paragraph 1 - Speed up using description
• Paragraph 2- Slow down using description
• Paragraph 3- Speed up using dialogue
• Paragraph 4- Slow down using dialogue

You can use any of the techniques from this Prezi, and your paragraphs do not have to be a specific length.

Let's write some examples together real quick...

Narrative Pacing

Write longer sentences-

Long descriptions and sentences are more work for your reader's imagination, so they are a great way to slow a story down.

Slowing Down Using Description

Offer setting details -

Get very descriptive and detailed about the world your story is taking place in.

Examples of scenes that benefit from a slower pace:

Middle scenes, love scenes, and key moments in the plot.

Wayne Manorr

Using Dialog to Slow Down

Have Characters Wander from Point to Point -

Mark Twain is famous for this. He often starts on one point, then shifts to something off topic, then comes back to it.

Let Your Characters Be Good Listeners -

(But not for too long. )

Mark Twain did NOT say this.

We all know Batman is going to vanish before Comissioner Gordon is done talking...

Controlling the Speed of Your Story

Pull your camera in close -

“Zoom in” on descriptions of tiny yet vivid details, like the smell of sweat, the crack of a broken bone, the sound of glass shattering, etc.

Speeding Up Using Description

Examples of scenes that play well quickly:

Fight scenes, chase scenes, and critical moments in your plot.

Limit unimportant information-

Concentrate on your characters, their five senses, and their emotions in the moment. Everything else is icing.

Be sharp, short, and hard-edged-

Use sentence fragments. Find precise and powerful verbs and nouns and let the scene run with them.

End the Dialog When You’ve Said What Needs to be Said -

Speeding Up Using Dialog

Allow Characters to talk at Cross Purposes -

Good listeners are nice in real life, but most people interrupt each other.

For example:

What is Pacing?