What Is Pacing in Writing (and Why Is It Important)?
Pacing refers to the flow of time in a story. It can be a challenge because there is no hard and fast rule as to how to set the pacing of a book. The pacing needs to fit the story.
For instance, the book Gilead by Marilynne Robinson is paced well, even though it’s a slower narrative where not much actually “happens” in the novel. But it’s an amazing book that won a Pulitzer Prize, which speaks to the effectiveness of the pacing.
And then there’s Germ by Robert Liparulo, if you’re looking for a story that is about as fast-paced as Gilead is slow. The chapters are short. The prose is tight, and the pacing keeps you turning the pages. But again, the pacing works for the story.
Pacing is a hard thing to get right when writing a story, especially a longer narrative. It can be a challenge to set a certain pace and then keep it up throughout the story.
Often, especially with newer authors, the story will start with a fast pace, start to lag or sag toward the middle, then pick up the pace again as it nears the end.
How to Practice Pacing In Writing
A good place to start honing your skill in pacing is by writing flash fiction, which is a fictional story of 1,000 words or less.
Often, when writers first try their hand at flash fiction, they try to fit way too much in the story.
I’ve taught classes on how to write short stories and flash fiction and the thing we most often needed to workshop was people trying to fit too much into a short story. They’re writing a story of a thousand words and they’re trying to write a narrative of a person’s whole life.
Writing flash fiction is a good place to start in learning how to focus on concise details and keep the pacing tight as you write a single scene well.
Three Keys for Good Pacing in a Novel
The next step is how to put a bunch of scenes together in writing a longer story or full-length novel.
This is where pacing can be tricky, because sometimes a lot of time passes between chapters or scenes and a writer needs to know how to convey the pacing of the story tightly, clearly, and believably.
How to Write Pacing Believably
A few years back, I edited a novel that was over 100,000 words; a novel tends to be at least 60,000 or 65,000 words and some of them can be far longer.
In this story, the main character is a college student and ends with something startling happening to her toward the end of her year away at a dorm. This would have been May if we’re following the usual U.S. school system. The story begins with her starting the school year the previous August.
The problem?
In the story, the first semester was stretched out, taking up about 90% of the book whereas the second semester was compressed into the last 10% of the book. It read more like an overview or outline than part of the novel.
There were also large gaps in the timing that would have caused questions for the reader. For instance, there was no mention of a Christmas / winter break taking place or her going home during a break. As the author’s editor, I suggested that instead of the novel taking place over the space of the entire year, it take place over one semester.
That way, the culminating event at the end of the book is not happening at the end of the school year but at the end of that first semester, right before winter break. This closed a lot of gaps and made it more believable.
Otherwise, readers would wonder why the main character’s closest friends didn’t intervene or notice how much she was struggling over a space of so many months (especially her roommates).
So this is one of the issues writers usually face with pacing; it needs to be believable. It shouldn’t create questions in the minds of the reader.
This takes practice and it often also needs an outside look from beta readers or an editor.
When a writer—especially someone who hasn’t written many (or any) full-length novels yet—is focused on the chapter-level scenes, plot points, character development, dialog, etc. it can be a challenge to also have that forest-level overview that an outside reader can offer.
(If you’re looking for an editor, feel free to contact me and find out more about my editing services. I edit both fiction and nonfiction, and I have successfully completed more than 300 unique writing and editing projects for clients.)
How to Write Pacing Clearly
The next issue is probably the easiest one to solve, and that’s making the story clear with your pacing.
This refers more to the time and flow of time, and is usually an easy fix; often, you can use simple place markers when you begin a chapter to orient the reader such as:
- “the next day”
- “a week later”
- “the following spring”
Some new writers, it seems, feel like they need to write in such a way so as to convey something without actually stating the amount of time that is passing.
But it’s really okay to state these things outright; it’s better than leaving the reader to guess and wonder and be confused.
How to Write Pacing Tightly
The last way to improve your writing with pacing is probably the one that needs the most practice, and that is making your pacing tight.
Again, writing flash fiction can help you practice this; in writing stories of a thousand words or less, a writer learns to get rid of the fluff and extraneous information and keep only the necessary bits, the powerful bits.
It takes practice to learn to write tightly and to use tight pacing in your story.
One book that does this masterfully is The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.
This story takes place both on Earth and in the great beyond, and it also takes place in the present tense and in the past via the memories and experiences of the main character.
In other words, it goes back and forth and is all over the place. It could be a very confusing book with timing and pacing …
But it’s not, because Mitch Albom writes tightly, and his pacing is just as tight. It is also clear and believable, so he can check all the boxes when it comes to pacing.
So, how do you improve your pacing?
- Keep practicing. This means keep writing.
- Try writing some flash fiction. (Havok Publishing is a great place to start! I am one of the editors for Techno Tuesday and as editors, we offer feedback for every submission, whether we publish the story or not.)
- Keep in mind the importance of making your pacing: believable, tight, and clear.
- Get an editor or some outside readers.
- Read a lot of books that do pacing well, especially novels along the genre of what you’re writing.
This is the second post in a series I’m writing on the primary elements of writing novels and other works of fiction, including short stories. The first post discusses point of view.
As a freelance editor, I offer manuscript critiques, and point of view is one of the more problematic issues I often see in debut novels and works by first-time authors.
This series is aimed at helping aspiring authors improve in the important elements of writing fiction, enabling your editors to focus on other aspects of your novel. 😊
Bonita Jewel 