Have you ever read an action scene that just seemed to drag on? What about important dialogue that seemed to fly by way too fast? If you’ve experienced either of those and been annoyed, you’ve experienced poor pacing, and you have a right to be upset. In this “Basics of Writing” entry, I’ll try to go over pacing, and some ways that you can make your own writing better by utilizing it properly.
Watch More Movies
No matter what, your goal as a writer should always be to keep the reader wanting more. Whether you do this by creating a mystery that they must see solved or by creating an action sequence so intense that they have to keep reading, you are always trying to keep them interested. Pacing is a huge part of this, as it determines how well your story flows.
When I write an action scene, I try to picture it like a movie: I watch the action unfold in my head and I do my best to translate it into words. The best way to give a particular scene the right “flow” is to make it feel natural, and watching your characters as they move and act is the best way to do that.
When you have the idea for how your scene will play out, start capturing it on paper. Watch the characters as they interact with each other and their environment. And, until there is a natural break in the action (like the bad guy is defeated, or the car chase is ended), keep the action moving along. Don’t break in the middle of it for a long-winded diatribe. Which brings me to my next point…
Don’t “Dragonball Z” Yourself
Elmore Leonard, writer of the novel Get Shorty (yes, it was a novel first) said to “Cut out everything but the good parts” in order to make your stories more exciting. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, but the goal is to tell the best story in the most relevant way.
Are you trying to build suspense? If so, you want to draw things out — don’t just go barreling into the piece of vital information that you’re trying to hold back. Add a few extra lines of dialogue (but not too much that it won’t seem natural). Sometimes it pays to beef up your dialogue between characters; making dialogue that is too short or choppy can be distracting.
On the other hand, if you’re trying to make a fight scene more intense, don’t break it up by throwing in needless conversation. One thing that the popular anime Dragonball Z is often criticized for is the unbelievable amount of dialogue that happens before and during a fight scene. There’s nothing that people want to see more than two overpowered beings laying into each other — but DBZ takes every opportunity to draw things out in order to keep you coming back for the next episode.
Do yourself a favor. Don’t be a Dragonball Z.
Match the Horse to the Course
It’s no coincidence that the term “pacing” applies to both writing and racing — you don’t want a mismatch in either of those areas. Are you planning on a long-distance race and don’t own a horse named Hidalgo? Well, you’ll want to have your Arabian, as they were pretty exclusively bred for the purpose of outlasting their enemies. Or are you trying to win the Kentucky Derby? Well good luck, and hopefully you have a spare Thoroughbred lying around.
Pacing in writing is much the same: whether you want to speed things up (action scene, fast dialogue, etc.) or slow things down by building suspense, you need the right vehicle to do it.
All of this to say: your scenes should end up feeling natural. If you’ve checked out my guide on writing already, you’ll know that revision is the best approach to really polish off a piece. So, after you’ve got it written down, read back over it a time or two (or however many it takes to make it just right) making sure that it has a good feel to it. If it feels like you’re lurching around, it could be that you’re trying to build suspense but using short, choppy words or phrases that lend themselves to creating action instead.
Hopefully this guide has given you a little more insight into the idea of pacing, which should contribute to your overall skill as a writer.
If you liked it, or if you want to see more content like this, feel free to let me know.
Thanks!
-D.L.
