Pacing

[flighty_dreams]

Between the Lines by Jessica Page Morrell is easily my favorite book on writing. It's a snowy day here and I'm just sitting at home, so I thought I'd share an excerpt from the chapter on Pacing:

Pacing differs with the specific needs of a novel, story, or segment of fiction. A far-reaching epic will often be told at a leisurely pace, although it will speed up from time to time during the most intense events. A short story or adventure novel might quickly jump into action and deliver drama. Pacing is part structural choices and part word choices, and uses a variety of devices, like flashbacks and sequels, to control how fast the story unfolds. When driving a manual transmission car, you choose the most effective gear needed for driving uphill, maneuvering the city streets, or cruising down a highway. When pacing your story, you choose the devices that move the scene along at the right speed.

Writers hear many warnings about moving too slowly through events, causing the story to sputter or bog down. But fiction can also rattle along at a breakneck speed, leaving readers unsettled. The delivery and pace of fiction requires variety and a thoughtful approach. Not every novel can move at the same tempo, and not every scene can unfold at the same clip. Sometimes fiction needs to slow so that the impact of what is happening or has just happened can be appreciated by the reader, and sometimes it needs to race along like a runaway steed.

The author also lists the speed of literary devices:

Action: fast
Exposition: slowest, sometimes so slow it's deadly
Description: slow
Dialogue: fast/super fast
Summary: super fast
Transition: medium

None of this stuff is terribly surprising, but it's presented in such a thoughtful way that it makes you think. Or at least it does for me.

Anyone have any suggestions for books/authors that they think have done a great job with pacing? Or have any other thoughts?

Anne Bishop's The Invisible Ring gets me addicted every time I read it, the Stephanie Plum series is always crazy, and Dan Brown (overrated as he may be) certainly delivers on pacing. There are so many great examples, but I'll restrain myself.

There's also a section in this Pacing chapter talking about genre fiction vs literary pacing, and I have some thoughts on that vs online writing, but I figured I'd hold off, unless anyone wants to hear about it. ;-)

Comments

[flighty-dreams.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I've never read that author. I see she writes romantic fantasy though? Those are a fun mix, I enjoy them. :-) I'll have to check her out. Some other romantic fantasy books I've read are Sharon Shinn's Mystic and Rider and some of Moira J Moore's Heroes series. What's fun about the latter too is it deals with bonded pairs, a Sword and a Shield (mage), and in this series it's the girl that's the warrior while the guy is the mage.

I've heard of that one, and certainly seen it in stores. Seems to be a classic. I'll have to give that one a look as well. Thanks for the recs. :-)

[lunasblues.livejournal.com]

I guess some of her books are romantic fantasy, but I really consider her more straight science fiction, her Miles Vorkosigan books, at least. If you like fantasy, start with "The Curse of Chalion." If you prefer sf, start with "The Warrior's Apprentice."

Enjoy!

[flighty-dreams.livejournal.com]

Ah okay, I just looked her up and happened to see The Sharing Knife series by her, and that's what it was labeled. I guess that particular series is fantasy, but most of her stuff is SF?

I have a TBRead pile 30 books long at the moment, but I'll get to her eventually! ;-)