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flighty_dreamsBetween 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. ;-)
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. ;-)
