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| Pacing Your Stories |
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| Every novel, short story, or essay has its own pacing. Sometimes the story quickens and builds tension, then at other times, the story slows. This is also referred to as tempo. Think of the movements of a symphony. Not all movements are fast and thunderous. Between movements there are slow, calm sections. The writer�s job is to know when the right time is to pick up the pace or to give the reader a breather by slowing it down. Let�s start this pacing discussion at the beginning of your story. Your opening must begin with a narrative hook. That doesn�t necessarily mean you need to begin the story with high drama. However, the opening must give your reader a reason to want to keep reading. Plant questions in your reader�s mind. Sylvia Plath opens The Bell Jar: �It was a queer and sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn�t know what I was doing in New York.� A few paragraphs later the narrator says, �I knew something was wrong with me that summer, because all I could think about was the Rosenbergs and how stupid I�d been to buy all those uncomfortable clothes . . .� As the reader, I want to know if there is something wrong with her and what was she doing in New York and why was she thinking about the Rosenbergs. Here�s another opening (shameless self promotion for my novel, Living in the City): �For my 30th birthday my husband, Rich, decided to give me a house. There was no surprise-you�re-over-the-hill party, but never mind. Now I have this house I don�t want to live in, in a place I wouldn�t even think of visiting.� If the author has done her job, the reader wants to know why her husband gave her a house and why does the narrator not want to live in it. So how do you know how to pace your story throughout? How you pace your story is dependent upon one of the first rules of writing�knowing what your characters want and what are their motives. If you know your characters� motives, you�ll have a better sense of how to shape your stories. Varying the pace is essential to good storytelling. A general rule is if you have several scenes of action (or in a novel, several chapters) slow down the pace so your reader can take a breather. In thrillers, there are more tension and action scenes. Author Rebecca McClanahan (Word Painting) wrote, �Swift, noisy activity does not always get our attention. Film makers aware of this principle, use it to their advantage.� Take for instance the Tom Hanks movie, Castaway. For an hour there is no dialogue (except the main character�s conversation with a volleyball), only the natural sounds of crashing waves and seagulls. For an hour the audience watches a man struggle for survival. The audience is still emotionally involved. There are no car chases or bullet fire�only a man struggling to survive on a deserted island, teaching himself how to fish and build a fire and shelter. The audience watches because they want to know if he does survive, does get off the island. This film making technique also enables the audience to concentrate on the details of the scene passing before their eyes. Another way to slow the pace of your story is to use truncated sentences and shorter paragraphs, which create white space, �a visual pause for your reader�s eye�, and makes your reader slow down physically and psychologically. You can also slow the pace by changing the verb tense. Contrary to what one might think, present tense can actually prolong a scene. This is because present tense emphasizes the process of rather than completion of an event. Present tense is action in �process.� Switching from past to present tense is an effective technique for focusing on dramatic action or for achieving a dreamlike state within the story. A conscious switch in verb tense also �alerts the reader to a change in focus, time period, or psychological distance.� Description usually slows the story�s pace. Use passages of description to give your reader a breather. However, avoid using the Tom Hardy version of description�pages and pages in which nothing happens. We want to prevent our readers from skimming over these sections. They should not be merely transition devices. The story must still move forward, and everything must be relevant. Strike out every passage that does not contribute to the story�s forward movement. Sometimes the pace in your story will be too slow. If that�s the case, turn it into an action scene. By action, I don�t mean car chases or laser battles. Your characters must be doing something. Something must be happening, even if it�s in your character�s mind. A classic method of quickening your story�s pace is beginning with a static description of an object, or place, or person and move into an active scene. The key to doing this is to not make the transition from static to action obvious. For instance, you could begin with a description of a dilapidated house, the boarded up windows, collapsed porch, crumbling mortar, and garbage strewn all over. Your character has just driven up with her husband who announces to her this house is her birthday present. Voila! The story moves from static to action. You can show them arguing while he takes her on a tour of what he promises will be her dream home, showing them moving through the scene. The movement is both outward and inward. Imagine what the main character must be thinking! Transitions are essential for moving your story from place to place or to fast-forward in time without going into long descriptive passages. For instance, you don�t have to describe a character getting out of a car after arriving home from a trip downtown. We don�t need the minutiae of climbing out of the car, unlocking the front door, ascending the stairs, throwing herself across the bed, reaching for the phone, then dialing it. When the scene ends downtown, you can fast forward to her making that important phone call. Use transition words like, �Later,� �After she had arrived home,� �Two weeks later,� and so on. Sometimes it�s best just beginning a new chapter or section. Deciding how to transition from scene to scene or chapter to chapter depends on what is relevant to the story. By the ending, questions should be answered. Your ending should not be too long or too abrupt. There are many types of endings, and it�s up to you which type fits naturally with your story. Proper pacing throughout will help you arrive at a natural ending. Even if you leave it open-ended, your last scene should give your story a sense of finality. Copyright Rita Marie Keller Cacoethes Scribendi Creative Writing Workshop 2007 |
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