-

 

How To Write a Book: Is Pacing Important?

YES! A book that lags is a book that gets set aside. While long ago people were so enthralled to get their hands on a book that they were content to read it while it was chained to the wall in a library, nowadays we have so many commitments and distractions fighting for our attention that even the juiciest book has to compete with the nagging voice, “Did I turn the iron off?” and once you set a book down to check the iron, there are a bazillion things that come to mind and fight to keep you from returning to that story. 


Q: What is this force that seeks to thwart authors and compel readers to stop reading?

A: The Pre-Frontal Cortex

Yes, this wonder of the human brain that sits just behind our foreheads is designed to do a wide variety of prioritizing from behavior to goals to calibrating emotional responses and complex organization for task completion. And when you stop reading a book your PFC blinks into life and starts trying to "help" you get stuff done, process, plan.


This fact calls into focus what happens when we read a good book. We fall into the story. We lose our sense of time and space instead inhabiting the world of the action. Stephen King is attributed with saying that "books are uniquely portable magic" and that's an excellent way to say what happens to us. But when we come out of the story and our brain takes over we may never get back to the story.


Here is where pacing is critical, especially with fiction (but then again a non-fiction story that lags gets put down just as quickly). Your story should introduce your characters, setting, MacGuffin (or goal) and then as a writer you'd best lay out a brisk pace through your story that is entertaining, taught and ultimately satisfying in an unexpected way.


It'll take revising, tweaking, trimming or merciless chopping to craft a book that can keep the PFC silenced and keep the reader turning your pages. The best scene you’ve ever written may not advance your story. If that’s the case, CUT IT OUT OF YOUR BOOK. My editor used to say, "If you love it, print it, put it under your pillow." Authors must be ruthless in their pursuit of pace. Hey, if your book becomes a hit, you can revive the scene as “Lost scene” and your readers can swoon along with you.





-- Anna Erikssön Bendewald 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
  How To Write a Book: Do You Edit While Writing? Wow! This is a question fraught with danger. Trying to edit while writing can keep you from ever getting much on the page. There are two people at work while creating a book. The first should be the artist. The critic has to come much later after the artist has had all the time they need to create.   Think of each chapter as a sculpture garden. First put all your words down to build the size and very rough shape of your sculpture. Leave it alone and start building the next one so it will be harmonious to the last one in size and rough shape. Move on to the next.  After about four chapters are roughly drafted, you can go back and read with fresh eyes. At this stage I make some changes but don’t try to refine. Move on and create the next few draft chapters. You want the words to flow through you [see How Do I Write for how the Muse works insert link] 
Read more
-
Image
  How to Write a Book: Swearing and Writing As a precursor to this subject, I'll tell you a story. It was a hot summer day in nineteen seventy-six and my neighborhood was having a block party. Mrs. Borsha was an elegant woman, dressed like Jackie Onassis in a Pucci-inspired dress and she arrived bearing a gorgeous fruit salad carved out of a watermelon. It was a work of art. She sat it on the communal table and lit a cigarette as she chatted with neighbors. When loud-mouthed Mr. Wiegel arrived reeking of beer and began trying to move things around on the table, he knocked a tray of hotdogs to the pavement causing outcries of alarm which he waved away with a meaty paw of dismissal before reaching to move the fruit salad. Mrs. Borsha said, "Brian, don't you fucking touch that salad." You could have heard a pin drop. His hands hung in the air frozen and every single neighbor was galvanized. No one had ever heard Mrs. Borsha be stern let alone drop an f-bomb.* And she sta...
Read more
-
Image
  How To Write a Balanced Book What is balance in a story? It's easier to say what an unbalanced story feels like. It feels off. It can be many things that cause a story to be unbalanced. Sub-plots that are left forgotten only to pop up and try hog the limelight. A dearth of information only to then pour out in a torrent of explanation known as the dreaded 'info dump'. Or pacing that drags along paying needless attention to pointless minutiae only to race through big plot points or gloss over critical interactions. As a writer, you must always think like a reader. What do they love most of all? To feel smart and involved. Don't get them involved in a sub-plot without making it worth their while. Keep that sub-plot alive and in its proper place--supporting the overall story experience. As for information, there are many ways to sprinkle clues and information throughout. Trust your reader to pick up on them so that when all is revealed, they've gathered everything all...
Read more