This will be the last blog hop for a couple of weeks, as I’m off to the van with my granddaughter and unfortunately there won’t be much time for sitting at the computer, although sometimes it’s nice to have a break!
This week’s topic is:
Do you have any tips on controlling pacing in your stories? How do you manage it?
When I first started out writing novels in 2013 I made the mistake of trying to fit lots of events into just a few chapters. Although there was some interest in Mind Games from agents, I kept getting the same feedback after I’d sent off the manuscript to the effect of letting the reader have a breather between one event and the next. I was also advised to cut the number of events by half, and to draw the remaining events out for longer.
I made a point of reading a few traditionally published books after I had re-written the manuscript, and true enough all those agents were correct. It’s better to drip-feed one event over a few chapters rather than having many events all crammed into a few pages. It also occurred to me that yes, a few events drawn out for longer is what I prefer when I read.
Many newbie authors rush their first book until they learn to pace their story, which only comes with experience and constructive feedback from readers, agents, or more established writers.
How do other blog-hoppers pace their stories? Click on the blue button below to find out, or you can just leave a comment:
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Stevie Turner 
Yes, we do seem to learn as we write. Our first books and 15th books are vastly different.
Have a fabulous vacation.
Tweeted.
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That perception is often a lot like adult diapers.
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To pact my stories I try to get into a rhythm. That way the words flow and helps determine the pact.
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Thanks Ann for your comment.
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I sometimes edit to specially chosen music. That helps give a pace to things.
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I can see that to audio Valium, like “The worlds most relaxing guitars” but for me music requires its own brain theater. Good old three and four chord bashing is good for period pieces. Like I wrote a whole 70s coming of age saga to Robin Trower. And I can run my own synth fart air cheese in the background but it’s like airborne LSD so after a while I forget what I’m doing. I turned on “Windchimes” in the car one time, it’s a very impressionistic bit of synth symphony and when it kicked out I was in Waxahachie, and hungry.
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I can only work in silence. I get too distracted by music.
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Yep. Not to say a good tune can’t inspire a scene.
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I wrote a battle scene while listening to Haydn’s Mass in the Time of War, although I generally prefer Vivaldi for that genre.
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There’s the thing. Put on Vivaldi and I have to pay attention.
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I pay attention to any music. I can’t write if any music is on, or if the TV or radio are on in the background either.
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My wife needed absolute quiet when she was in grad school. Over the years we’ve worn her down. However volume and content need to be constrained. She might be Mrs. Magoo, and her sense of smell might have gone down, but she can hear a gnat fart fifty feet away.
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I’m used to quiet… I grew up in a quiet house (no siblings), and spent hours just writing stories in peace. I cannot bear background noise, but do like to listen to music when I’m not writing.
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“I was also advised to cut the number of events by half, and to draw the remaining events out for longer.” If you don’t hear that one, you’ve never sent your early work out into the real world. Nice wisdom share. I have done 6 weeks of grandkids during the day this summer. Good luck at the van. As much as we get caught up in our day to day, it will be nice when they go back to school so I can recall what I was doing before being vigilant about kids… Again.
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I’ll be visiting farms, overseeing horse riding, swimming, looking for treasure on beaches, and God knows what else. When Sam and I go we do a lot of sitting on the decking with cups of tea, but I guess that won’t be happening next week, lol.
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hardly… unless she has her ASD. (Anti-Social Device). Then you can be roundly ignored for hours.
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No grandchildren yet and ours is a cabin-in-progress in the woods, but there’s no internet, so the Anti-Social Device doesn’t work. Some friends took their kids berry-picking out there last weekend and the tikes were incensed their phones didn’t work. Their mom just smiled.
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Lol!
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This is another of those things that I never understood how to control. I just watch the action in my head and write it down. Have a great holiday.
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Thanks Richard. I’m learning to pace my novels now.
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I control mine in editing, with “permission” of the characters. If they object, I find another way. Without them, there are no books. Gotta keep my characters happy, but the readers matter too.
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Indeed.
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Shared on Twitter for you, Stevie.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Thanks Pete.
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That was good advice you were given. Kid’s books need to move along but Amanda does stop to admire the sights and enjoy a traditional meal every now and again. I do cut some scenes out in the editing process too as I realize it is just too much.
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Yes, I think we all have to cut scenes out. Thanks for your comment, Darlene.
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I’ve cut whole chapters from a couple of my books when I realized that they weren’t moving the story forward.
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Yes, I think we’ve all done that at some point or another, P.J.
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