5 Practical Tips For Pacing Your Story

If there’s one thing that writers don’t think about much is pacing their story. Pacing strategically controls the speed at which information and events flow in a story. 

What many storytellers struggle to understand is that poor pacing can cause your story to come off as drawn out or hurried. Readers typically get bored or feel lost when they sense the pacing is off.

Something that will help you with pacing is the plot of your story. So, before diving into writing, outline the plot. Determine the beginning, middle, and end, as well as key plot and subplot points and character arcs. Don’t forget to refer to your outline as you’re writing your story.

As a way to maintain pacing throughout your story, consider taking these 5 approaches:

1. Layer your story by adding multi-dimensional characters with a range of emotions, thoughts, behaviors, struggles, and complexities. In other words, readers should be able to connect or relate to the characters in your story. You may also want to consider creating events that help your characters grow and change throughout the story.

2. Steadily increase the emotional and psychological tension between characters to move the story forward and keep the readers’ attention. One way of building tension raising the stakes so that certain characters would gain or lose something important to them. This will also keep readers invested in the outcome.

3. Create interesting dialogue that brings your characters to life. This can include making each character's voice unique. For example, give characters distinct speech patterns, vocabularies, and mannerisms. Consider their background, education, and personality when crafting their dialogue. You can also use dialogue to reveal your characters' motivations, fears, and desires through what they say (and don't say) Let dialogue highlight your characters’ growth and changes over time. Make every line of dialogue move the story forward or reveal something important.

4. Make sure to include interesting or exciting moments in the middle part of the story. You can do this by allowing the characters to start disagreeing, competing, or misunderstanding each other. This will also help to build tension. If the midpoint of your story is simply a continuation of the beginning chapter with no new characters, conflict, or events introduced, readers may lose interest and put the book down. It’s hard to win back disinterested readers.

5. The story should continue building up so that it leads to a satisfying conclusion. Take the time to research the best practices for ending a story. To quote well-known crime novelist, Mickey Spillane, "The first page sells this book. The last page sells your next book."

Think of pacing in your story as a rollercoaster ride. Just like a rollercoaster doesn't immediately start with a big drop and then coast, it gradually builds up to the climax before delivering the thrilling moment.

If you reveal all the exciting parts too early, the rest of the story will be dull. On the other hand, if you save all the excitement for the end, readers will lose interest early on in the story.

Once you learn how to pace your story, basically by escalating suspense, your readers will remain engaged because you will have roped them into the story.

By maintaining intrigue in your story from start to finish, your readers may become loyal followers and look forward to your next best seller.

Discovering the Impact of Discouragement on Your Story

People enjoy reading a variety of genres, such as historical, romantic, and crime. But nothing hits the right spot like a tragic story, one of disappointment and regret coupled with pain. Even the most positive stories use hardship and discouragement when looking to add a twist to the plot. 

After all, a story that only focuses on love, happiness, and good moments might as well be a fairytale. But even fairytales have highs, lows, joys, and hardships. These elements make the perfect story.

A story about a discouraging event—be it the writer’s own or someone else's experience—can help readers reflect on their own lives, become more empathetic, and see all the things that they can be grateful for. Discouraging stories awaken the humanity in us. So, if you are a writer, don’t be afraid to add real “day-to-day” living into your story.

And remember: As you write about your characters’ moments of discouragement, show—don’t tell—readers about your characters’ resilience. Let your readers see how your characters overcome their discouragement and triumphant over their adversities.

Resilience is birthed in the most difficult of situations. So, the takeaway from a discouraging story is the art of being resilient in the face of adversity. Achieving this goal requires writing an interesting story that allows readers to see how they can learn and grow from discouraging moments.

Keep in mind that every discouraging story should have a plot twist of change and hope. If you have had this experience, why not share your story so that others can experience it as well?

The Art of Storytelling: How to Avoid Five Common Pitfalls

Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay

Storytelling is the most engaging form of communication for writers. Why? Because everyone loves a good story. Additionally, authors of well-written stories are more than likely to gain loyal readers. However, writers should be mindful of the mistakes that can detract from the overall quality and impact of their stories. 

The following are the most common pitfalls writers should avoid, especiallly when writing fiction:

1. Overly Complicated Plotting

Have you ever read a book with multiple characters, and the story contained a plot for each character? It's easy for readers to get lost and lose interest in a complicated story. So, avoid overwhelming readers with excessive information or backstories of all the characters. Focus on your main characters and add essential details of other characters when they become relevant to the story.

2. Overuse of Adverbs and Adjectives

Writing a story that readers enjoy involves using descriptive language. However, writers frequently overuse adverbs and adjectives to describe nouns and verbs. For instance, writers commonly use an adverb to modify the verb "said," such as "he said, loudly," "she said, smiling," or "he said, laughing." The overuse of adverbs can weaken a story. Similarly, the overuse of adjectives (for instance, "the very big, scary monster) can weigh down and slow the pace of a story, causing readers to become bored and lose interest in the narrative. 

In a letter to one of his students, Mark Twain advised: 

When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them—then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart.

So, opt for stronger verbs and precise nouns in your story.