Can anyone recommend a good essay/book/link about pacing?
I'm really struggling with it, particularly at the beginning of the novel.

It seems there's so much info that must be fitted into the opening chapters, but can't be plonked down. By the time it's worked in subtly even I am sticking my fingers up my nostrils and staring out of the window thinking this is as engaging as double maths on a Monday morning. I just can't see how to get it going, keep it moving and also make it real. It either zips along in melodramatic stick-figure mode, or wades through dreamy pontificatory treacle. Arrrgghh. Been looking at how others do it and trying to copy their pacing but of course that doesn't work because the storylines demand different structures.

Oh blimey, I really am going through the stage again where I think of published novelists: how do they do it? It's as unfathomable as writing a symphony.

What sort of info? If you mean backstory, the best advice I've come across is save it for the latter half of the book, by which time the reader will be engaged with the character(s) and more willing to know about what they were doing before the opening chapter.



- NaomiM

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I'm just musing here, but maybe it's the mix of ordinary v's extra-ordinary that's the key here. The bulk of the opening chapter(s) - 95%, to pick a number - is made up of the ordinary, the main character's routine, which helps to set the scene and introduce the characters. The plot, the bit that hooks the reader, is the extra-ordinary; the out of the ordinary; the main plot device(s), what drives the story. It might be difficult to tell what that is until it is compared side by side with the ordinary, so it's no bad thing to have the 'info', just so long as you start the plot going as early as possible - the opening paragraph.

Naomi what you say is fascinating. Is it true of crime novels too I wonder? I was worried because the bulk of my opening chapters is ordinary and I worry the pace flags, that people won't care about the character because they want to know what happens next, but won't care what happens next if they don't know much about the character. I think it's just a bit lopsided because I'm working with a skeletal draft one plus a hefty plot breakdown so the actual book which is emerging flesh and bone feels a bit hefty in places, but can always be trimmed.

But thank you. I'm reassured that bulk normality, snippet of extraordinary is par.

Well, as an aside, I've recently got hooked on the Gilmore Girls - a US comedy-drama series about a single mom bringing up her 16yr daughter in 'small town america', running the local Inn, knowing the local characters, etc. I came into it in the 4rd series, so I got hold of Series One DVD to get some backstory, and there is none. In the pilot the characters jump onto the screen fully formed, going about their daily routine, with snippets of plot slipped in, in real time, moving the story along, and changing their lives and their routine in the process. It is not until series five was there a flashback to how the mom had got pregnant as a 16yr old and escaped from her rich parents' mansion with the baby, although there had been the odd line here and there alluding to it.

It seems the thing to avoid is writing oneself into the story - basically putting in lots of information which tells you, the writer, about your characters and the setting, which the reader really doesn't need to know. But you can cut that out at the end of the first draft.


- NaomiM

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As for crime novels, I recently started a Rebus one, which has a typical murder in the prologue, and very little is known of the corpse except what the detective gradually uncovers in the course of the book. I felt that the corpse, itself, was treated as a mere object to which ghastly things are done, and the reader only feels empathy for it via the reactions of the loved ones they left behind and the feelings of the grizzled detective.

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...I don't think the addition of any information about the character in the lead up to their death would have changed that for me - if fact, I'd probably have been annoyed at being manipulated by the writer to feel something for this character before the inevitable death.

because the bulk of my opening chapters is ordinary and I worry the pace flags, that people won't care about the character because they want to know what happens next, but won't care what happens next if they don't know much about the character

Cherys, this is a problem I have too and I think you've hit the issue on the head with this statement. The answer, as always, depends on what kind of book you're trying to write. If it's generally slower paced and perhaps more character based then a slower start is okay. If you're concentrating on action and events and the characters are less well defined then perhaps start with a gripping event. Me, i could read about very dull ordinary things for chapters and chapters if the voice telling the story - the character - was interesting. I can also read pages and pages about very weakly-drawn characters (not that I am suggesting yours are) if the events are unusual or compelling in some way.

Me, i could read about very dull ordinary things for chapters and chapters if the voice telling the story - the character - was interesting.

Completely agree with this. I was thinking about something similar the other day. We have two girls at work - one of them has had what should be a fascinating life even though she's only in her early twenties (lived all over the world/ glamorously disfunctional family) but she is sooo dull she makes my head hurt! The other one has barely been outside Manchester (her boyfriend took her to London for the first time for her 28th birthday!) but she can make the tale of what she overheard on the bus on the way to work, absolutely fascinating.

I was thinking about it in terms of story-telling, but now I think about it, the 'stories' she tells are usually incredibly slight. Maybe it is 'voice'. I know writing is different, but there is something about the way she draws you in and makes situations feel very vivid that is so involving.

Burbling, sorry, but I think voice is the key. Is the story told by someone you would want to listen to/ find interesting?

Maybe it is 'voice'.

I think 'voice' is the most important thing in the majority of novels - especially if it's a slow build. Otherwise it needs to be a DVC-style page turner.

Ladyblackbird I agree. In the right novel a quiet, slow unfolding can work well. And Naomi - yes, I think that's it exactly - a slightly off-key voice. Voice and pace go hand in hand...

Straight to the point, Saturday. I didn't nail the MC at all in draft 1 and have done a lot of work on her, getting to know and like her, but maybe I'm still not confident enough in her to cut straight to the point and feel I can show it at a glance, so the pair of us bumble round the page together too unsure to sign off, like at the end of a first date. That was very helpful, Saturday. Thanks.

Cherys, i've only just realized this was my problem by some feedback from a rejection letter - basically they said not enough happened in the opening chapters to grab them.

I had a hard look and realized i had done too much 'setting up' and thrown in some chunks of backstory.

Another rejec letter said i had drawn the characters really well, but i'd only managed this by sticking in the ordinary and the backstory so - and hopefully not at the expense of the characterisation - i have struck that all out and completely got rid of my second chapter.

The bits of backstory i'm pasting in at appropriate points, chapters later, as i do the rewrite.

I can see it has made the opening so much stronger.

It has to be a common problem, Casey. It's one of the hardest balances to find: information and pacing, character and plot. I guess the art is to demonstrate character only through crucial scenes and not snippets of backstory, even if they are relevant.

I attended a Robert McKee workshop years ago (who wrote Story.) More than once he said of Casablanca, 'We don't get to see what happened in Paris until we HAVE to see what happened in Paris.' That's very good backstory advice.

Been working on my opening chapters overnight and they feel more fluent now, thanks to WWers clarity.

I think pacing is particularly relevent in crime fiction.
Crime readers are prolific and discerning. They, quite rightly, expect to be thrilled. I know some will say that a book doesn't need to start with anything too drmatic but I don't think that's true for crime fiction.
Recently I read Child 44 - which begins with a child abduction/possible murder, Ritual, which begins with a police diver finding a hand at the bottom of a lake and The Nineteenth Wife, which began with a shooting. All are very different types of crime novels, but all set the reader up to know exactly what type of book it is.
Think of a comedy. It would be pretty shit if there wasn't a laugh until a quarter of the way in.
The pacing of all those books was impeccable. Exciting yet not short changed on characterisation. However the later was drip fed, there being no need to know it all up front.
Another master, well mistress, is Minette Walters. She very rarely gives details of how people look or how they sound, yet the characterisation is all there in choice morsels.
This is one of the reasons why good crime writing is hard. You cannot get away with lush descriptions or slowing of pace so each word has to count. A one line description of location has to sum it up perfectly.
I hope some of this helps.
HB x

One thing about childrens fiction, which is probably true of the faster paced adult fiction, is avoiding putting in anything that you don't intend to use again. eg, If you take the time to describe a house or a street, it's because the characters are coming back here at some point; if you mention a seemingly ordinary object, it's because the character will find a use for it, etc.

I find it so hard to talk about pacing in general - I do it pretty much instinctively/by feel in my own writing, and with other people's books I think it's difficult to say whether it's working or not without reading the whole book. This is one of the shortcomings of critting on sites like this one, I think.

i think the most useful books on this that I've read have been screenwriting ones - not all of it's relevant, of course, but I do think a better understanding of basic, underlying structure really increases your sense of how pacing should work in a book. Story, as you mentioned, is great on this stuff.

I attended a Robert McKee workshop years ago (who wrote Story.) More than once he said of Casablanca, 'We don't get to see what happened in Paris until we HAVE to see what happened in Paris.' That's very good backstory advice.

Yes - exactly. Don't give us the backstory until you've set up enough hooks and enigmas so that the reader is saying, 'just why is Jeff so frightened of pigs?' and THEN let us know.

All are very different types of crime novels, but all set the reader up to know exactly what type of book it is.

And yes - Helen is right again, and as usual. I think the main role of the opening chapter, as well as hooking the reader's interest, is to train her to become the kind of reader that novel needs. You're, in effect, laying out the stall - saying look, here's a gun and a man with a suitcase - you're reading a thriller now. Most readers, especially, like Helen says, genre readers who are well tuned in to the demands of that particular kind of book (and I think this counts for lit fic too, which is, after all, just one more genre) are well versed enough to know what to expect from hints that might seem over subtle to us.

or so i think, anyway.

J

Jenn, honestly. I now know exactly why Jeff is scared of pigs and can't get it out of my head.

Am posting my opening in Crime if anyone has a moment to take a look...

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No I'm not. It said the opening chapter (4 400) was too long. As the problem is with pace, I get the hint...