Slow vs Fast Pacing : A Basic Guide1/10/2022 When we are bored, a few hours seem like a week. When we have fun, we feel like suddenly we have blinked, and an hour has gone by. Just the way your mind does, books trick people into thinking time is passing by at different rhythms. In a certain number of pages, readers can understand events that took place during hours, days, months, and even centuries (yes, I’m looking at you 100 Days of Solitude). But to create this illusion correctly, the way writers manage time during each scene is essential. First things first, what is pacing? Pacing is the speed at which your story moves forward. It uses every action and interaction of your characters to generate the perspective of time moving quickly or slowly. Every scene must move the plot forward, regardless of its pacing, to keep your writing fluid and the reader interested. Note: Many of the following pieces of advice are taken from “Cómo mejorar un texto literario” by Alba Editorial. Sadly, this book has no English translation. Slow Pacing: This type of pacing encompasses moments in which the thoughts and relationships of your characters are the main focus. They can be forming a plan, rethinking their actions, or bonding with other characters. This is your opportunity to develop emotions and give your readers insights into your world. It is useful for descriptive scenes too, as it builds atmosphere and shows perspective through details. To achieve slow pacing, you can:
Now, let us look at an example of slow pacing: “Jude and I both give her dismayed looks. The three of us are sitting in a corner booth at Encanto, our favorite spot on Main Street. The restaurant is a bit of a tourist trap, right off the main thoroughfare—you can even see traces of the beach through the front windows—but it only ever gets crowded on the weekends, making it the ideal quiet hangout after school.” (Meyer, 2020, p. 17). This extract of a paragraph uses slow pacing to build the atmosphere of a scene. First, it interrupts the action to place the reader at a specific place. It mentions different details of the restaurant, such as the view from the windows. It also uses plenty of adjectives and longer sentences. Exercise: notice how this paragraph would change if we change the verb “are sitting” for “sit”, replace the compound sentences for single ones, and subtract the sentence between the em dashes.
This type of pacing is ideal for scenes that focus on the actions or reactions of the character. My favorite type of scene to write is fighting scenes, which depend on fast pacing to keep the reader invested in the movements of the characters. Other types of fast scenes include persecution scenes and travel scenes. The last one also relies on time skips, so introducing pauses often can make the events monotonous. To achieve fast pacing, you can:
“Choking, I failed for the surface. The more I struggled, the faster I sank. Whorls of my long black hair floated around me like a storm. Terror rioted in my gut, and my throat burned, my pulse thudding madly in my ears.” (Lim, 2021, p. 8). This scene is full of tension. Right away, the paragraph sets the stakes of a life-threatening situation. There is an abundance of verbs in the perfect tense and the sentences are either short or compound, using a comma. It also uses adverbs and verbs that connote speed. Exercise: By adding conjunctions and state verbs, turn this paragraph into two sentences. How does the scene change?
Probably one of the most difficult things to achieve when working with pacing is changing from fast to slow without confusing your reader. To do this with ease, you may want to gradually slow down the pacing before you introduce a reflective or descriptive pause. This gradual change can also work when going vice versa, from slow to fast pace. However, the element you want to increase during this scenario is tension. How does the character feel right before a climactic battle? Which details of the scene can you give the readers to foreshadow an ambush? And, finally, any way you want to switch pacing, you can experiment with dialogue, either interrupting it or enhancing it. Exercises: A way to understand this method without writing is by listening to a song. Usually, they start with a few instrumental seconds, followed by a rather calm verse. The song usually picks up more instruments until you get to the bridge, which is charged with emotion and strong lyrics. Then the lyrics and the instruments either repeat themselves until they fade away, have a sudden end, or go back to their starting point. One of the best examples of this is All Too Well (Taylor’s Version). Another thing you can do is watch the final fighting scene of a movie, starting from the point in which the main character seems to be defeated. Notice how they pick up motivation or stand up slowly to defeat the villain in an epic duel. Once they are done, there might be a couple of emotional seconds that will eventually turn into realization and assimilation of what they have done, and what does that mean. As a final notice, remember that pacing is something you want to look out for when editing your book. During the first draft, it might be better to get the words down and try to keep your writing momentum. However, if you are struggling with a scene, switching its pace might help you understand what is missing. Paula Argudois a young planster with too much passion and too little time on a day. She has been telling stories for as long as she can remember, whether they are thoroughly researched flash fiction pieces or improvised bedtime stories.
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