5 Top Tips for Strong Pacing

Pacing is an interesting story element because when you get it right, no one notices, but when it’s off, it’s obvious. Diagnosing problems with pacing isn’t always straightforward, either. One thing, though, is certain: if the pacing is wrong, it’s going to bother your readers, so I thought I’d share 5 tips on how to keep the pace of your story strong and balanced.

1. Current Story vs. Backstory. Every character has a backstory, and while we do need to share some of it, if we handle it poorly, it pulls them out of the current story and plops them into a past one.

To keep the pace moving, only share what’s necessary for the reader to know at that moment. Dole out the history in small pieces within the context of the current story, and avoid narrative stretches that interrupt what’s going on. Here’s a great example from the story Above, by Leah Bobet: (affiliate link)

The only good thing about my Curse is that I can still Pass. And that’s half enough to keep me out of trouble. But tonight it’s not the half I need because here’s Atticus, spindly crab arms folded ‘cross his chest, waiting outside my door. His eyes glow dim-shot amber—not bright, so he’s not mad, just annoyed and looking to be mad.

Bobet could have taken a lengthy paragraph to explain that certain people in this world have curses that are mutations, that Atticus has crab claws for hands and his eyes glow when he gets angry. But that would’ve slowed the pace and been boring. Instead, Bobet wove this information into the current story—showed Atticus leaning against the door, showed his crustacean claws and his freaky, glowing eyes so the reader knows that he’s a mutant and, to the narrator, at least, this is normal. This is an excellent example of the artful weaving of backstory into the present story.

2. Action vs. Exposition/Internal Dialogue. Action is an accelerant. It keeps the pace from dragging. Granted, there will be places in your story that are inherently passive, where characters have to talk or someone needs to think things out. The key is to break up these places with movement or activity.

Characters should be in motion—including doing things that hint at how they’re feeling—while talking. Give them something to do as they think things through, whether it’s peeling carrots, making a coffee just so, or angrily watering plants because no one else ever does it. These bits of action are an optical illusion, adding the flavor of daily life as the character works through things internally.

3. Conflict vs. Downtime. On the flip side, you can’t have a story that’s all go and no stop. One might think that since action is good, more action is better. Not true. Readers need time to catch their breath, to recover from highly emotional or stressful scenes.

A good pace is one that ebbs and flows—high action, a bit of recovery, then back to the activity again. Even The Maze Runner, possibly the most active novel I’ve ever read, has its moments of calm. A definite balance of conflict and downtime will be needed in every story.

4. Keep Upping the Stakes. We know that tension and conflict is important and every single scene needs it. However for conflict to be effective, it needs to escalate over the course of the story.

To keep the reader engaged, each of the major conflict points needs to be bigger, more dramatic, and with more desperate stakes. One of my favorite reads of 2013 was Ruta Sepetys’ Between Shades of Gray, a historical fiction novel about the deportation of a Lithuanian family during World War II. It starts out ominous enough, with the family being forced from their home. Throughout the story, they’re moved by cattle car across the continent, relocated to a forced labor camp, and eventually reach their final destination—a camp in the Arctic Circle where they’re expected to survive the elements with whatever resources they can scrounge. Clearly, lots of other conflict is interspersed, but when it comes to the major points, each one should contain stakes with greater impact.

5. Condense the timeline. When possible, keep your timeline tight. If it gets too spread out, the story will inevitably drag. It’s also hard, in a story that covers a long span, to keep things smooth; there will be time jumps of weeks or months or even years between scenes. Too many of these give the story a jerky feel. So when it comes to the timeline, condense it as much as possible to keep the pace steady.

For sure, pacing is tricky, but I’ve found these nuggets to help maintain a good balance. What other tips do you have for keeping your story moving?

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