The Secret to Strong PACING (it's actually really simple)

are you struggling to Pace your story do you ever find yourself stuck while writing trying to find that perfect balance between the character's actions and their internal emotions and thought process so that your scene unfolds seamlessly like watching a movie many writers struggle with pacing finding that delicate balance between what's happening externally and what's happening internally within the characters if we focus too much on external events we start to feel detached from the main character whose point of view we're supposed to be in and then on the flip side if we spend too much time

in the character's thoughts we start to lose track of what's even happening around them in this video we're going to explore the science of pacing slow pacing fast pacing Montage pacing all the different kinds of pacing with side by-side examp so that we can figure out what works and what doesn't so grab a notebook and let's get into this why does your story matter good question what if I told you that there's a science behind every great story I don't just teach you how to write I teach you how to change the world with your

story and make your author dreams come true okay I'm just going to tell you the Awful Truth to start with there is no one side fits all rule to pacing nice as it would be to have a guide that we could always follow and get pacing right every single time it's going to differ from scene to scene and author to author and book to book the golden rule of pacing that you need to remember is this your reader sees everything happening at the pace at which they read and this is actually really exciting because it

means that we can speak speed up or slow down the pace at which they read and then manipulate how they are seeing the scene unfold it's basically like film editing but you're doing it in your own imagination and the reader's imagination so it's not that slow pacing is bad and boring and and annoying and it's not that fast pacing feels rushed and amateur it's neither one of those there is a time and place for fast pacing there's a time in place for slow pacing and there's a time when neither one works it all depends on

the scene you're writing and how you want it to unfold in your reader mind so we're going to look at fast pacing that works slow pacing that works fast pacing that doesn't work slow pacing that doesn't work and why we're going to really study these examples and figure out okay what is it that works or doesn't work so first let's look at an example of fast pacing that actually works so this is an excerpt of a fight scene that I wrote and I love using fast pacing for writing fight scenes because you want your reader

to see this fight unfolding quickly like an action scene in a movie I spring into action lunging at my opponent with a combination jab straight right uppercut in the ribs the Finish lands harder than I expected knocking the air out of his lungs and making him stumble over his feet he counters but I SWAT his punches away like flies bobbing and weaving around his shots with ease get your anger out now you jerk I duck and move in slugging a hard right hook to his ribs he staggers forward trying to Ram his knee into my

gut but I don't give him the chance I trap his arms and pivot on my feet throwing him over my shoulder like a ragd doll he lands on his back with a bone rattling thud gasping as he stares up at me so my takeaways looking at this excerpt is that we are not spending a lot of time on each action we are seeing these movements happen very quickly very short and sharp descriptions which means we aren't lingering on describing every emotion and every feeling because if we did that we' be slowing down the pace of

the actual fight right so instead we want to see it like an action scene so it's action action action action action right sometimes fast pacing works better than slow pacing in a scenario like this where you want your reader to see the events unfolding quickly as quickly as possible if we were to use slow pacing here and spend more time deliberating on the characters internal thoughts and their memories and every single emotion it might look something like this I spring into action moving with Swift and practice precision as I cross the length of the fighting

ring closing the distance between myself and my opponent I rely on a solid three punch combination that I've been practicing on the heavy bags for weeks jab straight right uppercut to the ribs each strike lands with a satisfying thud bringing me a sense of Victory as I force him back into the opposite corner of the Ring I hear the wheezing gasp of air rushing out of my opponent's lungs drawing back in time to see him stumble over his feet sweat trickles down my face as I catch my breath and prepare to defend his counter maneuver

my heart pounds thunderously in the back of my head as I wait my fists up in defense prepared to block any attack and win the fight are you bored yet because I am very bored if this was a scene that I was reading in a book it would be very hard for me to visualize these events unfolding quickly because your brain is literally slowing down into slow motion to process all these in between things what I see immediately here in this example is too many pauses between the actual action points we get lost in this

muddy sort of overwhelming description and we lose track of what we're even looking at because we're spending too much time on these breaks in between each movement and what the character is thinking about it whereas in the first example we felt like we were right there in the thick of the action with those characters feeling what they were feeling seeing it happen quickly and aggressively which is how a fight scene should feel but on the flip side there are instances where slow pacing works so let's look at an example of what that might look like

it's not a fight scene this excerpt is taken from my book The Otherworld and this is a scene where my main character Orca is searching her Island for the Missing pilot Adam the day passes slowly side by side Lucius and I Scout the entire Coastline of the island picking our way through fields of Driftwood climbing up Rocky slopes edging along the Tre line to peer down at the Tide Water smashing against the shore my legs grow tired of hiking and my eyes grow weary of surveying the landscape but my heart never ceases to anxiously press

against my ribs thuing with equal parts hope and Dread I still haven't sorted out what I'll do if he's badly injured or unconscious or even worse what if he's dead I couldn't leave him wherever I found him but I couldn't drag his body back to the lighthouse either how would I manage how would I tell Jack the light Lighthouse is coming back into view now rising from the northern tip of the island to shine courageously across the dark gray sea the clouds at the Horizon have split open to allow the sun her one and only

appearance of the day skipping orange flares across the tops of the Waves before the ocean swallows her up so as you can see with this example we have the slow pacing we have some of the lyrical descriptions we have some of the Whimsical nature descriptions but it all fits orca's voice and her current mood so I'm actually using slow pacing here to emphasize how time seems to be stretching on forever for Orca during this day of searching the island tirelessly I'm really trying to emphasize how she feels about it her desperation her disappointment her loneliness

and then spending time on her internal struggle her internal turmoil and thoughts and questions and doubts and fears because we need to see that glimpse into what is she actually thinking about all of this right and we have time to because it's not a fast-paced action scene we don't have to hit pause on the action to see what the character is feeling because it's all woven into what she's been struggling with all day long as time seems to be stretching on for this impossibly long amount of time and even the description at the end about

the lighthouse and the sun setting it all works together because it kind of is juck's deposed with orca's disappointment and longing and loneliness and the fact that she feels like she let herself and Adam and Jack down in failing this surge so if I were to take that scene and rewrite it to be fast pacing it wouldn't work it would sound something like this the day passes slowly Lucius and I Scout the entire Coastline of the island but we don't find anything I try my best to look for Adam but my efforts prove fruitless and

eventually I'm so tired that I can't see straight I still haven't sorted out what I'll do if he's badly injured or unconscious or even worse what if he's dead I don't know what I'll do or how I'll tell Jack the lighthouse is coming back into view now shining in the glow of the Setting Sun lucious pants beside me and I scratch his head as we walk back up to the house so it's a lot quicker but it doesn't deliver the same emotional punch right we're not allowed to linger on those emotions that Orca is feeling

and therefore we feel more detached from her character in this moment plus the style feels cut and dry it doesn't feel like her voice at all she's very much kind of an Anish character and that she really lingers on and leans into her emotional struggles and the sort of lyrical Whimsical way that she looks at the world around her and the quick pacing here by glossing over you know I try my best but my efforts are fruitless and eventually I'm so tired I can't continue that doesn't really make me feel how long and arduous this

search has been so sometimes slow pacing is better than fast pacing because it allows us to linger on the character's emotions and how they perceive time passing so it all depends on the type of scene you're writing is it quick action or is it more of a slow dragged out arduous experience that this character is going through how do they perceive time passing cuz that's going to influence how you want your your reader to perceive time passing like in a fight scene time is passing very quickly everything seems to be happening in warp speed whereas

in a situation where your character wishes things would happen quicker wishes that something would change it might feel like time is slowing to a crawl now real quick I want to show you what pacing for Montage might look like so I love writing montages because it gives us that ability to make a lot of time pass make a lot of things happen over the course of a certain amount of time for this character without spending a lot of time on it okay and there's different ways that you can do this for my example right now

I'm going to look at my other book 100 days of sunlight which has several montages in it but my favorite montage is the scene from Weston's flashbacks where he is recovering and training to get stronger I set my alarm for 6:30 every morning I had to get used to waking up early for when I went back to school regular school with Rudy and all my other friends nobody was standing in my way except for me right right I blasted the heavy bag in my garage every chance I got one minute rounds turned into 2minute rounds

turned into 3 minute rounds finally I was able to beat that thing like it was out to kill me my Knuckles bled and I flurried the bag and Lead Zeppelin screamed at me from the radio I felt like I was dying but at the same time I finally felt alive again I did 100 push-ups without stopping I broke a new record Ur at the track a 2minute and 13sec lap I woke up at 6:30 every morning and I never hit the snooze button so as you can see with this scene we are going super fast

like speeding through events one line at a time we are not lingering on any particular scenes I'm more focusing on giving you flashes of images and you can sort of approach this as if you were editing a movie okay if you were editing a movie and you were showing all these scenes we would be spending seconds the most on each scene so what does that translate to writing one line a few words and here you can also play with rhythm as a way to show the passage of time so as you can see in this

example I used that with one minute rounds turned into two minute rounds turned into three minute rounds we can see the days going by in our heads right we can see maybe weeks going by just with the rhythm of using the contrast of progress so of course it depends on the type of Montage you're writing but the more you can show me in a short amount of time the more I'm going to see this whole sequence of events unfolding in flashes of imagery you don't have to linger long on each image to make us feel

something and see how these events are connected to each other the best way to improve your pacing in your writing is to pay attention to what good pacing looks like and this can be tricky to notice in books because if pacing is written really well you shouldn't even notice it it should be so immersive that you don't even remember that you're reading a book you are just you are in this world with these characters but in these moments of deep immersion try to pull back try to pause and ask yourself okay what is it about

this pacing that works what is pulling me in right now why do I feel so immersed in this scene what's the balance between the character's internal emotions and the action of what's Happening annotating books and highlighting the action and the internal emotion of the characters can really help you to see how the author balanced these two things but here are a few prompts that you can write down and take with you into your next scene if you are struggling with pacing at all ask yourself these questions what needs to be accomplished in this scene write

a short bullet point list of action step steps for your own reference what is the main force of conflict in the scene who is it impacting the most and why what are your characters agendas how are they going to respond to the external conflict based on their goals how fast or slow do I want my reader to see the scene unfolding your answer to this question will determine how much time you spend on action versus emotion if you want to take your writing to the next level find your Unique Style and make your writing the

best it can possibly be I highly recommend checking out my recent live training elevate your writing how to find your voice and make your Pros shine pacing is just one of the topics that we discussed in that training but we also covered character voice writing with rhythm showing and not telling internal conflict writing in deep point of view and expanding your vocabulary in fun creative ways so if you want to take your Writing Practice to that Next Level click the link below this video and get access to that two-part live training also when you get

access to that training you also unlock the rest of my previous live trainings which is over 27 hours of in-depth teachings diving deep into character creation writing editing publishing and much more so I hope to see you over there comment below and tell me what is your favorite type of pacing to write are you more of the short and sharp quick pacing kind of writer or do you prefer slower thoughtful more lyrical writing I'd love for you to join the discussion in the comments below this video smash that like button while you're down there and

subscribe to this channel if you haven't already because I post writing videos every single Wednesday and I would love to have you here in the community until next week my friend Rock on [Music] oh [Music]