Writers Tricks of the Trade VOLUME 8, ISSUE 4 | Page 9
pace. Not only that, it had an unsatisfying
ending. It was pure torture. of action (movement), no matter what
kind of story it is.
BRISK PACING WHAT IS ACTION?
Though I’m not big fan of James Pat-
terson’s novels, mainly because he tends
to write first-person most of the time, the
one thing I like about him is that instead
of writing scenes, he writes very short
chapters. His novels might have 80 – 100
chapters or more. A side effect of this is
that he also tends to avoid head-hopping
because he’s able to contain the scenes to
single characters when he does write
third-person.
This style makes for a fast-paced and
easy read, especially if you read at com-
mercials.
My icky bug novel had 152 chapters
and was a pure pleasure to read. Fast-
paced, it was solid third-person and there
was no room for head-hopping. I loved
everything about it except the ending!
You don’t have to write hundreds of
short chapters to have fast pacing either.
You can do it with multiple scenes, or
even just relatively short paragraphs.
You can do it by not rambling.
You can do it by getting to the
point.
You can do it by moving the story,
even if every scene isn’t a chase
scene.
All you have to do is pace the story. By
that, I mean give it a steady buildup to the
climax. Make sure something is happen-
ing in every scene. It doesn’t have to be
thrills. Keep the genre in mind, of course.
It has to be something significant to move
the story along and it has to be some kind By action I don’t mean necessarily ac-
tion/adventure as in the genre. I mean,
the characters have to do something sig-
nificant to move the story. That’s it. For-
ward pacing. NOT backward pacing.
Think about it.
You have a story about two little old
ladies getting ready for a quilting bee.
They’re mild rivals. They get together to
check out each other’s work. Now is not
the time to go into a long diatribe about
how they went for ice cream when they
were nine years old. Okay, maybe a cou-
ple of sentences, but not an entire chap-
ter, right? Pacing.
These two old ladies have an interplay
where they examine each other’s work
and mildly, or maybe harshly criticize
each other’s work. Bla Bla Bla.
Story movement. Conflict.
Notice how I deliberately picked a
genre I don’t write, just to illustrate my
point.
That was an action scene that moved
the story forward, demonstrating their
rivalry.
W INTER 2019
WHAT IS NOT ACTION?
Overlong descriptions.
Going off on a side story.
Going off on a rant.
Unrelated back story.
Unrelated flashbacks (see back
story).
Every one of these things may have
action in them by definition, but they’re
P AGE 4
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE