Tricks to Speed Up Novel Pacing

Pacing, the momentum that pulls us through the story, can be hard to get right. Too slow and the reader loses interest. Too fast and the story can get confusing.

I tend to err on the side of too slow. [Writers of children's books tend to worry about getting the reader's attention.] Probably most writers have places where the story starts to slow down (aka the sagging middle). When you’re writing, it’s easy to get wrapped up in adding unnecessary descriptive details or including events that don’t relate to the character's goal. Some tricks to speed up your novel pacing:

Cut down on transitional scenes. Does your novel have scenes or sentences where all you're doing is moving the character from one place to another? Consider cutting or reducing them. Transitions are boring and don’t need much detail.

Start the story later. After the hook brings us into the story, we still need something to keep us reading. Starting part way into the story, or at the place where we meet the story problem can give the beginning of the story some momentum.

Pare down backstory. Backstory can make the story drag. It may be interesting to you, but not your reader. Take agent Kristin’s advice (and the advice of practically every other agent and editor) and use only little bits.

Summarize. We always hear about the dangers of “telling” instead of “showing”, but a little bit of telling can be effective too. I sometimes use it to give a reader a piece of information that may help with flow of the story, without taking up the space of an entire scene. Just make sure it’s not something crucial to the plot.

A few other things you can do to help speed up the story:

Intensify beginnings and endings. Scene or chapter beginnings and endings should be compelling. Sometimes, we worry about this early in the novel and forget in the middle section. For kid readers, any hint that it might be boring can mean they don’t finish the book.  Why risk losing their attention?

Shorten chapter length. Short, snappy chapters can keep the story flowing, especially in children’s books. Kids also get tricked into thinking there isn’t so much to read, if there are short chapters and lots of white space.

Cut unnecessary explanatory phrases. Check out agent Mary Kole’s post on eliminating the frame. You might not even realize you're doing this.

Use shorter words. If I need a dictionary every paragraph or two, there are probably too many interesting words.

Do you have any tricks for speeding up the story pacing?

Links

*As usual, if you come across any useful resources on this topic, let me know and I’ll add them to this resource.

April Henry points out two ways to improve pacing.

Lisa Gail Green talks about pacing for pantsers. Be sure to read the comments on this one, because they are full of great insights.

Agent Kristin Nelson talks about pacing in her vlog: Why Page Length for YA or MG Novel Is The Wrong Question.

Consider these techniques to establish pacing, from the Writer’s Store.

Patrick Schultz lets us in on some great secrets for speeding up novel pacing (also available as a podcast)

Over at Dark Angel’s Fiction Writing Tools, romance author Roz Denny Fox writes about pacing your novel.

At Janice Hardy’s blog, guest author Jana DeLeon shares some thoughts on slow pacing at the beginning of a novel.

Jess at Falling Leaflets suggests you consider timing and transitions in pacing your novel.

Physical Description and Character

As I work on my novel revision, one of the things I'm trying to do is to create stronger characters. There are a lot of elements that go into this, but one of the things I noticed is that I have almost no physical descriptions of my characters in my writing (though I do have a lot of scenes showing physical reactions and what they are doing). Does it matter?

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Browne & King advises me to include only enough physical description to help readers picture a character. As a reader, I tend to agree. I actually don't like reading too much about a character's appearance. I find it easier to put myself in the character's shoes if I don't have to keep noticing our physical dissimilarities (or put effort into ignoring them). And since I write MG fiction, I'm always being careful not to include too much of any kind of description. For the tiny amount that I do include I'm thinking about:

1. Using other characters. I like having other characters refer to details about the main character (or another character). Of course, these details need to be blended in where they fit with the story, not mentioned just for the sake of mentioning them. (The cliched device of having the character looking in a mirror to describe herself springs to mind.)

2. Showing. The old show vs. tell comes up here again. It's easy to throw in an adjective to describe; much harder, but more effective, to show physical characteristics through what the character is doing or through reactions (e.g., brushing long hair out of their eyes to avoid answering a question).

3. Giving out details bit by bit. I try to avoid info dumps of any kind, including descriptive ones. As a reader, I like the way the character develops in my mind as a story moves along. Part of that is learning more about what they look like, or, even better, what is significant about the details of their appearance the author has chosen to include (e.g., their eyes are the same colour as their grandmother's).

4. Being specific. I figure that if I'm only mentioning a few physical details, they'd better be the most relevant ones. Something that will help readers remember my character and something that helps show their personality, without seeming too unnatural or contrived.

Do you have any tips for writing physical descriptions? How do they affect your reading?

Links:

I notice that The Bookshelf Muse has a great post on writing physical descriptions you might want to check out.

The Sharp Angle has some great advice and examples for describing physical appearance.

Darcy Pattison uses Chris Crutcher's Whale Talk to illustrate how to use interesting details to create characters.

Agent Mary Kole talks about character self-description, and you can find some great points discussed in the comments to the post.

P is for Parents: Dead or MIA

If you write or read middle grade books, you’ve probably heard about the “missing parent” phenomenon. That’s the situation where the parents of kids in middle grade novels are MIA: either dead (a Disney favourite), away on a trip, too busy to have any clue what their kids are up to, or out of the picture in some other creative way.

Why? Because in middle grade books, you want your main character (a kid) to solve the story problem.

Whether or not parent characters contribute the conflict or to the problem solving in the story, you still need to consider the parent-child relationship and how it affects your character. In the life of a ten- or eleven-year-old, parents are pretty important. Even if your main character is an orphan, not having parents will colour his experiences and emotional reactions (just look at Harry Potter).

Some things to consider about the role of parents in middle grade fiction:

Be consistent. If the parent is a workaholic, they should be a workaholic right from the start, not just conveniently when there needs to be an obstacle to the main character getting help.

Add some realism. Book parents sometimes come across as either being stereotypes (e.g. the deadbeat Dad in a divorce situation) or perfect (e.g. Mom always knows how to make the main character feel better). Like any other characters, parent characters have goals, emotions and flaws.

How do you deal with the parents in your novels? Any tips for creating realistic parent characters?

Books that include involved parents (*let me know if you have any more to add):

Belly Up by Stuart Gibbs (MG)
Sugar and Ice by Kate Messner (MG)
Ramona and her Father by Beverly Cleary (MG)
Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A. S. King (YA)

Links:
*As always, if you know of any other great resources on this topic, let me know and I'll add them here.

For a humorous take on different ways parents are handled in YA novels (which also apply to MG) read Frankie Diane Mallis over at First Novels Club.

Anna Staniszewski discusses 4 different ways to deal with fictional parents.

In a guest post at Laura Pauling’s blog, Kate Messner author of Sugar and Ice talks about writing a story where parents don’t disappear.

Mary Kole discusses how family relationships are related to creating tension in MG or YA novels.

Robin Fevers has some thoughts on parents in children's fiction and meeting the needs of readers.

For different opinions and thoughts on this issue by other writers, check out the What to Do With Parents thread at Nathan Bransford’s forum.

More Links:

Tracy Marchini on the role of parents in middle grade and young adult fiction.