An old roommate of mine used to say, “Timing is everything.” She repeated it often enough that I took it on as a lens through which I viewed the world. Is timing everything? And by this I believe she meant: Opportunity, where timing meets preparation. It’s not just the timing of the event, but are you ready for it to occur? Are you ready for that job, that lover, that apartment or house when the situation presents itself?
Once we settle into middle age and major life choices slow down a bit, pacing becomes key, especially for novel writers. What scares novel writers the most? THE MIDDLE! The fear of getting bogged down in a humdrum of events with no meaning or urgency, just words to fill space.
As a reference for my novel writing I refer to, The Weekend Novelist, by Ray and Norris. They instruct you to first focus on the main plot points, the major events of the novel and where they should be placed. These are the sign posts of your novel that keep you focused. Timing is key.
But the middle and the rest of the novel rely on pacing. Gerry Visco describes it as “…the manipulation of time.” (http://www.writersstore.com/techniques-to-establish-pacing/) Or, as Harvey Chapman describes, “When to speed up and when to slow down.” (http://www.novel-writing-help.com/how-to-write-a-narrative.html) Closely connected with pacing, is rhythm. I think of rhythm on the smaller scale, in the sentence, the paragraph, the page. Much like the rhythm of your days, weeks, months and even years.
Pacing relates to the whole novel. Or, as Dr. Vicki Hinze says, “Pacing is the rhythm of the novel, of the chapters and scenes and paragraphs and sentences. It’s also the rate at which the reader reads, the speed at which novel events occur and unfold. It’s using specific word choices and sentence structure—scene, chapter and novel structure—to tap the emotions of the reader so that the reader feels what the writer wants to reader to feel at any given time during the story.” from the Fiction Factor (http://www.fictionfactor.com/guests/pacing.html)
Some techniques to manipulate pacing:
Speed: these are your action and dialogue scenes, these get the adrenaline flowing and keep our reader reading. They often end with a cliff-hanger. These are interesting juxtapositions, as we “speed” up the novel with action, we also get closer in, focusing on the details, giving the reader a moment-to-moment account so they don’t miss anything delicious.
Slowing down: Summary, narrative, description. Like the long distance runner, we can’t go at sprint speed all the time, we have to slow things down, but this means going quickly over things. We summarize those moments to mark a passage of time where nothing significant happens. “Two months passed in which she was immobilized, left to her thoughts, which were few as she lay in a drugged state.” Nobody wants the details of the two long, boring months, especially if it has no bearing on the heart of the story.
Then you have rhythm in your chapters, your sentences and your paragraphs. You have to mix it up so that a monotone doesn’t happen. Read your work out loud, listen to the rhythm.
When you’re writing action sections, use short sentences, active verbs. In narrative sections, use longer sentences, more thoughtful prose. But within each section you must still vary sentence length and order.
What I’m having difficulty is fixing the rhythm in those final edits. It’s easy to work on the sentence and word choice, but to fix the whole of it, to change it up feels like it would send a ripple through the entire work and a complete edit would need to be done. How to know if your pacing is right after you’ve read your novel a gazillion times? This, I think, must be corrected by a trusted reader with a keen sense of rhythm and balance.
And how does this relate back to life? Trying to find the right rhythm in my own days, so I have time for writing, my family, exercise, work, chores, gardening, social time. How to do it all and not be exhausted? I think, in the middle, pacing is everything.
