Pace: The Energy Vampire of Books
Pacing can grab a reader, pull them in, and keep them engaged or it can dwindle in the wrong spot and make them wish they hadn’t wasted their time. It can bore them or annoy them. In fact, a good pace can engage a reader without them even knowing why; they just float on the words from scene to scene, enthralled. But bad pace is like an energy vampire—annoying, prodding, sucking the will to read right out of your readers.
If you don't know what an energy vampire is look it up or here’s a quick clip from What We Do in the Shadows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_xSilxHFns.
If you’ve never seen this show, it's worth a watch (but only if you have a slightly dark sense of humor). Regardless, the idea holds here. I’m sure you know an energy vampire. A person who drains you after one conversation. Who makes you want to jab your eyes out, while you pray for the interaction to be over. Can you see how the slow or droning pace of a book could have the same effect?
We don't want that. But pace is an area where writers can overcorrect. Say a beta reader tells you the middle of your novel is slow. What do you do? You go add action, lots of it. Fists flying everywhere, cheating, yelling. You name it. But that is not always the answer.
What is Pace, Really?
Pacing refers to the speed and rhythm at which your story unfolds. It plays a crucial role in maintaining reader engagement and controlling the flow of information. Proper pacing calls for a balance between action, description, and dialogue, creating tension and keeping readers hooked.
So the answer is balance. A balance of action and reflection. A balance of short and long sentences. A balance of emotional peaks and valleys.
Tips for Improving Pace
Pace is a difficult beast to tackle. However, there are some tips you can use while revising your novel to achieve that balance and harmony to keep the reader flipping pages.
Follow action scenes with quieter, reflective scenes. The slower-paced, reflective scenes allow a reader to process and absorb what just happened. To soak in all they learned in an intense scene. It lets them take a breath. If your entire novel is nothing but action, you wear the reader out. Think about it like this: You’re training a novice runner to run a marathon. If they sprint the whole first six miles they will never make it. They’ll be passed out on the track. A reader feels the same way if a novel blasts through everything at a record pace. They never get a chance to stop and think about what happened or wonder about the mystery of who your character really is. It can take some of the joy out of the experience. So after an action scene, an emotionally intense scene, or a scene that reveals a lot of information, give your readers a slower, reflective lead-in or scene to process it.
Study how you use chapter and scene breaks. To quicken the pace, end a scene or chapter with a cliffhanger or unresolved conflict using short, punchy sentences, daring readers to continue. Conversely, a scene break can signal a shift in time or perspective, allowing for a change of pace or a pause in the action. After such a break you might shift to varying your sentence length again allowing for a more relaxed feel. Scene and chapter breaks also allow readers a breather, as we discussed above. But don't overuse them; think of the energy vampire offering long, dreaded, silent pauses between every couple of things he says. It can have a negative effect if used too often. Newer writers tend to use scene breaks as a crutch to transitioning, when readers are already accustomed to jumps as long as they are clear. Rule of thumb: if the setting drastically changes or we jump significantly in time or the point of view changes, you might consider a break of some kind—not always, but these are good places to have a hard think about a break.
Look for redundancies and repetition. The dreaded energy vampire who tells the same story every time you meet. Yep, we do this as writers. We remind. This is one of the things I call out most in developmental editing. The reminding of backstory or details. It drones on giving the reader nothing new. Trust your readers and trim the redundancies and repeated info. They will remember. No need to tell them three times that your character did not feel loved, unless you do it in new and exciting ways. Let’s say you really establish how unloved she feels with three unique instances—that might work. But don't repeat the same story or say it over and over to remind the reader, like you might remind your forgetful partner—it feels like nagging. And while you are at it, trim the fat. Trim the excess detail in a scene that you thought was beautiful writing but truly offers the reader no critical information. Be ruthless so you don't drain your readers.
Vary your sentence length and structure. Use sentence structure and language to drive action scenes. Make them feel fast with short, punchy sentences and emotive, powerful verbs and less wordy descriptions. Mimic the action you are writing with the structure and flow of your language. This is not easy but when you are aware and focus on it, you start to pick up on how it is done. For instance, if you wrote a fight scene with sentences containing fifty words each and explained every detail, it would feel slow, like trudging through mud. If you took the same scene and used shorter, punchy sentences with strong verbs that implied the details and removed the need for eighty adverbs, you will get what feels fast like a fight scene. You can also mix in striking dialogue that offers the emotion without long explanations. This will feel faster and more lively. (Plus, bonus, it will reveal more about your character.) It will flow more like a fight scene. Try this out with an emotional or action-packed scene, write it both ways. Soak in the feel and experience of reading it. Then decide what fits your intended tone.
Where to Look for Pacing Issues
Now a little about where to focus your attention. Pace can drag anywhere. But there are a few sneaky and impactful places to focus your attention.
The beginning. We hear this a lot and it’s true. If your opening drags, the reader has to assume the rest will, so throw them in. Literally, pick up your reader and drop them into the middle of something interesting. Make them ask questions. Make them want—no—need to know more. Don't tell them everything in the first few paragraphs, make them work a bit for it. They’ll secretly love you for that.
Flashbacks. Be careful here. This is a tool to be used sparingly and smartly. It can do a wonderful job of filling in backstory, but it can also easily derail a great narrative. Make sure the flashbacks you play out fully for the reader are truly needed in their entirety. If you only need a small nugget of the past don’t drag the flashback out for twelve pages unless it is absolutely necessary. We want to avoid taking the reader away from the forward-moving novel “present” timeline for too long. This can be a real pace killer, especially if a reader doesn’t see the value. If you have a large backstory scene that you must play out, consider breaking it up and letting the protagonist experience small bits of the flashback here and there so the reader gets it over time. Sort of small bites that they can piece together instead of force-feeding them the whole pie at once.
Transitions between scenes and chapters. This is an area that can slow or alter the pace that writers often overlook. Think about it. If every chapter starts in the same way it becomes monotonous. It drags and is boring and the reader starts to think about how maybe folding their laundry would be more fun. Make sure your transitions are fresh and feel new. Establish the time jump or location change clearly for the reader but don't bog them down in all the gritty details at once. Give them a quick snapshot and let them discover the details they need organically as the scene unfolds. Time jumps tend to be a stumper as we start writing because we feel like we need to lead the reader through all the steps. We don’t. Don’t fill in lunch between a scene at breakfast and dinner if nothing important happens. Find a way to smoothly skip it. The reader will get it. They don’t want to suffer a boring lunch, but they will understand that one likely happened behind the curtain. To improve your transitions, dissect books of a similar genre to your own. Pay attention to the jumps and transitions. See how authors make time leaps and apply it to your own work.
The climax to the end. Using the tools above make sure your climax feels fast and emotionally charged. And that it happens very near the end of the book. Then follow it with a slower wind down. The resolution should have a more reflective and quiet pace with a breath of accomplishment or growth for your protagonist. The reader should feel as though they arrived somewhere different than where they started. But don’t linger too long on the end. Figure out the message you want to leave the reader with and get there fairly quickly after the climax; the readers are expecting that.
Check Your Pace
Now you are armed with some issues to look for and some places to find them, so spend some time studying your novel’s pace. A good way to find pace issues other than beta readers, is to read your novel out loud. Or have the computer read it to you. You’ll have a better shot at hearing the rhythm. And the slow spots where your mind starts to wander or you feel the energy vampire creeping up on you will stand out more. The work you put in on pace will help keep your book in the hands of your readers and not on the bedside table collecting dust.
What pressing pace questions do you have? What pace issues are you struggling with? Share them in the comments below. Let’s chat about them.
Good luck and happy editing!
For more tips and in-depth guides on revising your stories, check back for more posts.
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