writing for dummies

pacing [15]

low key forgot about this, but then i saw someone put this on their reading list. so here we are again.

let's have a small talk about pacing real quick

i'm as big of a fan for a slow burn as the next person is, but a slow burn does not mean it needs to be so incredibly slow that people lose interest. i've been seeing this a lot in things i browse through on here as well as actual books. so here's what i think may be helpful advice to fix that:

not everything needs a description.

when something is too slow paced, the common occurrence between them all is that they're describing too much and don't have a enough action going on.

like if your character is in a room, it's totally ok to describe that room. but it needs to be brief. especially if it had no significance. i'll say around 20-50 words max. like i guarantee nobody cares abt the room your character will only spend one night in.

(there's a difference between using descriptive words and giving descriptions tho so peeked know if y'all want the distinction)

on the contrary, you can't make the story too fast paced either.

you can not go from two people being madly in love to one of them being tortured less than 100 words later. (yes, i just read something like that. no, it was not used as a flashback to something).

there needs to be a buildup to the action if you have any or else people will laugh at it.

ik it's hard to know when something is going too fast or too slow, but here's something i've been using for awhile.

if i have a whole paragraph, like a big, chunky one, solely dedicated to describing one thing, then my story may be on track to being slow paced. if the scenery is changing every 50 words, then i'm on track for being too fast paced.

i hope this helped, but if it didn't mb.

from: your favorite author ;)