Mastering Narrative Pacing: Techniques & Examples for Fiction

Writing Pacing and Tension into the story is what makes your plot come to life.

• Pacing is the speed at which the story takes place.
• Tension is the conflict, the emotion, and the motion.

It is vital to write these with an eye to this because, otherwise, your readers might close the book and go find another one. Pacing builds reader engagement and creates an emotional connection.

Narrative Pacing Techniques to Keep the Plot Rolling

Writers have specific tools to keep the plot rolling. Just like in real life, the speed of the story is dictated by active dialogue, actions taking place on the page, and most importantly, sentence structure.

The Poetry Connection

I often write poetry, and that is a classic example of how sentence structure moves things along.

• Slow Motion: When I write long, flowing lines, the poetry feels slower and more contemplative.
• Fast Motion: When I write quick, short lines, it creates power and motion.

The same applies to prose. Sometimes, I even use dialogue to move a poem forward and build a micro-story. If you want a scene to feel fast and dangerous, cut the sentences down. Make them short. Make them snap.

The Art of Slowing Down

Speed isn’t everything. Quiet sentences slow the story down, as does world-building and detailed description.

You can explain the backstory of your character or have them sit and think before you evolve into a burst of energy. It is all a matter of balance. You need the quiet moments to make the loud moments feel louder.

The Dreaded “Sagging Middle”

Controlling pacing takes experience and practice. Too often, writers start out great, and even have an idea of where they are going to end, but the middle sags. I don’t enjoy preplanning all the time, but it is good to have a general idea where you are going. I wrote a tool as well that helps take some of the pressure off trying to think of a whole plot and gives me a germ of an idea, even if I don’t use it at all.

My Zombie Mistake:

I remember writing a zombie story years ago. Towards the middle, I felt like my characters were just wandering around in the bush. They were lost, nothing was happening, and it was just the same thing over and over again. It was boring even to me!

That was one of the first books I wrote, and I have gotten better since then. The lesson I learned was that you cannot just let characters wander; you must reveal information at measured times to make the story not lag.

How to Fix Pacing Problems

The “Read Aloud” Trick

One thing that helps me immensely is finding a quiet room and reading my story out loud.

I do this after I have made the second pass through my first draft.

• Note: I don’t worry about pacing in my first draft. The point of the first draft is just to get the words on the paper.
• The Fine Tuning: The real work involves working on the laptop and fixing everything later. It is then that you take every single sentence and make sure it does what you want it to do.

Because I dictate, my first drafts are often a “stream of consciousness.” Editing is where I avoid the ramble and tighten the screws.

Visualizing the Lag

I also read authors that I enjoy to see how they move the story along.

If I am really stuck, I lay my story out on a physical plot line. I look at it and see where it seems to lag or where the alerts seem quiet. Then, I manipulate and move scenes around as needed until the rhythm feels right.

---