Wednesday's Writer's Tip on Pace #amwriting

Just what is pace? Pace is the journey from the beginning of a story to the end. It's not jumping from scene to scene with little in between to give a reader the chance to breath. This could be true for some writers and not so much for others. Pace isn't suspense though all stories need the pull of mystery to draw the reader from one scene to the next.

Pace depends on a number of things. The way the writer decides to tell the story. The demands of a particular genre. Pace builds momentum and produces tension making your reader wonder what happens next.

A writer friend once told me I could give lessons on pacing a story. He wrote cop stories. The one of mine that he read was called Obsessions and now published as Code Blue. What I tried to do was end every scene on a note calling for answers to questions the reader wanted to know. This was a suspense story and the tension had to build not only for the reader but for the character. That was the trick to the pacing of this story.

Not worrying about the reader but about the characters and having the main character moving toward the dramatic end. The same elements of pacing starts with the roadmap of the story and deciding which character has the most to lose and gain when the story ends. Then it's keeping the pressure on them to fight for their goal. For me the pacing is with the characters and their journey to the end with the proper reward.