The Elements of Pacing

In Today's Journal

* Storytelling at Depth
* The Elements of Pacing
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Storytelling at Depth

Since I just announced a new short story contest, I thought I'd publish a new short series of three posts on Storytelling at Depth.

In the first post, I talked about the Cliffhanger/Hook combo.

In the second, I talked about Grounding the Reader.

It works like this:

• The initial hook and opening get the readers into the story.

• Grounding them in the setting engages them and keeps them deep.

• The cliffhanger/hook combo and the pacing keep them turning pages.

The Elements of Pacing

Pacing is essential. Pacing determines how quickly the reader is drawn or propelled through the story or novel, whether and when he is allowed to “rest,” and when he is forced to race ahead.

This is a skill that Stage 1 and 2 writers seldom even consider, that Stage 3 writers are only becoming aware of, and that Stage 4 writers are typically practicing to good or great effect.

It's an easy recipe: I use (and recommend using)

• punctuation,

• appropriate verbs, and

• appropriate sentence and paragraph lengths (collectively, pacing)

to move the reader through the story at a pace that sometimes allows him to “rest” and sometimes forces him to rush ahead. That’s my job.

But in every case and in all genres, whether I allow the reader to rest or force him to race ahead, I strive to keep him interested and engaged in the story. Again, that’s my job.

Generally, quicker or more normal pacing (slow, medium, or fast) is widely accepted as more important in pretty much every genre or subgenre other that literary: Romance, Thriller, Mystery, Noir, Action-Adventure, SF, Western or Fantasy.

Train your creative subconscious to watch your punctuation and your sentence and paragraph length as well as your scene and/or chapter length.

The best way to do that is by reading the works of other authors who are farther along the path than you are.

Study how they let you rest. Study how they propel you forward. Study what they do to create those and other effects in you.

Paragraphing 1

Let me derail an argument before it starts:

In some literary works (for example, magic realism) and some 'high fantasy,' slower pacing overall is the general rule.

That’s okay if that’s what you want to do. The key hallmark of slower pacing is very long, sometimes tedious paragraphs.

Longer paragraphs slow the reader down.

In critical theory, especially as proclaimed by high-brow literary critics, the desired effect of longer paragraphs is to force the reader to 'slow down and linger' over the words, maybe 'savor the language' and 'let the imagery sink in.'

In the real world, the typical reader reaction to longer paragraphs is... well, to close the book and find something less tedious to do.

Longer paragraphs force the reader to think his way through the writing. As a result, the story or novel is easy to put down for awhile and come back to later. Or not.

In most literary works, you’ll find more verbose, “flowery” language and longer sentences and paragraphs. Oddly, you’ll also often find less detailed grounding of the reader.

But that’s all right if it’s what you want to do. Me? I just wanna tell stories readers want to read.

In my own magic realism, just as in my thrillers and mysteries and SF and westerns, I don’t use longer paragraphs (say 11 lines of text or more).

Chapter and Scene Length

This is another, more overall effect of pacing.

Readers want to sense movement in the story, so 600–1400 words per chapter/major scene is about right.

In most of my own novels, most of my chapters are somewhere around 1100–1500 words. Some are a little longer (but often broken into subscenes within the chapter), but very few are shorter.

If a major scene or chapter is running long, you can always insert a cliffhanger and a subscene break, and then resume.

Flow

Sometimes, depending on the story, you will want to continue the storyline with the next sequential scene or chapter immediately.

Sometimes (and it’s all right to do this) you can insert a different scene or chapter, then resume the storyline from the earlier scene or chapter (the one you interrupted) later.

Such considerations always depend first on the characters and what happens in real-time in the story and then on the writer, how you present the characters and story to the reader.

Punctuation

The only books I recommend for learning punctuation are Punctuation for Writers and Writing Better Fiction.

Yes, they are both mine. But I don’t recommend them only because they’re mine.

I recommend them because neither of them simply regurgitates the “rules” of punctuation, as Strunk & White’s and most other grammar and punctuation books do.

Both of them explain WHY punctuation works as it does, what direct effect it has on the reader. In other words, bot teach writers how to USE punctuation to direct the reading of their work.

In brief, every mark of true punctuation ( . : ; — , ) creates a pause. Each mark forces the reader to pause for a specific length of time.

What I call “spelling punctuation” ( ” ‘ – parens ) do not cause a pause at all. The hyphen ( – ), when it’s used to connect two words into one, actually speeds the reader up.

Sometimes you have to break conventions to use punctuation in this manner, but that’s all right too. Just know the conventions before you break them.

This is why I say punctuation is a tool you should use proactively to direct the reading of your work.

Oh, and the en dash. The en dash ( – ) indicates a time span and means “to.” It’s seldom used in fiction writing unless the character is reading a time span on a gravestone, etc.

Sentences

In the most general terms, longer sentences convey deeper emotion. Shorter sentences evoke drama. Those effects can be rendered weaker or stronger by the verb and by punctuation.

In an action scene, longer, less-punctuated and therefore emotion-laden sentences (with strong action verbs) can physically increase the reader’s heart rate. It isn’t so much a building of tension or suspense as a ramping-up of excitement.

Shorter sentences, especially when presented in a short series of stand-alone paragraphs, can do the same thing. This time, though, the repeated drama heightens tension. (But remember The Rule of Three.)

Both the books I mentioned above provide a grammar refresher and examples.

Paragraphing 2

As I mentioned earlier, longer paragraphs (generally, more than 10 lines on the screen or page) make the reader slow down and read more carefully.

But in pretty much all genre writing, medium (7 to 10 lines or so) and shorter paragraphs are the overall rule.

In action scenes, a paragraph might be no more than three or four lines long. As with anything, there are exceptions.

If your character is focusing down on parts of the setting and what’s going on around him, the sentences and paragraphs might run a little longer.

If he’s excited, the sentences might be longer and more emotion-laden too. Or in some cases, they might be short, terse exclamations.

When the hero (or villain) is visiting family (so there’s little or no action), medium and longer paragraphs are okay to give the reader a breather.

Again, pacing is the result of the fluid combination of all of the above.

Of course, this is only the nutshell version.

You will learn and realize more and more about pacing as you read the works of those farther along than you on the path of fiction writing and as you practice putting new words on the page.

For a few examples of cliffhanger/hook combos and stand-alone introductory hooks, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.

If you haven't already, subscribe free to Your Morning Serial (free serialized novels) and-or Stanbrough Writes (free short stories). There you can see more examples of cliffhangers and hooks and grounding and pacing in real time as a novel or short story unfolds.

Of Interest

More Notes From An Editor

Paul Brazill A great substack from a pro writer.

Troy Lambert on our new Kickstarter for the True Pulp anthology!

Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week: “Laughter”

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………… 1360

Writing of Blackwell Ops 44: Sam Granger | Following the Ghost Trail

Day 1…… 3613 words. To date…… 3613
Day 2…… 2893 words. To date…… 6506
Day 3…… 1824 words. To date…… 8330
Day 4…… 3025 words. To date…… 11355
Day 5…… 3697 words. To date…… 15052
Day 6…… 3428 words. To date…… 18480
Day 7…… 1013 words. To date…… 19493
Day 8…… 2993 words. To date…… 22486
Day 9…… 3310 words. To date…… 25796
Day 10…. 4379 words. To date…… 30175

Fiction for May………………………... 57179
Fiction for 2025………………………. 435592
Nonfiction for May………………........ 16090
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 117180
2025 consumable words…………….. 546262

Average Fiction WPD (May)……...... 3363

2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 10
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 26
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 114
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 296
Short story collections……………………. 29

Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.

Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.

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