8 Steps that help you control your story and please your readers

The pace of a story has a major impact on the attention span of your reader. Every reader is different and has their own pacing preferences. Some readers love the amount of detail Dostojevski adds to his novels, the pages of description and the tranquil pace. Other readers prefer action-packed thrillers where the author jumps from action to action.

The pace of your story must fit your intentions. How do you want to deliver those words to tell your story? Hugh Howey: “To become a better writer, it helps to understand how the delivery of words affects a reader’s mood and their retention of information. The most important tool in this regard is pacing.”

According to Howey, there are many ways of pacing a story. It’s basically how you present your plot and prose to your reader. How many chapters do you use? How is your story constructed? Do you use scene breaks?

People absorb stories and information in chunks, that’s how we’re wired. So take that into account. Also, make sure you take this into account while writing scenes and paragraphs. Watch the length, it influences the flow of your story. Use long paragraphs sparingly.

A few years ago I attempted to read the first Proust novel in his 7-part series “In Search of Lost Time”. It’s beautifully written, but tedious, long, and without structure. I stopped reading. Of course, there are many readers who enjoy this but know that the majority of readers don’t.

The following are tips and tricks I use to pace both my short stories and the novel I’m working on. I hope they can help you with pacing your stories.

Step 1: Take control of your story

As an author, you are in control of your story. You determine the plot, what happens. Closely tied to the plot is pacing. The sequence of events in your plot directly influences how fast or slow you tell your story.

It’s all about structuring your story. 90% of the stories told follow the three-act structure. This structure helps you to outline your story and determine all the events that take place.

Step 2: Determine what’s important to the story

Once you’ve determined your structure and plot, you need to determine which events and points of action contribute to your story and character development. What pivotal moments are necessary for your plot and the growth of your characters?

Step 3: Create a timeline

Now that you’ve determined all of the events of your story, it helps to create a timeline for them. When will what happen? How do these events follow each other?

Plan these events logically and note that the decisions you make early on in the story determine the outcome of other events.

Step 4: Get from event to event as fast or slow as you see fit

It’s your choice of how you move from scene to scene. Will you move from action to action? Will you stop and describe the setting in great detail? How do you go about dialogue? Will you use a lot of dialogue to move the story forward?

Let’s say your story takes place in six months, it’s entirely up to you how fast you go from day 1 to the end. Note that there is no one correct way to pace the story. There’s only your way.

Vary! You can describe one month in one paragraph and another one in 4 chapters, as long as you follow the action. As long as you make it interesting and keep the reader’s attention. As long as you develop your characters and make them relatable.

Some novels describe one afternoon, others span several decades in the same length. Use that freedom to your advantage.

Step 5: Create a flow and structure your sentences

Will you use long and detailed sentences, with lots of commas? Or will you go fast? Will you get to the action asap?

The length of your sentences influences how the reader experiences the story. I always like when fast-paced stories have short sentences, lots of dialogue, and short paragraphs. But hey, that’s my preference. Think about what fits your story and what feels comfortable to you.

Do note, however, that long sentences and paragraphs which span dozens of pages can become tedious.

Play around. Consider using scene breaks. Use long and short sentences. Read the sentences out loud, can you improve how they sound? Most people read out loud in their head, make sure it has some cadence to it. Alternate with dialogue and narrative. Use shorter paragraphs when possible.

Basically, you have to create a nice reading experience.

Step 6: “Show” mostly, but sometimes “tell” too if that fits the story

The golden rule in storytelling is to show, not tell. When you show the reader what’s happening in the story, they will be more engrossed. This is where the reader becomes active too, interacting with your imagery. This is where the magic happens and where a reader may fall in love with your story and characters.

Sometimes, “telling” can help you with your story’s pace. In my novel, the story spans about a year. Some of those months are just about the day to day grind of my characters, that’s not very exciting if you have plotted all these cool events in the story you want to show to your reader. What you can do here is use one or two paragraphs to tell your reader what transpired in those weeks where “no real action took place”.

Step 7: Mix it up: create time for details and introspection

The moral of this piece: there is no one way to pace a story. Just like in real life, there are twists and turns. Some weeks seem to drag on, some weeks fly by in a split second.

Mix it up! Don’t hold on to the same action-packed pace. Create some time for detailed descriptions, or better yet: introspection. Explore your character’s feelings and thoughts. Invite the reader in. Build that connection between your characters and readers.

Step 8: Work on your story habitually

This one might seem a bit odd compared to the previous steps. When you write your novel or short story it’s important to stay in touch with your story and characters. Ideally, you write a bit every day.

Listen to what Stephen King says about this: “Once I start work on a project, I don’t stop and I don’t slow down unless I absolutely have to. If I don’t write every day, the characters begin to stale off in my mind — they begin to seem like characters instead of real people. The tale’s narrative cutting edge starts to rust and I begin to lose my hold on the story’s plot and pace.” — Stephen King.

So yes, in terms of pacing, it helps to stay on top of your story and write every day, or at least a couple of days per week.

How to Pace Your Story