How-To Series: Master Pacing in Writing

Pacing is a fun aspect of writing. I love how you can so subtly manipulate the reading experience for your audience so that the writing is faster during action scenes, and slower during “breather” scenes. Read on to discover a few tricks I’ve learned about working with it! (First tips for fast pacing, then slow pacing.)

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Staccato Sentences (Fast Pacing)

Short and staccato sentences are quick to read. And when you’re in the middle of an action scene (or any scene that requires fast pacing), quick-to-read sentences fly by and enhance the feeling of rushed time. I like thinking of them as heartbeats, thumping quickly when blood pressure is rising – or as racing hoofbeats! 

Tight Writing (Fast Pacing)

Similar to the concept of short sentences, fast pacing often hinges on tight writing, uncluttered with unnecessary floweriness, as delightful as the latter may be for other moments. Though powerful verbs always matter, it is especially important that they drive the action scenes. Take extra care to delete filler words, redundancies, and descriptions that distract. 

Music (Fast Pacing)

I wanted to mention that listening to fast-paced music helps a lot with fast-paced writing. It will help keep you in the mood of the scene you’re writing, and probably increase your heart rate too, which will help you. Mission Impossible’s Fallout works for me, and yes, I play it on repeat. My fingers seem to fly over the laptop keys when this song plays! If there’s a song that works for you during fast-paced writing, I’d love to know!

Onomatopoeia (Fast Pacing)

‘Onomatopoeia’ (yeah… I had to look up how it was spelled) is good for these scenes too. They’re the words that sound like the noise they describe, such as sizzle, cackle, boom, hiss, buzz, etc. These are energetic words that will increase the sense of urgency in fast-paced scenes. So when you get a chance to use them, take advantage of it.

Adverbs (Slow Pacing)

Yes, adverbs again. I bring them up because they are tools you can use to slow writing down. They literally lengthen the writing down by adding more words. Take an exaggerated version of this, an excerpt from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”. 

“I moved it slowly — very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man’s sleep.”

I find it pretty funny how he breaks a commonly held writing rule by using an “unnecessary” adverb – and twice! Yes, this is a conversational, 1st person piece, but the technique remains effective. The words “very, very,” stretch out the description, literally slowing it down. Since it’s combined with the adverb “slowly,” the emphasis that this person is moving slowly is *seared* into our brains. Edgar Allan Poe uses this technique often throughout the story no less effectively.

On the contrary, if you’re writing a scene crammed with action (and maybe whizzing arrows 😉 ) and you need it to be fast-paced, choose your adverbs sparingly. Let your writing jump ahead of you. Keeping it tight and to the point conveys the restless sense of movement and time that’s running out.

Soliloquy (Slow Pacing)

The main character’s internal reflections can be employed to slow pacing. They don’t have to be boring or long-winded info dumps. Instead, work to make them matter and use them to explore and “show character” – to reveal and/or hint at important traits, backstory, or any facts you deem important. Knowing what information to reveal though these – and keeping how I deliver it interesting – can be tricky for me personally. If you struggle like me, I just recommend experimenting until you find the perfect balance. Be encouraged: the first draft will rarely, if ever, be perfect.

Detailed/Long Descriptions (Slow Pacing)

The longer the descriptions, the slower the pace. You can use this to balance out snappy dialogue, for example. Bring to life the sensory world of the scene by describing the details – especially those details you wouldn’t first think to write. Focus on describing all the five concrete senses – as well as the feelings your POV character has during the scene. No need to go overboard, but describe what will add most to the scene – what will make your reader feel like they are there as they read it.

Legato Sentences (Slow Pacing)

Yes, the word for these sentences is ‘long,’ but please, I love the word ‘legato.’ It’s the musical term for smooth, flowing, long. Graceful. Well-written long sentences do wonders to slow pace and create a feeling of rest and easygoing-ness. Of course, variety is essential, and short to mid-length sentences would do best to be sprinkled throughout, but a regular rhythm of long sentences are perfect for slow pacing. 

As a side note, deliberate and reasonable repetition of the word ‘and’ slows the pace. When this technique is used every now and then, I just melt. *sighs in happiness* Here’s a example I came up with that I hope tolerably demonstrates the point: 

“The word was quiet and loving and gentle and soothed my spirit in a way no medicine could.”

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I hope those tips on pacing helped! It was indeed a coincidence that all the tips for slow pacing were longer, and the tips for fast pacing were shorter. 🙂 If you have extra tips, drop them by in the comment section!!! I’d love to know your thoughts. (Disclaimer: this how-to series is just a collection of tips, advice, and suggestions I’ve discovered along my writing journey! 🙂 )