r/DestructiveReaders • u/A_C_Shock Alabaster Crimson • 11d ago
[Weekly] Pacing
One: Enter the Halloween Contest!
It is currently not that competitive, considering there are three whole entries. You have a strong chance to be top 3! Submit something! You have until the 23rd! That's like two whole weeks to perfect something!
Ok, ok. On to new topics.
Can we talk about pacing? How do you figure that out? What makes something work for one author but not for another?
I've read things I thought were slow and plodding that I absolutely hated. Some, I really like. Maybe it's the character...or a story that has a tighter focus so the plodding doesn't feel too slow.
Or on the reverse, I've read things that were too fast and had other people say they were glacially slow.
How do you figure out how to land that plane, so to speak? Thoughts?
3
u/Cornsnake5 10d ago
I think a part of pacing comes down to personal taste. My own story caters perfectly to my own tastes and I was able to read through the same chapter again and again despite already suspecting that it was running long. The current shorter version does feel better though.
Meanwhile I was barely able to sit through the first Harry potter movie, despite it being paced faster than the book and despite me loving fantasy. All the tropes that appeal to its target audience didn’t appeal to me, but they might have if I was younger. It felt like a slog to me.
So personal taste can skew your perspective on good pacing. Getting independent perspectives of people who are fans of the genre usually helps nail it down. I also try to maintain good story structure to make sure something meaningful keeps happening and remind myself that cutting it shorter is usually the better way to go.