Setting the Pace

This week the director of my stage play was blocking out the final scenes and she said “Let’s slow this whole scene down and relish the quiet. We’ve earned these moments.”

What she was talking about was the fact that the middle of the play has a lot of loud, quick action. It is mostly a brother and sister going at each other as verbally wounding each other as only siblings can do. The final scenes that we were blocking were about exhaustion and a form of détente between the brother and sister. In one scene it is just the sister and the brother’s best friend—who has been a friend with benefits to the sister—standing looking to see the Aurora Borealis and the friend reaching over to hold her hand. Just as he does, her phone rings. It is her daughter. The moment is tender and awkward and, until the phone rings very quiet.

As writers, we need to be aware of the speed at which we are telling the story. It is hard, especially with longer pieces, to know where the stops and starts need to be adjusted. I found the best way to sort out pacing is to read the piece you are working on out loud and from the beginning every time you sit down to write. If you feel it is impossible to the entire piece from the beginning—if you are near the end of a novel, for instance—then read at least from the beginning of the last chapter. Chapter breaks are natural slow downs and most pacing problems will happen within the chapters and not necessarily at the end.

When you read out loud, try to notice how fast or slow you naturally read certain passages. If you find you are rushing through certain sections, ask yourself if that rapid pacing is correct for what you are trying to achieve in that scene. Would longer sentence help slow the pace? Alternately, if your reading slows down, ask yourself why that is happening and is it in line with the tenor of that scene or not.

Stories need to have flow. They also need to have space. Even a high-paced action story needs quieter moments to allow the story and the reader to breathe. Don’t be afraid to bask in the quiet moments. You just need to earn them.