Pacing your plot

February 3, 2010 by Cressida Downing (Editorial Consultant)
Filed under: Writing Advice 

Blog Cressida DowningDo you find yourself 90% of the way through writing your novel, but with a lot of action left to cram in? Or have you galloped through your main ideas, only to find there’s another 40,000 words left to write?

Pace is one of the trickiest things to get right, and one of the most important things to plan. At school, children are taught that a story should work like a mountain. The introduction to the characters and the story starts on a gentle slope, gradually leading up to the peak (climax of the story), which then falls away to the other side (conclusion).

This is a simplistic way of looking at it, but even as adults we can learn from it. If you sketch out your plot, you can see from your mountain shape where it may need work.

If your novel is all high-pitched action – you are looking at a steep, table-topped picture. If you have no conclusion after your climax – the mountain won’t come down again. If your story is lacking in events, you’ll see a gentle undulating slope. A novel with three or four main events will look like a mountain range, and can work well, if the introduction and conclusion are well balanced.

Experiment by moving around the story’s main events, and see how the shape looks. You could start with a dramatic event, then drop down into introduction before leading gradually back up again.

Think about how you are leaving your reader. A dramatic ending can leave them feeling unsatisfied or startled, but too much conclusion can be boring.

The hardest writing to pace is the short story, as you have so little time to develop your plot. Decide what element you really want the reader to focus on and make sure you give that enough space.

What problems have you had with pacing? And what has helped?

Cressida

(editorial consultant)

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Comments

15 Comments on Pacing your plot

  1. Jessica Blake on Feb 3, 2010 at 16:41pm

    2. I completely agree, pacing in important, but in my writing, I try to get out as much as its possible and after, during editing and proof reading, decide if there is something which isn’t necessary in that place or at all or if something is missing.
    Furthermore, it’s important to have measure. Writing the whole plot in first six chapters isn’t advisable and leaving things which might hint to what could happen further in the story isn’t the best thing either.

  2. tonyl on Feb 3, 2010 at 17:17pm

    3. I started off writing a novel but put it on hold to get some practice writing short stories I have had big problems with pace at first in these stories (2000 – 3500 words), as I had a tendancy to finish them off abruptly. Ths was because I didn’t want to give the twist away too early. I had readers in two camps. My more literary reader wasn’t bothered by the abrupt ending, more focused on the expression and character development, but found my less abrupt finishers “predictable. The more “commercial” readers in my little group, were happy to have a more predictable ending, for the sake of a less abrupt finish and better explained plot. I guess this shows that different styles suit different audiences and maybe you have to compromise on some elements of a story to achieve others.
    Well, anyway that’s my expert opinion based on a writing careeer of about a month!

  3. Cressida Downing (Editorial Consultant) on Feb 12, 2010 at 10:02am

    4. Jessica – that’s an interesting way to work, letting the pace be one of the things you fine-tune at an editing stage.

    tonyl – yes, pace will vary depending on the genre – good point!

    Cressida

  4. Flugel Meister on Feb 16, 2010 at 00:09am

    5. I was given some extremely valuable advice by Marion Urch, from Adventures in Fiction, after I submitted a previous manuscript for some editorial scrutiny. And that is to write out a chapter listing with a simple paragraph describing the essential events in each chapter and the impact they have.

    This means you can plan the entire storyline, the characters and how they’ll interact with each other in a way that ensures you’ll keep your head above the writing waterline. It basically stops you from drowning in information and makes for easy referencing throughout the entire novel, but more importantly it provides you with a sneak peak of the forthcoming pace, giving you ample time to make any necessary adjustments before you hit that inevitable mountain range.

    I’m now using this method to great effect with my current manuscript, which I hope to complete by the end of June.

  5. harry dunn on Feb 16, 2010 at 11:33am

    6. That is such a helpful idea. I am at 50k in my first attempt at a crime novel and had been writing into the wee small hours. I must have been more tired than I thought as I had someone taking a taxi to the west end of London when in fact he had been killed off in chapter nine.
    Thank you for that great tip.
    Regards
    Harry Dunn

  6. Cressida Downing (Editorial Consultant) on Feb 17, 2010 at 10:51am

    7. Flugel – that’s a great tip!

    harry – you’re not the first author to accidentally resurrect someone…

    Cressida

  7. JWLameris on Feb 17, 2010 at 17:28pm

    8. Hi Cressida. [My first comment, after joining a week ago.] I have only written two pieces of fiction (unless you count 35 years of local government bumf before ‘retiring’). Pacing and planning sounds a good approach, and one that I will try – really honestly.

    However, so far my ‘writing style’ (pause for embarrassed cough) seems to conflict. My novel developed in a totally different way to that I had envisaged 15 months ago, thanks to one of the characters changing as the thing wrote itself in chunks of time. So it started as intended, and ended geographically where I intended, but not as I intended. It’s some 115k, which I gather is too long for a first submission, but that’s what the story required. Ho hum.

    The other piece was ‘your’ W&A/A&C Blacks’s short story competition. I noticed it Wednesday – “What?”; and had an equally blank mind Thursday. Friday night, I thought of a possible situation, then a beginning and an end before sleeping Saturday night. I started at 0900, and it finished its first draft 1600 Sunday afternoon at 2,067 words. Trimmed happily to a tad below 2,000 words. Submitted at sunset. Made Valentine meal – now those three courses really did take pacing!
    Cheers
    John

  8. ricky martin on Feb 17, 2010 at 20:57pm

    9. cressida
    I am writing my first novel and i am 15k in. i like your idea about the mountain but one day last week the ending came to me. is this normal i still have 60k to write. when i wrote it down it made perfect sense am i digging a hole for myself.

  9. bestseller on Feb 17, 2010 at 23:57pm

    10. So far I have written the beginning, some of what will probably be the middle and the end of my book.

    I don’t think it can be wrong if it is then boy oh boy my crater is huge.

  10. stef.nalton on Feb 18, 2010 at 14:56pm

    11. ricky martin and bestseller:
    I think it can be most useful if you have the ending in first draft; after all, this will most probably contain the resolution in your stories. Personally, I can’t write ‘blind’, I have to know the ending and message(s) in the story before beginning.

    To help with my own pacing, I take advantage of my tendency to under-write and fill out where needed to help balance the pace during editing.

  11. thephent on Feb 22, 2010 at 20:23pm

    12. 115k? 100k? 95k?…Where do the words come from? My first book (rejected so far by no less than eight agents..ahem, cough!) was 50k, and that exhausted me…my second novel has so 35k and am already on chap 17…Am I doing something wrong? Am I underwriting? Any ideas…?

  12. thephent on Feb 22, 2010 at 20:46pm

    13. thephent again…manners! manners! manners! Never even hi fived anyone!! And am new to blogging! Tch Tch..
    Hi everybody! Albeit belatedly…We(or should that be I?) who are about to write salute you!!
    Please consider this to be my first blog, the above the second..Would that be the first time second has become first after finishing second without first being disqualified?

  13. kevilldavies on Mar 8, 2010 at 14:45pm

    14. I am currently writing my fifth novel and waiting for that eureka moment I expeienced with the first four.
    This occurs when two of your story streams converge in a serendipitous collision that enriches both. I believe that this happens when you live your story during the day and those long wakeful hours in the night.
    For those just starting and worried that they will never reach the end, keep writing and thinking about your story. It works for me.
    Sadly, all my eureka moments are never read because they occur after Chapter three. Ha ha. It has always been so.

  14. Malaki on Mar 8, 2010 at 20:14pm

    15. I have written a synopsis for my novel and am working from that. Also I have written three random chapters from it, that came to me during the course of my day.

    Not sure on my ending just yet but there is no rush. My first blog here hello everyone

  15. Richie on Mar 25, 2010 at 13:21pm

    16. I was also advised to write a chapter list before I started, just to give me a ‘roadmap’ for the novel. I found this a very useful tool, as we all are aware how helpless one feels when you can’t remember your own plot. It must however not conform to a rigid structure, just a guide line to keep you on track.
    Another useful approach is a ’score chart’ for each chapter, say from one to ten and you can categorise each aspect, such as, Action, Romance, Skullguggery (If you are in to such a thing). This allows you to map the progress of the book chapter by chapter, thus creating peaks and troughs as required.
    I am no 81000 words in (@ thephent – I think an average novel is around 90k) and very close to the end, it’s a strange feeling knowing that i have to tie all of those loose ends up in just 9000 words!!
    Good luck to you all…

    Richie

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