Picking up the Pace
- At February 29, 2024
- By Roxanne Snopek
- In For Writers
- 0
Picking up the Pace
We all know the breathless feeling that comes from a story picking up the pace. Your heart is pounding, you can’t catch your breath, and the words can’t get into your brain fast enough? You’re reading a great scene and one of the things that’s affecting you is the pace of the story.
In media res
Pacing a scene appropriately is a tricky thing to master. Some scenes call for slower pacing. Today I’m discussing how to speed up your pacing. Literary types use the latin term in media res, which means into the middle of things. In other words, when writing your scenes for faster pace, “get in late, get out early.” What this means is that when it comes to a scene, you want to get to the heart of it as fast as you can. So, if you show someone opening the car door, walking up the sidewalk, ringing the doorbell, taking off their shoes, hanging up their coat… there better be a dead body in the kitchen. If not, then all that preamble is not necessary. It slows the pace for no reason.
On the other hand, if your character is dreading the conversation that will occur inside the house, then this will work—if you add enough internal monologue so that we can feel the dread. You need to have a reason for these prosaic actions. Otherwise, it’s just more ordinary life and we don’t need to read about it. I refer to this as “stage direction,” and often it can be reduced or eliminated.
Picking up the pace with sentence structure
Variation in sentence structure helps keep reader interest and improves pacing. Shorter sentences in scenes with a lot of dialogue, tension, and/or action, with longer sentences for narrative exposition. One simple thing to look for at the sentence level, is introductory clauses. Too many of these can slow the pace. Example:
- Because she was tired, she went to bed.
The action is she went to bed. That’s the active part of the story. Because the introduction comes first, the action is buried.
See how the action is more immediate with:
- She went to bed, exhausted.
Even shortening the introductory clause improves the pace of this sentence.
- Exhausted, she went to bed.
Another thing that slows the pace is double-predicate clauses. Example:
- She went to the kitchen, and she ate a sandwich.
The most important action is she ate a sandwich. If this is an ordinary inside-the-house scene, we expect her to go to the kitchen. If, however, she’s somewhere else—say, the home of the serial killer who’s tied her in the basement, unaware that she’s learned how to untie herself—then it’s crucial information that might propel the reader forward. Why didn’t she break a window and escape? Is she planning revenge? Has she formed an attachment to the killer? What’s that in her hand? A knife?
Choose active verbs
The “she went” part is also an example of how important verbs are for good pacing. Went is strictly data. Point a to point b. Think of how different the line reads if she staggered or tip-toed or drifted to the kitchen. And once there, she slapped together the sandwich or picked at it or inhaled it.
Quick hits for picking up the pace
My last tips for increasing pace: use contractions, especially in dialogue.
- Did like… becomes liked
- Did not… becomes didn’t
And watch for excess baggage verb clauses:
- Couldn’t help but think… becomes thought
- It wasn’t as if she didn’t want… becomes she didn’t mind
- Was trying to decide…. becomes decided
- Was planning to consider possibly later on going outside for a bit of a run… becomes (you guessed it) RAN
Obviously, these are guidelines, rather than hard and fast rules. There are times for more words. But in the midst of a tense scene, when seconds matter and your heart is pounding, less is usually more.
For more info on pacing, check out:
- Getting the Pace Right by Becca Puglisi at Writers Helping Writers,
- 7 Tools for Pacing a Novel from Writers Digest
- 13 Tips to Create Irresistible Stories with Powerful Pacing by Lynette Burrows at Writers in the Storm
Rock Stars
- At January 22, 2024
- By Roxanne Snopek
- In For Writers
- 0
Rock Stars
I’ve been publishing novels in the women’s fiction (which sometimes includes romance) genre since 2012. And that makes me a rock star. That’s right, romance authors are rock stars. Don’t believe me? Read on, gentle reader! (Thanks to author and friend Jeannie Moon at Five Harbors Literary for the awesome graphic!)
From MACLEANS, April 26, 2015, by Emma Teitel:
When American filmmaker Laurie Kahn set out to make Love Between the Covers, a documentary about the women who read and write romance novels, she was struck by how often she heard the same story. It wasn’t a tale of beefy bodice rippers or love at first sight; it was a story about snobs.
“I can’t tell you how many people I interviewed,” says Kahn, “who told me that people will walk up to them on a beach and say, ‘Why do you read that trash?’”
One Man’s Trash
Apparently, where lovers of romance novels go, contempt follows. Sometimes it’s subtle contempt—a raised eyebrow from a colleague, or a snarky comment from a friend (usually the kind of person who claims to read Harper’s on a beach vacation). Other times it’s more overt, even potentially damaging.
When Mary Bly (pen name Eloisa James), an academic and New York Times bestselling author, began writing romance, she was advised to keep her fiction writing secret or risk not making tenure at the university where she worked.
Sexism in Publishing
For some reason, argues Kahn, perhaps because its subjects are female, romance novels are perceived as fundamentally silly, when other popular “genre fiction”—namely, fiction by and for men—is not.
“Nobody,” she says, would walk up to “a man reading Stephen King, or a mystery or sci-fi novel” and scoff. And she’s right: Stephen King is a prodigious talent… right up there with romance novelist Nora Roberts. Yet Roberts has been the butt of jokes—a universal default example of “bad writing,”—while male contemporaries with far less talent get a free pass.
Consider the Source
Perhaps, as the graphic says, it’s a woman thing. If the majority of these books are written by women and read by women, and the majority of people knocking these books haven’t read them… maybe it’s not about the books.
Maybe trashing romance novels is more about trashing women.
Read the full article at: Why romance novelists are the rock stars of the literary world.
Rox reads… more books!
- At October 10, 2023
- By Roxanne Snopek
- In Roxanne Writes On
- 0
Rox reads… Books, Books and More Books!
I’ve got so much to tell you, friends! Did this past winter seem longer than usual to you? I’m so happy to see the sun again and watch all the color reappear after those seemingly endless grey days. It’s been quiet from me, I know, but I’ve been very busy and finally, I can tell you what I’ve been doing!
But first. I’ve read some wonderful books over the past few months and I’d like to share a few with you.
1. maddadam by Margaret Atwood. The third in her MaddAddam trilogy, following Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, this post-apocalyptic tale is seductive, hypnotic, super-creepy and brilliant. After reading about pigoons, a human-pig hybrid, I’ll never look at bacon the same way.
2.Her Spy to Have by Paula Altenburg. The first in her Spy Games series, this novel is a tightly-plotted globe-trotting cat-and-mouse game as well as a touching love story and I can’t wait for the next installment.
3.The Color of Destiny by Julianne MacLean. The second in her Color of Heaven series, this was a total palate-cleanser for me, a spiritual and emotional story, not inspirational per se, but definitely inspiring.
4.In the Waning Light by Loreth Ann White. This romantic suspense-thriller kept me up way too late. I’ve read several other books by this new-to-me author and I’m now a huge fan. This book is a finalist for the Romance Writers of America RITA award, and well deserved.
5.A Bramble House Christmas by C.J. Carmichael. A wonderful, heartwarming holiday read, this short contemporary romance is also a RITA finalist!
6.Love Me Tender by Susan Fox. Book 5 in her Caribou Crossing series, this made me go back and read the first four. Book 6, Love Somebody Like You, is yet another well-deserving RITA finalist.
Of course, I’ve read many more books but these stood out for me. What books do you recommend?
And now, my news: I’ve got five – that’s right, five – new books contracted. Two of them are with Tule Publishing‘s Montana Born Books, part of the upcoming Love at the Chocolate Shop ten-book series with four other authors. Mine tell the stories of Madeleine and Deirdre Cash, flighty twin sisters who vow off men in order to be taken seriously, only to find love with men they can’t have. The series, which centers around Marietta, Montana’s Copper Mountain Chocolate Shop, launches October 2016. Maddie’s story, THE CHOCOLATE CURE, will be available digitally in January 2017, with DeeDee’s story THE CHOCOLATE COMEBACK following in April.
If these names sound familiar, you’re right! I introduced Maddie and DeeDee last year in CINDERELLA’S COWBOY, in which they played the roles of evil (not really!) step-sisters.
As for the other three books… drum-roll, please… I’m thrilled to announce that I just signed my first, full-length print deal with Kensington Publishing! It’s for a brand-new contemporary series called Sunset Bay, full of colorful characters, romance, humor and dogs, set on a wellness retreat/dude ranch on the south Oregon coast. Let me just say that the characters running this place are not what they seem to be. Think… Scandal, with Olivia Pope’s “fixers,” but in cowboy boots and aprons.
The first book, SUNSET BAY SANCTUARY, is scheduled for release in 2017 with DRIFTWOOD CREEK and BLACKBERRY COVE to follow.
And as always, happy reading!