What is the worst sin a writer can commit ? According to Martin Amis (talking this morning in Robert McCrumb’s fascinating Sins of Literature, Thou Shalt Not Bore Radio 4 ) – it’s to bore our readers: to present them with something they just don’t want to read and for this reason alone it’s crucial for you as a writer to know how to get pace into your writing.
As readers we’ve all experienced the falling away of interest in a novel we’ve picked up; sometimes we can’t get past page two or three, other times the story fails to live up to the beginning. Our interest fades. So why do readers pick up some novels and put them down again? Why do they decide not to carry on reading? Or as Paul Auster puts it, find that ‘the book hasn’t gripped you enough.’
If you don’t consider pace and how to get pace into your writing, then you will be in danger of failing to grip the reader. As always with writing there are no simple answers but for one thing there are aspects of taste to be factored in – one man’s meat is another man’s poison, what I put down on page twenty you may think is the best book you’ve read this year. But apart from the reader’s inclination towards certain genres or themes, or styles, I believe it’s still possible to identify ways of writing that are more likely to capture the reader than turn them away.
The two most important things a writer must attend to if she’ s to hold her readers interest are character and pace. I say character because if we don’t believe in the characters the writer creates and we don’t care about them then we won’t care what happens in the story and we won’t be motivated to continue reading.
Deborah Moggach, author of Tulip Fever among other novels, says:
‘ Don’t start writing your novel until you know your characters very, very well. What they’d do if they saw somebody shoplifting. What they were like at school. What shoes they wear. Spend days – weeks, months – being them until they thicken up and start to breathe. VS Pritchett said, “There’s no such thing as plot, only characters.” Once you know them well they’ll lead you into their stories. If you start too soon you won’t have a clue what they’re going to do and all is chaos.’
When I started writing I’m not sure I gave enough time and attention to building my characters. I didn’t let them grow sufficiently and they were probably too much like me. Nor did I give any consideration to how to write with pace .Getting the words down sentence by sentence was hard enough and I have to confess it took me a long time to learn the importance of both character and pace– probably because in the beginning I was writing for myself and not thinking too much about the reader.
On how to write with pace Sarah Waters author of Tipping The Velvet and The Night Watch says: ‘Pace is crucial. Fine writing isn’t enough. Writing students can be great at producing a single page of well-crafted prose; what they sometimes lack is the ability to take the reader on a journey, with all the changes of terrain, speed and mood that a long journey involves.’
All readers want to go on a journey and as writers it is our duty to take them with us. So how to get pace into your writing? Here are ten suggestions which might help:
- Don’t overload the beginning with backstory – get straight into the action, into the middle of it.
- Think action not explanation or reflection.
- Use dialogue – this quickens pace as opposed to description which, no matter how elegant, slows it down.
- Think film – films are fast moving, when I was writing my crime novel I would often think – if this was a film what would happen next?
- Read good crime fiction – crime writers know how to move the story on.
- Short sentences and the occasional short chapter can increase pace.
- The same is true of the words you use – think strong active verbs
- Vary pace – readers need a breather it can’t all be fast paced action.
- Make every scene count and think in terms of pacing scenes and chapters as well as the whole novel
- Use a hook at the end of your chapters – something to get the reader turning the page
~
Of course it’s important to remember that some great novels are slow in pace –rules are there to be broken, and besides these are NOT rules only suggestions. But ignore pace at your peril; only if you are really at the very top of your game – highly talented, genius…will you get away with it.
So if like me you’re none of the above then it’s vital to recognise the importance of pace in writing. Without it we run the risk of boring our readers or of finding that agents/editors simply do not want to read our work.
~
Elmore Leonard – “I try to leave out the parts that people skip”
TIP: Readers rarely if ever skip dialogue
