One of my prime intentions when beginning
this blog was the sharing of knowledge.
I have already done one blog about publications and will probably do
many as the blog progresses and I pray it may be useful to you but accept it
may not. Things strike me as I read them
and often it may not be anything new but rather a reminder of things necessary
as we tread the writing path. They serve
to jog our consciousness into staying alert.
As a teacher I see a lot of lazy writers but as a writer I see a lot of
bad habits in me because things are in my mind but I haven’t stopped to
translate that on paper. So when I can I
look at things about writing.
For instance I like the WQ online a lot
because every edition offers insight into different areas in the writing process. I always find something that makes me wonder if I have considered this particular 'thing' in what I have written. Beginner authors and experienced authors are only human. We try really hard to think of as much as we can to ensure we do our best. However, like I said in my first paragraph it doesn't always translate to paper when you are in that zone. I know that no matter how many times I will check this posting I will miss an error of some kind. Of course I have or haven’t as the case may be but thought I had or
hadn’t. Stepping away to really look at your own work has to be the most difficult thing I do and I constantly wonder why I am here typing away. Reading articles makes me more careful and it also helps me understand why I react to certain books in certain ways. I do translate things to what I read. Was what I felt
about the particular book influenced because of is now a question I ask constantly in the quest to improve myself. One element that crops up and is my topic today is pacing, something
we actively don’t stop to include during that manic writing process. I mean we
hope we do but I repeat, we are only human and can only do so much.
In
fact the last book I read lacked just that - pacing. Things
happened between the players but as a reader I wasn’t in the moment, I just
wanted the whole situation to resolve itself so I could finish the book. It was
so slow in happening, eventuating.
Please don’t misunderstand, the book was still readable and I am sure
many people would enjoy it but it failed to engage me, it felt like the same
point was being hammered in slow motion.
I don’t know whether my book will engage you but I am trying hard to
ensure that it does. If I fail then tell
me when you review. I want to know. Hence why I spend time reading material like
this article by Sean Williams.
The August 11, 2015 of WQ online
says the following about:
Sean Williams is “a #1 New York Times
bestselling author of over forty award-winning novels for children, young
adults and adults. His latest series are Twinmaker and Troubletwisters
(the latter co-written with Garth Nix). He lives just up the road from the best
chocolate factory in Australia.”
I have included a sample of his comments but
please use the link in this blog to read it all or if you click on the right
hand side of my blog it will take you directly to the WQ Online publication and/or
its ‘mum’ the Queensland Writers Centre website. It is worth exploring them as they offer so
much information for the budding writer as well as the experienced. I personally love their workshops and wish
they got up here to Townsville more often.
Anyway back to pacing.
Sean
tells us that “increasing the pacing of a work can be
accomplished through structural manipulation and word choice, for instance:
Rapid scene or
point of view changes
Frequent
cliffhangers and reversals
Brief, relevant
descriptions (The barrel of the hot gun burned against his temple
instead of Light dappled the far wall of the room where he was being
held hostage, by which, squinting, Jayden could make out a peeling poster
for a heavy metal band he had loved as a boy.)
Few complex or
overly wordy constructions (in the enemy’s hands instead of in
the hands of the enemy)
Sentence fragments
( Stars. The comet. Instead of After the sun went down the stars
came out and the comet was readily visible.)
Brisk,
idiosyncratic dialogue that reduces the need for attributions (“The
thimble, you minx!” instead of “You should have remembered that
I’ve been wearing a thimble all this time,” Atira said.)
Decreasing pace,
conversely, can be accomplished by:
Longer sentences
Detailed
descriptions (The fedora Madeleine wore in defiance of social protocol
cast her face in deep shadow, making her expression difficult to read instead
of She wore a hat.)
Repetition
Introspection
Increased passage
of time within scenes
“Telling” rather
than “showing” (Lian felt terrible for offending Auntie but would not
let it spoil morning tea instead of Auntie glared, butLian
avoided her eye and led the way through her flat to where the pot sat
steaming in the sun.)
Passive voice (Alexander
was fired by Jane instead of Jane fired Alexander.)”
Can you see what I mean about not actively
thinking about these things as we write not to mention there are so many other
facets of writing to consider as well?
SO we read articles like this and stop and reflect but wait there is
more to think about. It is all well and good to include the techniques but the
danger is that if we don’t pay attention to the pacing and go a little too much
either way, that is increasing or decreasing too much, too quickly, too
thoughtlessly then our readers may not absorb
the information and not understand fully what may happen or worse give readers too many chances to guess ahead where
it will end up. This is what happened
with the book I read last weekend. I just wanted to get to the end page. I would be devastated to have this happen to
me but it probably will but then hopefully someone will tell me but I promise
it won’t be for lack of caring because this same article gives us clues on
managing a balance.
Sean
proceeds to give us more techniques to help us maintain momentum alongside
careful pacing. This includes “ Choosing
words precisely to prevent confusion at critical moments” and one I like very
much is “Ensuring that every scene does more than one thing, such as developing
character as well as advancing plot or scene-setting.” I could quote from this
article and give you more but it is so much better coming from its source
directly. I am currently trying to finish
two somewhat longer than usual novellas in my Unexpected series and found
reading this invaluable. It only takes
one little thing to give you that impetus. For more please go to Happy reading, Ciao Barb
35
36
37
38