10 BEST Tips for Pacing Your Book

can you see yourself in the monitor look how cute you are look how beautiful you look in your sweater you look stoned have you been experimenting with the ganja no everybody quick announcement a couple of weeks ago cliff had a procedure in order to help treat his neuropathy tomorrow he has surgery and in two more weeks he will have another surgery yay that means life's crazy around here and we're just trying to survive with that said I have a full roster of videos planned for the month however if I end up having fewer bonus videos than usual or I miss a week you know why I appreciate your understanding and if you don't understand you're a dick on to the next in December is still under way this is what my bingo board currently looks like I haven't had time to read lately what with all the surgeries going on so instead I've been reviewing self-published books that I have read previously but hadn't yet had a chance to review if you didn't know that you could do that in in December now you know onto the topic today I am talking about one of your most requested topics and that is pacing it can be difficult to determine the rhythm and flow of your novel and sometimes it's hard to tell at the scene that you've written is too fast or too slow given the circumstances and content I personally put a lot of time and effort into honing my skill set in this area so now I'm breaking down the top 10 tips that I've learned for pacing your novel before we get started I want to give a shout out to the sponsor of today's video no it's not Buttercup this is just here to be cute my good friends over at Skillshare have generously sponsored today's video they make it so much easier for me to produce a regular free content for you guys and I am eternally grateful to them if you're not familiar Skillshare is an online learning platform geared specifically toward creators that features over seven 19,000 classes in a wide range of topics including writing business web design the works I personally fond of their marketing classes I've actually got two marketing classes for authors available on Skillshare right now so you should definitely check them out they're pretty awesome I'm just saying I'm a big fan of Skillshare I used their platform even before they sponsored me and I just really appreciate the fact that they are so supportive of creators of all kinds skillshots got a special gift just for you guys stick around until the end of this video for details first let's perfect the rhythm and flow of your novel with these 10 super awesome super amazing tips number one consider the structure this one is really simple because you've already made an outline right once you have an outline it's a lot easier to see the overall structure of your novel and in turn it's easier to map out the pacing you don't want your novel to feel like a continuous series of fast moments because then it'll seem rushed and exhausting but you also don't want it to be continuously slow because that's boring instead your novel should be a rollercoaster of low points and high points as well as slow points and fast points weaving in and out of one another so analyze your outline are there too many fast points with zero interruption if that's the case fiddle with the structure and see if you can break it up with something slower number to consider the character's point of view a lot of writers get so caught up in their own head they forget to think about the characters experience if a moment feels slow to the character it's appropriate for the pace to be slow as well on the flip side if the moment feels fast then the pacing should reflect that take for example an explosion your character's heart rate is up people are running it's absolute chaos if you're writing a scene like this at a slow pace it's gonna feel like everything's happening in slow motion which is probably the exact opposite of what you want then there are times when you do want things to happen in slow motion because that's how it feels to the character maybe their boyfriend just said I love you for the first time or their dad died and it feels like time has suddenly stopped the moment feels slow for the character it should have a slower pace in the story as well number three sentences sentence structure can do a world of good or a whole lot of damage to the pacing of your novel if you want to avoid issues there's one simple rule you gotta follow longer sentences go and slower paced scenes and shorter sentences go in fast scenes please keep in mind it's extremely important to vary your sentence structure throughout your entire novel or else your scenes are gonna read as repetitive and choppy no one's saying you can't have a few long sentences in a fast scene or a few short sentences in a slow scene this is just a general rule of thumb number four details much like the last point if you're writing a slower paced scene you hide in the details and if you're writing a fast scene you rein them in if your character is experiencing their first kiss this is usually a slower sensual moment so you can take your time describing the feeling of their lips pressed together their heart rate their wavered breathing but if you were to give the same amount of detail to a fight scene this would be really awkward this is an issue that a lot of writers have when it comes to action they feel the need to describe every movement and every maneuver in every detail not only is this boring as hell it significantly slows down the pace remember your character's point of view fight scenes move fast which means they're not going to remember every single movement or notice every detail focus on the most necessary visceral components and save the word dumps for the slower scenes number 5 ditch the filler no one cares about your main characters 9 to 5 job and no one cares about that one time your villain was rejected by that one girl in the fifth grade the is filler it does absolutely nothing for the plot but the author includes it because why the hell not problem is it slows down the story to a glacial pace and you do not want that the reader should not be constantly slogging through a necessary detail so ditch the filler I know you love it but no one else does and it's not doing you any favors number 6 ditch filter words filter words are typically verbs that filter the readers experience through the main characters hence the name see here realize think decide no these are all filter words now every once in a while a filter word has its place but most of the time they just distance the reader from the story itself on top of that they slow the pacing of the story especially in scenes that are not supposed to be slow at all nine times out of ten you don't need to filter the story through the main characters experience cuz the reader already knows that the main character is experiencing all of this stuff so instead of saying she wondered if her mom was dead just say was her mom dead instead of saying she saw a blue sky far ahead just say blue sky stretched far ahead number seven consider the speed of the conversation if your characters are having a relaxed conversation this will probably be a slower paced scene you can take advantage of this by adding narrative to the mix to describe their body language or their facial expressions or changes to the setting around them if the dialogue is firing off say for example an argument this is a fast-paced scene so you're gonna want to keep the narrative to a minimum tell the reader what they absolutely need to know like who is speaking or any relevant actions body language and facial expressions should be written sparingly and only when they paint a very important visual number eight cliffhangers the goal behind pacing is to keep the reader interested without having long lulls or without making the story feel rushed and ending the chapter with a cliffhanger is the perfect way to address both of these issues first off cliff hangers keep the story moving the reader is not going to want to put the book down because they need to know what happens next second a cliffhanger doesn't have to be life or death or fast-paced at all it could be a conversation ending in a surprising way or a sudden kiss implementing cliffhangers at the end of your chapters will get readers turning the pages and you can do this without turning your story into one massive heart attack number nine keep it movin a lot of people struggle to differentiate filler from transitions sure your character school life may not be pertinent to the plot but sometimes you got to mention it for the sake of realism you haven't forgotten the fact that your character is a teenager and Highschool they may be slaying vampires but they do have finals next week so mention this stuff and brief transitions and keep it moving focus on moving your story from plot point to plot point if week's happen in between then explain it in a short transition a paragraph at most the readers know your characters have lives outside of the story and they appreciate you acknowledging it but they also don't give a and number 10 get feedback beta readers and critique partners exist for a reason and that's to make your story suck less sometimes we're too close to our stories and something that feels impactful to us may seem incredibly dull to someone else so ask other people about your pay see if they throw out words like dragged or rushed or sloppy or boring yeah done up so that's all we got for you today amazing can be a pain in the ass but if you implement these 10 tactics you'll be on the right track a huge thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring this video not only are they so supportive of my channel and my writing but they're just such an amazing resource for creators and as a creator I really appreciate that it's not easy to be a creator we need all the help we can get is it hard out there for you butter boom if you'd like to check them out now is the perfect time to do so because Skillshare is offering in two months of Skillshare premium for free to the first 500 people who click the activation link below that's tens of thousands of classes that you can take for up to two months completely for free I highly recommend it obviously because I have my own classes there and because I take classes there so clearly I'm a fan click the link do yourself a solid don't forget to subscribe my channel I post new videos on Wednesdays and if you want to be alerted as soon as I upload all you gotta do is ring that bell ring that bell all you gotta do is bring that Bell Buttercup already ring that Bell what you gonna do you're gonna ring that Bell the savior's champion is available in eBook paperback quarterback and sign hardback you should totally pick up a copy for you you can pick a copy for your friends you can pick up a copy for your family I don't care just buy it okay and be sure to follow me on social media I'm on Instagram Tumblr Facebook 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Channel: Writing with Jenna Moreci

Views: 82,318

Rating: 4.9695377 out of 5

Keywords: write, writer, writing, read, reader, reading, book, books, skillshare, jenna moreci, the savior's champion, the saviors champion, authortube, booktube, literature, author, publish, publishing, self publishing, novel, writing tips, writing motivation, writing inspiration, tips for writing, how to write a book, top 10 tips for pacing your book, pacing your book, pacing your novel, pacing, publishing tips, publishing motivation, publishing inspiration, humor, funny, comedy, motivation, inspiration

Id: IYo89h3vxmU

Length: 11min 20sec (680 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 12 2018