Quick Guidelines for How to Pace a Story

Pacing is an art and that makes it hard to give clear instructions on how to do it because there’s no hard and fast rules for what’s “right”. It’s much easier to look at something and say it’s “wrong”. However, there are some general guidelines that you can look to when writing. Following these will improve your story flow if that’s something that you struggle with:

1. Pick a plot and stick to it. One of the main issues I see in poorly paced stories is that the author wants to develop a side character beyond what is needed for the main plot. I completely understand this desire as many of my favorite characters are my side characters. However, doing this will bog your story down and make it hard for the audience to focus on what’s going on. Let’s take Tangled (the Disney movie). Mother Gothel is a fascinating character and there’s all sorts of things that I want to know about her. Where did the tower that she lives in come from? How did she find it? How did she figure out how to use the flower’s magic? All interesting ideas, but Tangled isn’t Mother Gothel’s story. It’s Rapunzel’s story and so the focus needs to stay on her. We only see Gothel in scenes that directly relate to her conflict with Rapunzel and that’s a good thing. If we added all the stuff that I asked about, then the movie would be at least half an hour longer and it would all be intro stuff that wouldn’t have any meaningful impact on the main story.

2. Ask “what does this scene do for the plot or the characters?” In stories, we often skip over slower moments. Stuff that might be cute or interesting, but that doesn’t move the plot forward in any meaningful way. Going back to Tangled, think about the scene where Rapunzel interrogates Flynn. The scene directly before that is fighting with her mother and then deciding that she’s going to have him be her guide. We skip over her setting up the interrogation room. Was that likely a funny scene? Yes, but it wasn’t needed. Especially since we’d already had a scene where she had to get him into her closet. That first scene gave us the humor and showed off Rapunzel’s character, then we moved into the more serious stuff and stayed in that serious frame of reference. Going from serious (fight with Gothel) to silly (setting up interrogation) to serious (interrogation) would have broken the suspense and added a scene that we’d basically already seen. That’s not to say that every scene must further the plot. It’s okay to take moments to breath, which is why the initial silly scene was fine. The trick is keeping those scenes to a minimum and inserting them in between sections of tension when you actively want to break the tension or allow the characters to talk/process things/morn etc. Generally speaking, I’d say about 85% of my stories are plot scenes and 15% are for-fun scenes added to break tension.

3. Keep meaningful character counts low. I know, I know, I love my characters, but the more you add, the more the audience has to keep track of and the more you need to develop and it just ends up messing with things. Continuing with our Tangled theme, look at the gang of Thugs. There are at least a dozen of these guys, but only one of them acts as the leader and gets really developed (the guy with the hook). If we developed each one, then the story would get totally bogged down. This is why story characters tend to have a limited friend group and why there tends to be a genius character to do all the tech stuff. It just keeps the pacing better.

(Full document here, part one here)

The events that follow are the events that I call the key events. They’re the things that must happen for the story to make logical sense. If even one of these events failed to occur, then the story would make absolutely no sense to a reader. So, go ahead, read through the list, then we’ll talk about why so many things are missing.

• Event 1: Harry sent to live with the Dursley
  
• Event 2: Harry accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
  
• Event 3: Hagrid collects Harry from the Dursleys
  
• Event 4: Hagrid and Harry go to Gringotts
  
• Event 5: Hagrid takes the stone out of vault 713
  
• Event 6: Harry goes to platform 9 and ¾
  
• Event 7: Harry meets Ron
  
• Event 8: Harry meets Neville and Hermione
  
• Event 9: Harry arrives at Hogwarts
  
• Event 10: “The third floor corridor on the right hand side is out of bounds to anyone who does not wish to die a most painful death”
  
• Event 11: Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville discover why the third floor corridor is out of bounds
  
• Event 12: Harry, Ron, and Hermione become friends
  
• Event 13: Harry discovers the mirror of Erised
  
• Event 14: Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn about the Sorcerer’s Stone
  
• Event 15: Harry learns Voldemort is alive and at Hogwarts
  
• Event 16: Harry, Ron, and Hermione discover “Snape” is going after the stone
  
• Event 17: Harry, Ron, and Hermione go to get the sorcerer’s stone
  
• Event 18: Ron hurt
  
• Event 19: Harry forced to go on without Hermione
  
• Event 20: Harry gets the stone
  
• Event 21: Harry faces down Quirrell and Voldemort
  

Like I said before, there’s a lot of stuff that’s not on this list. No quidditch, no crazy letters, no “troll in the dungeons,” I don’t even mention that frightening night in the forbidden forest. That’s because these scenes, while important to tell the story well, are by no means vital to the plot. You could cut out any one of them and you’d still be telling the reader all of the things that they need to know in order to understand what’s going on with the main plot.

You see, this event breakdown technique is something that I use with every story that I write and the point of it is not to figure out everything that I’m going to write. The point is to figure out the big things. The events I need to have happen in order for my story to work. Once I’ve got that, then I start to figure out how to get from one event to the next or how to actually make a given event happen.

For example, event 12 is where Harry, Ron, and Hermione become friends. I know this needs to happen because, without Hermione, Harry and Ron won’t be able to reach the sorcerer’s stone. The real question is how do I make them friends? J.K. Rowling chose to do it by having the three of them fight a mountain troll together, which worked out quite well, but the fighting of the mountain troll wasn’t the important thing about that scene. They could’ve just as easily become friends some other way, which is why I don’t include the mountain troll fight as a key event.

When you’re trying to figure out how to write your story, you can always do a full list like this, but that’s not necessary to make the technique work. You can also use an abbreviated version of the technique by simply asking yourself, okay, what’d the next big thing that has to happen and how do I get there?

Another important thing to keep in mind while doing something like this is figuring out how to set up the plot elements that aren’t really events. J.K. Rowling wants both the gang and the readers to think that Snape is the bad guy, not Quirrell, so while setting up her plot and figuring out how to move from event to event, she was constantly looking for ways to set Snape up as the villain while still leaving hints that it was really Quirrell so that the reader wouldn’t think that the twist was dumb and out of nowhere.

Of course, at that point we’re starting to drive away from the plot elements and moving towards the character/world building elements. These things are just as vital as the plot elements. In fact, I’d say they were, in some ways, more vital because a good plot will only get you so far. People will read a book once to see what happens, but they’ll only read it again and again if they love the characters.

Where to begin? That’s the real question, isn’t it, because the ending? Well, that one’s pretty easy to figure out. It’s the point where there’s nothing left to say. Your characters are done telling you their story and they’d very much like it if you’d run along and torture someone else for once.

Beginnings, on the other hand, well, no story ever really starts at “the beginning” because there rarely is a clear beginning. In the case of Harry Potter, we could say the story begins when Merope Gaunt falls in love with Tom Riddle. We could also say that the story starts when someone invented the idea of a horcrux or maybe we’ll pin the beginning on the day that Lily and James Potter die. All of these events are, in a way, the beginning, for without them the story wouldn’t exist, and it’s up to the writer to pick which one to go with when they tell the story.

Luckily for us, we’re not the one writing this story and so, instead of talking about where to begin, we can just talk about the quality of the spot J.K. Rowling choose. Which, in case you haven’t read this book in a while, was Mr. Dursley going to work. A perfect choice, really, because something needed to draw the reader in and Mr. Dursley rather bizarre day does that quite well.

I say this because chapter one of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (or Philosopher’s Stone) is little more than a massive info dump in which only one event of real significance happens. I’m speaking, of course, of Harry being left with his aunt and uncle. Other significant events are discussed in the chapter, but they’ve all already happened and, as such, they’re not really events. They’re just things that people talk about.

Alright, I’m getting a ahead of myself, let’s back up a little bit and take a moment to look at a breakdown of every significant event that happens in Chapter One: The Boy Who Lived

• Event 1: An owl flies by the window as the Dursleys get ready for the day
  
• Event 2: Mr. Dursley sees a “cat” reading a map
  
• Event 3: Mr. Dursley sees lots of people in cloaks
  
• Event 4: Mr. Dursley fails to see the owl swarm outside his window
  
• Event 5: Mr. Dursley hears cloaked people talking about the Potters
  
• Event 6: A man in a violet cloak hugs Mr. Dursley and tells him You-Know-Who is gone
  
• Event 7: The “cat” is waiting outside the Dursley home when Mr. Dursley arrives home
  
• Event 8: Strange news prompts Mr. Dursley to ask his wife about the Potters
  
• Event 9: Albus Dumbledore arrives on Privet Drive
  
• Event 10: Dumbledore uses his deluminator
  
• Event 11: The “cat” is revealed to be Minerva Mcgonagall
  
• Event 12: Dumbledore and Mcgonagall talk, establishing that You-Know-Who is Voldemort, that Harry’s parents are dead, that Harry is the boy who lived, and that the Dursley are Harry’s new guardians
  
• Event 13: Hagrid arrives with Harry
  
• Event 14: Harry left on the porch with a letter from Dumbledore
  

I’ve done some weird formatting here because it’s important to understand why I picked these 14 events which fall into three categories: events meant to draw the reader in, events met to inform the reader, and events needed for the book’s plot. There is a forth category: events used to build the series, but we’re not going that deep in this section.

As you’ll hopefully have noticed, most of the events are in italics, the style I used to signify events that draw the reader in. None of these events are necessary to tell the book’s story. J.K. Rowling could have easily left them out and nothing important would have been lost. However, they are necessary for chapter one to work.

If this chapter started with Dumbledore and Mcgonagall talking, a lot of readers would have cast the book aside because info dumps only work when they’re telling the reader things the reader wants to know about. If the book hadn’t just spent a couple of pages making the readers wonder why owls were flying everywhere, what had happened to the Potters, and who in the world this You-Know-Who fellow was, then the two Professor’s dialog wouldn’t be anywhere near as interesting and that’s why events 1 through 11 are important. They establish an atmosphere that’s vital for getting a reader to keep reading past that first chapter.

It’s also important to note that, while Dumbledore and Mcgonagall do give the reader a lot of information, they only give the basics: those things that are necessary to keep the reader from feeling totally lost. They do not go into the major details of what’s happened because too much info too soon will lose a reader. All the major details come later and the readers learns them along with Harry, which works out quite well.

When picking a start for your story, look for a place like this. Something that’s gripping, that draws a reader in, but doesn’t require overwhelming them with a glut of information. You might have to try a couple of different spots, but that’s well worth it if you really want people to read your story.

Story flow is a nebulous subject that’s oft times discussed in terms that are far too strict or far too broad for an aspiring writer to get anything out of the conversation. A fact that isn’t too surprising given that are very few inherently wrong ways to tell a story and, therefore, almost no hard rules related to the topics of pacing and flow. In spite of that, let’s see if I can write a semi-cohesive piece on the topic that will serve as something of a reference guide for those of you who struggle to decide how much information is too much or how much is too little.

First things first, every word in your story is a piece of information. Some of that information will serve to advance the plot, some of that information will serve to develop your characters or you world, and some of that information will be there for no reason other than to make your readers laugh. The only thing that is always true about every piece of information in your story is that, for you to let it be in your story, there must be a reason why it is there.

The real challenge, though, is deciding what qualifies as a good reason.

Well, I could start trying to list what I consider good reasons, but that’s not very helpful so let’s do something a little different. Let’s look at a story you all know, Cinderella, and break down how you decide what you must have in the story.

To start, let’s just talk about the plot. What is the logical progression of events necessary to tell Cinderella?

• Event 1: One of Cinderella’s parents dies
  
• Event 2: The other parent remarries a person with two children
  
• Event 3: Cinderella’s other parent dies
  
• Event 4: Step-parent and step-siblings treat Cinderella cruelly and make Cinderella into a servant
  
• Event 5: Announcement comes that the king is holding a ball to find his child a wife
  
• Event 6: Step-family goes to the ball and leave Cinderella behind
  
• Event 7: Fairy-godmother shows up and sends Cinderella to the ball
  
• Event 8: Royal heir meets Cinderella
  
• Event 9: Royal heir and Cinderella fall in love
  
• Event 10: Clock strikes 12 and Cinderella runs away
  
• Event 11: Royal heir searches the kingdom for Cinderella
  
• Event 12: Step-parent locks Cinderella away
  
• Event 13: Cinderella rescued
  
• Event 14: Cinderella reveled as mysterious stranger from the ball
  
• Event 15: Royal heir and Cinderella get married

Alright, I’ve now written Cinderella. Admittedly this version is rather boring and no critic is going to sing its praises, but no one can say that I failed to tell you exactly what happens in the traditional Cinderella story. So, now that we have our series of events, we need to make those events have some emotional pull by adding character development and/or world building. We also need to make sure that the events make sense by ensuring that we’ve written characters who would do the things we’ve said they will.

We could go through every character, but this is just an example so for now we’re only going to pick one: the step-parent. We want the audience to view this character as evil and we also need to set up that this is a person who would turn Cinderella into a servant and keep Cinderella from going to the ball, but we also want to audience to feel like the step-parent is evil for a reason. That reason could be mental instability, but let’s go with the more traditional choice of having the step-parent hate Cinderella because Cinderella’s parent loved Cinderella more. We can also add the extra drama of the fact that Cinderella is prettier and more intelligent than the step-parent’s children.

We could do all this by adding extra events to the sequence or we could just develop the events we already have. Both are fine options and we’re going to do both in this example. First we’re going to add a new event between event 2 and event 3 in which we see Cinderella’s living parent show clear favoritism to Cinderella over the step-parent. Let’s also add a little drama to event 3.

• Event 1: One of Cinderella’s parents dies
  
• Event 2: The other parent remarries a person with two children
  
• Event 2B: Step-parent overhears Cinderella being told that her parent loves Cinderella more than step-parent
  
• Event 3: Cinderella’s other parent dies while calling out for Cinderella and not step-parent
  

Okay, now we have a sequence of events that both move the story forward and establish why the step-parent hates Cinderella.

At this point I can’t take you much farther because the next step is to turn this list of events into full scenes and the way that you choose to write your scenes is entirely dependent on your writing style. I can, however, continue to walk you through this example. I can show you how to add bits and pieces to the story so that you have a reasonable number of scenes (because each event should only be one or two scenes and some events will take place in the same scene) while still developing your characters into emotional powerhouses that make people love or hate them.

I’m not going to do that, though, because I’ve already been at this for a while and I’ve got no idea if this is useful. If it is, let me know! I’d be more than happy to do this for any fairytale out there. I could even do it for a well-known novel or movie, just send me a message asking me to do an event breakdown of whatever story you want to see broken down and I’ll give it a go. However, please keep it to stories that most people would know as I want my posts to be useful to as many people as possible.

BAD PACING:

There is an idea set up that something is going to happen, and then nothing dramatic happens. And that keeps looping.

GOOD PACING:

Something is about to happen. Something completely unexpected happens. Then, CAR! Then garbage cans are flying everywhere. New problem. And the lawn still isn’t mowed.

iwritewewrite asked you:

I have just started my first larger writing project. The main character has a brother, who is rather important to the whole story,love developing those to characters. I am just scared that there relationship will take up to much space and screw the pacing/ action. Any tips?

I can totally relate to this, wow. Character development is so much fun that we pretty much let ourselves get carried away with it. But that’s cool, and let me tell you why.

Write freely. If you seriously enjoy writing out these characters and their relationship, you should seriously write it. Seriously. You write because you want to write, first and foremost. Write the story you want to tell, and don’t worry about what it’s supposed to read or look like to everyone else. Write the story you enjoy telling, even if that story is full of “filler” scenes.

Allowing yourself to write freely means you’re conquering those limitations that our inner critic likes to assert on us and our creative process. Listening to that inner critic all the time can be harmful, taxing, and make us fear putting even a single word down. This is when the volume of the inner critic has turned itself up to screaming – we can’t help but to listen until our ears bleed.

But having the inner critic in your head isn’t a bad thing, as long as the volume’s turned down to something that allows us to create without fear. It’s good to look at our work critically as long as it doesn’t interfere with us achieving our goal. As soon as that angry little voice stops us, we need to turn the volume down.

So, if you really enjoy writing character development, but you also really enjoy writing a fast-paced story, here are some things to keep in mind while you’re writing:

• Exploring characters. Sometimes filling out endless character charts or face casting isn’t enough. Often what really gets us into the brains of our characters is actually writing them, and not just writing them outside the story, but within the context of the plot. Characters begin developing from the first page of the story, so those tidbits you might have written outside the story don’t show where your character is at the moment the story begins. Writing out the scenes that may be removed from the final product later is perfectly fine, as it only helped us explore that character further and portray them more accurately in the scenes that arekept.
• Character arcs. In that same vein, remember that the character arc is just as important as the plot arc. The usual idea of “action”, such as fists flying or car chases, isn’t the only thing that drives pacing. Character arcs can also have rising action, inciting incidents, twists – all that same fun stuff. And also in that same vein –
• Keep the plot in mind. When the plot develops, so do the characters. And when the characters develop, so does the plot. Think of how these development scenes bleed into each other, how you can tie what’s happening with the characters with what’s happening in the plot. Some of the best development happens when the plot happens to the characters, or the characters happen to the plot.
• Thinking of pacing. How much of these development scenes are just idle chatter and playing around, and how much shows tension and active evolution? There’s a difference between characters sitting around discussing inconsequential life things, and characters sitting around discussing something that’s related to the plot, making those connections and unpacking details – even revealing how they feel about what’s going on, which is just as important as any action scene. Many things drive pacing aside from simply action, and oftentimes one of those many things can simply be a character with agency.
• The first draft is the first draft for a reason. The first draft is throwing darts and hoping each one strikes the bull’s-eye. Well, that’s not how things work out. Some darts don’t even stick, especially if we’re working on our first novels and the process is still new. Some darts will bounce off. Some darts will strike measly points. Some darts’ll even strike the wall three feet away, or knock off other darts. It’s all a part of the process.
• Perfection is the enemy. Writing is both trial and error. Don’t be afraid of the error.

Revise wisely. This means, of course, finding the best approaches to revising (as in, the approaches that work best for you). This also means it’s time to turn that critical voice up a notch, to focus those analytical eyes on what scenes are carrying their weight, versus what scenes aren’t.

When paring down a narrative, you never want to strip it bare. The plot isn’t the only critical element of a story, after all, and if you carve out all of that necessary in-between, what you end up with is just a skeleton with no soul. A plot, not a story.

But that doesn’t mean you should feel intimidated about doing any major renovations or overhauls. When considering how much of the character “filler” is too much, think about these things:

• Eliminate scenes. Cut and paste them into a separate file so you don’t have to lose them entirely (“deleted scenes” are little fun things that you might use later). It might be that the events that took place in this scene still happened, even if the reader doesn’t get to see it. Sometimes a summary of what happened does the job in fewer words. Or, if there’s an event that takes place, or some sort of critical piece of information that’s revealed, but it still doesn’t need an entire scene, you might consider –
• Combine scenes. It might be beneficial to have multiple important things happen in one scene, as opposed to multiple scenes where only one thing happens. Be careful about this, however, because you don’t want to strain “convenient coincidence”, as in the characters discover they need to find this elusive thing that no one has ever found before, and—oh, look at that, they find it on the first try in the same scene.
• Cut passages.This post, under “Transition”, briefly discusses what I mean. If there’s padding between scenes that feels superfluous or extraneous, or delaying the continuation of the story without reasonable cause, such as when characters have inner reflection, cut it or summarize it.
• Trim dialogue. Sometimes characters get away from us and segue into conversations that they weren’t supposed to get into. Mom talking about dishes? Dishes not critical to the plot arc or character development arc? Cut it or summarize it.

In the end, you’ll get a better idea of what your story looks like after you’ve written it. Then (after you’ve stuffed the story out of sight for a while) you’ll get a much more accurate idea of what the story reads like, or what the story even is, and you can also have your writerly friends read and give you their own opinions.

So, in short, write all that stuff. During the writing process, it’s important. Once you hit the revising process, grab your axe.

Good luck!

Going to the beach but not putting your head under the water because you don’t have enough spoons to wash your hair

I also started posting edited chapters on AO3

I know what comes next but I don’t know how to get there! Whooooo writing is hard

—

It was an unusual summons, to say the least. No ongoing attack, no urgency in Ladybug’s voice or movement. Just a sudden appearance, in the rare quiet moments between fencing practice and her mother arriving to fetch her.

Ladybug handed Kagami Longg’s choker in a small, unassuming wood box, like the kind one might buy at a craft store.

“A meeting, tomorrow night,” Ladybug said. “I’m sorry for the short notice, but it’s hard to find you alone with your schedule.”

“That’s alright, Ladybug,” Kagami said. She slipped the box into her bag, tucking it under her fencing clothes. “May I ask why you are giving me the Miraculous now?”

“It would be chaos if I tried to find everyone in one day. I’m… planning ahead, for once.”

Everyone. A large meeting of the Miraculous users, then. Extremely unusual.

“What is this meeting for?”

Ladybug shook her head, her pigtails bouncing as she did. “Longg will give you directions. Will you be able to get out of your house by 23:00 tomorrow night?”

“I can manage it,” Kagami said. 

“Good. I’m trusting you not to activate your powers before then unless you are under attack. Longg will stay hidden in your stuff if you choose to wear the choker early.”

“And I will return the Miraculous to you when we are finished.”

Ladybug smiled, giving her a quick salute and “Bug out!” as she disappeared.

Longg didn’t know much. 

“It’s not Ladybug’s meeting,” she said, as she pushed the button for Kagami’s electric toothbrush over and over again, marveling at it. “From what I understand, Chat Noir asked her to gather the heroes of her choosing. I think it’s the first time so many of us have been out at once in centuries.”

“It’s very strange,” said Kagami. She had worked with Chat Noir many times by now, but the nature of the heroes’ interactions meant most of them didn’t know each other all that well. It seemed to her out of character for Chat Noir to be so serious, and it was definitely unheard of for Ladybug to give out the Miraculous long term, even if it was just overnight. “Could he have been given some kind of warning? There are time manipulation powers within the Miraculous, correct?”

“That’s certainly possible,” said Longg. “But if Sass and Fluff have felt anything, they haven’t shared.”

It was strange, having company overnight. Longg was delighted to read manga over Kagami’s shoulder late into the night, and discussed it with her in the morning. She spent the day in Kagami’s pocket, and the weight was comforting, reassuring that if something went wrong, they could do something about it.

Nonetheless, the day was agonizingly slow. Many of the recent days had been, with one of her only friends in Paris missing, but the anticipation of the meeting had Kagami on edge. Could it be some sort of trap? Could there be a false Ladybug out, getting all the Miraculous in one place for Shadowmoth to steal at once? Or, maybe worse, a false Chat Noir, manipulating the real Ladybug to do the same?

At 23:00, Ryuko disappeared out Kagami’s window, following the directions Longg had told her.

It was fairly far, near the border of the city, an area she’d never been to before. She dropped down to the street, and was startled when someone touched her shoulder.

“Sorry!” the woman said, raising her hands. 

Ryuko squinted. She seemed familiar, though perhaps the darkness made the colors look off. 

“Rena Rouge?”

“Rena Furtive, at the moment,” Rena said with a wink. She spun around, showing off the changes to her costume, which was indeed a gradient of blues instead of the usual fox orange-red. “I let Ladybug know you’re here already. Come on, this way.”

Rena led her another couple of blocks, away from the buildings, then nudged a manhole cover up with her foot.

Ryuko wrinkled her nose.

“I know,” Rena said, apologetically. “But it’s private. It doesn’t smell too bad, I promise.”

They jumped down, boots splashing in the water, and Rena pointed down a tunnel. “Keep going that way. It gets a little claustrophobic for a sec, but then there’s a big intersection with a lot of room. That’s where we’re meeting. We’re still waiting on a couple of people.”

Rena climbed back up the ladder, sliding the cover back into place. Ryuko waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Even aided by the magic Longg granted to her eyes, she had to resist the urge to light her way. The yellow emergency lights on the walls barely illuminated anything. 

One hand on the wall, she followed the directions. ‘A little claustrophobic’ apparently referred to a curved section with no light whatsoever, the ceiling low enough that she considered crawling.

But it opened onto familiar territory. 

There were quite a few of Ladybug’s team present. The area had scattered wooden and plastic boxes on the ground, serving as chairs in the unusual space. Pigella waved at her from where she was sitting with Vesperia and Pegasus. Viperion was in the corner, drumming absently on his seat, and Chat Noir lounged across two crates behind him, staring at the ceiling.

Ladybug herself was leaning against a wall, eyes on her communicator. She looked up as Ryuko entered.

“Have a seat,” she said. “We’re just waiting on a few more.”

Carapace arrived about ten minutes later, with King Monkey behind him. They came through a different passage than Ryuko had. Carapace immediately looked at Chat and Ladybug, nodding. “That’s it on my end.”

Another five minutes, and Purple Tigress came through Ryuko’s route with Rena Furtive, wiping the water from their knees while grimacing at each other. They must have staggered the timing of the invitations and had two separate entrances, to prevent any of them encountering each other as civilians. 

With Rena and Tigress present, Ladybug put her communicator away. What little conversation there had been stopped, and all eyes were on her.

“Alright,” Ladybug said, closing her eyes and shaking her hands as if they were cramped. “Everyone, let’s gather around the middle here. There’s no akuma attack right now, so none of you should be in danger of changing back soon. We have all night, if we need it.”

“What is all this about, Ladybug?” Vesperia asked, dragging her box behind her to sit closer. 

The others were largely doing the same, arranging in a messy semi-circle. Viperion lingered towards the back, but still in front of Chat Noir, who sat with his shoulders tense, silently watching them all. Ryuko did the same, on the other side. She would prefer to stand, really, but she settled on a crate, her back to one of the exits. Carapace sat next to Rena Furtive, both of them glancing occasionally at Chat Noir. To their right was Pegasus, then Pigella, who was leaning somewhat far into Purple Tigress’ space, who in turn looked conflicted whether to call her out on it. King Monkey finished off the other end, just to the side and front of Ryuko.

“It’s not really my place to say,” Ladybug said. She paced slightly across the ‘stage’, coming to a stop towards the center and looking at the gathered heroes. “I asked you all to come because you all have proven yourself time and time again as holders of the Miraculous. While there are a couple of us not here- all people who I would trust with my life- most of us here tonight have more experience, and a known history of responsibility with the Miraculous. If you think you’re an exception to this, that you don’t have the experience that some of us do, please know that you were specifically requested to be here, because of our belief in your abilities and trustworthiness.”

She took a breath, looking around at each one of them. Nobody spoke up, simply waiting for her to continue. 

“It goes without saying, but after tonight especially, please do not discuss anything talked about here tonight with anyone outside of this room. Sewer. This room in a sewer.”

Ryuko felt her face quirk into a slight smile. Speeches were never Ladybug’s favorite thing to do. 

“That said, I don’t really know why we’re meeting her tonight,” said Ladybug. She looked across at Chat Noir, still tense on his crate, ears flat against his head. “Chat Noir asked me to bring us all together. He left most of it to me, the day, time, and location; telling me to choose people I trust, though he did ask for some of you specifically. So, um, if you’re ready, Chat. I’ll turn it over to you.”

Ladybug walked to the end of the semi-circle, pulling up a box to sit on next to King Monkey and Ryuko. Chat stood from his own box, taking a deep breath and walking past Viperion to take Ladybug’s place.

Ladybug was intensely fidgeting with her fingers. Carapace looked suddenly upset, and Rena confused, and Ryuko wondered if Ladybug had told them about this beforehand. But oddly, Viperion had made a sharp inhale through his nose, his hand poised over his bracelet, as if ready to activate his power at any moment.

Chat Noir seemed to have also noticed.

“First of all,” he said, rocking back on his heels with his hands behind his back, “I’m not going to do something stupid like renounce my Miraculous or reveal my identity. So you can hold off on the Second Chance, snake-boy.”

There was a slight giggle among the group, but Chat’s directness was effective. Ladybug almost instantly relaxed, the tension draining from her body all at once, and Ryuko wondered what he might have done to scare her in the past to garner such a reaction. Viperion still had a furrowed brow, but he moved his hand from his wrist and sat back. Carapace looked relieved as Rena gently rubbed his hand.

“This meeting is really a kind of… update, on things that have been going on,” Chat continued. “There’s some stuff that everyone here should know, and I didn’t want to have to repeat it over and over. My lady was very kind in obliging me, gathering you all here together.”

He shuffled a little, straightening his back and looking at each of them. He seemed to linger slightly on Viperion, as if passing a silent message between them.

He shut his eyes, took a breath, and opened them again. “First bit of news: I know where Adrien Agreste is.”

There was an immediate reaction. Someone, maybe many people, shouted, Ryuko unsure if she was among them. She was on her feet without remembering that she’d stood. Ladybug was also up, her legs shaking slightly, eyes wide, as shocked as the rest of them. 

The exclamations and muttering slowly died down, Chat Noir calmly waiting in the middle of it. He’d unhooked his staff at some point, and was idly twirling it behind his back.

“Chaton,” Ladybug said, and the others quieted, returning to their seats and watching her. “Chaton, since when? How?”

Chat smiled. “I’m getting to that.” He looked at the group again. “I’m going to start by saying that he’s safe and unharmed. He’s staying with people I trust. I am not telling you where or who with, by his request. All of this is to stay between us.”

Some of them fidgeted. Vesperia’s hands were over her mouth, her elbows on her knees, staring forward with a conflicted look. Purple Tigress was fiddling with her hair, pensive. Carapace looked about ready to punch someone, probably Chat.

“Adrien asked me to help him disappear,” Chat continued. “He felt that he was in danger, staying at home, and that telling anyone could put them in danger as well. I, of course, obliged, and over the course of the week, got him to safety. He’s moved around a bit, to avoid recognition and stuff, but he’s fine, and in a safe location, thanks to yours truly.”

“You knew this whole time?” Carapace said. “And you didn’t tell anyone? Not even Ladybug?”

Chat Noir’s ears drooped slightly. He looked apologetically between both Ladybug and Carapace. “I didn’t tell anybody until Adrien was ready,” he said. “I’m sorry for not saying anything, but…”

“No, you did the right thing, Chat.” Ladybug sat down on her box, her hands clasped together. “You said that he thought he was in danger.”

“Yeah,” Chat Noir said. He scratched the back of his head before twirling his staff, steeling himself, and bringing everyone’s attention back to him. “That brings us to the second, and honestly a bit more relevant bit of news.”

He planted the end of his staff on the ground, looking far more serious than Ryuko had ever seen him outside of battle.

“Adrien needed to leave his home for his own safety, because he discovered that his father is Shadowmoth.”

This time, his announcement was met with utter silence. 

Ryuko’s mind was racing. She knew Adrien had been having difficulty with his father since his mother died, and Chat’s first announcement had thrown images of terrible neglect and bursts of anger at Adrien’s expense, like a twisted, intense version of her own issues with her mother, but the second announcement drew a blank. 

“That’s impossible,” Ladybug said. “We suspected him before and ruled him out. He- he’s been akumatized before!”

“How did Adrien find out?” Viperion’s voice was soft but overflowing with anger.

Chat glanced at him, then turned his attention back to the group as a whole. 

“Recently, there was a large runway event that Adrien attended with his father, a big public spectacle. An akuma, made of one of the designers whose pieces had been rejected, appeared and terrorized the show. It was defeated, of course, with the help of myself, Ladybug, and the lovely Miss Ryuko.”

He nodded at her, and she nodded back. The attack had been unexpected, and Kagami had been astonished to see Chat Noir arrive so quickly, Ladybug not far behind. Kagami was with Adrien in the audience, the two of them seated in commiseration between her mother and his father’s assistant, Chloe pouting a few seats over and leaning over to try and steal Adrien’s attention with snide comments about the models. She’d lost track of all of them in the attack, though she remembered Adrien helping Nathalie limp to shelter as they scattered. Kagami had been preoccupied looking for Ladybug, excited for the potential to use her powers again.

They had reconvened briefly after the akuma was defeated, but Kagami was dragged off by her mother, Adrien forced to stay as his father and the other fashion moguls tried to bring order to and continue the show. 

“It was after the attack was over,” Chat Noir continued, his voice oddly subdued. “Ladybug had fixed everything, and the three of us were long gone. Adrien went to the dressing room after his father, only to see him disappear into nothing as Shadowmoth snapped his fingers. The Gabriel Agreste on stage, announcing the designs, was a sentimonster copy. Shadowmoth detransformed.”

The silence was heavy. 

Chat was staring at the ground by the time he finished, looking exhausted and angry. Ryuko felt much the same. He had been right there, under their noses as they struggled with his akuma. If they had stuck around, or come back after recharging, maybe they could have been with Adrien, maybe they would have seen Shadowmoth themselves, been able to bring him down for good.

“Why did you sit on this, Chat Noir?”

It was Rena Furtive who spoke up, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “Adrien’s been missing for two weeks now, and you said you started helping him a week before that. Keeping a victim safe at his request is one thing, but if you had information about Shadowmoth, you should have told Ladybug right away.”

Chat looked away. “I don’t think Adrien was ready to tell anyone until today,” he said. “I think… he knew he had to get away, but he needed time to process.”

The room fell quiet again. 

“I don’t blame him,” Purple Tigress muttered. “If I found out a family member was a supervillain…” She shook her head. “We’re lucky he wasn’t akumatized himself.”

Chat Noir looked horrified, as if the idea hadn’t occurred to him. “He- to his own son?”

“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Carapace said with a scowl. “We should’ve got Adrien out of there way sooner, even without knowing about Shadowmoth.”

“But we’re gonna bring him down now!” King Monkey spoke up for the first time that night, punching his fist into his palm. “We got him cornered! And he doesn’t even know it!”

“We need a plan first,” Pegasus said, leaning forward to smile over at him. “But I’m ready to take him down once we have one.”

Ladybug stood, her box scratching against the cement floor. The group looked up at her, chatter dying down.

“Pegasus is right. We need a plan. We know how cunning Shadowmoth can be, so we should move with caution. But we’ll strike while the iron’s hot. Ambush him while he’s still distracted with his son’s disappearance.” She looked around at the gathered heroes. They looked back, filled with adrenaline, eyes gleaming with excitement. 

Chat Noir looked at her, leaning on his staff, wary.

Ladybug smiled. “However, it’s also nearly one thirty, and most if not all of us have things to do in the morning. And we’re in a sewer, in the middle of nowhere.”

She was right, and they all knew it. Ryuko was, admittedly, looking forward to a hot shower. And who knows how long it would take her to get home.

“Hold on to your Miraculous,” Ladybug continued, reading her thoughts. “I’m not going to make everyone figure out how to get home without superpowers in the middle of the night. The same rules apply tonight as before. I’ll contact each of you later with more information and to collect your Miraculous.”

They climbed out of the sewer in a group, after Rena Furtive took a quick recon trip ahead to make sure the coast was clear. They left in staggered pairs, organized in some unknown pattern by Ladybug, to ensure secrecy. 

“And make sure to feed your kwami!” Ladybug shouted after the first pair started off. “Or they’ll take whatever they want without asking!”

Pegasus and King Monkey waved back in confirmation. 

Viperion hugged Chat Noir hard, startling him, before leaving with Pigella.

Carapace and Rena Furtive left together, unhurried, after a quick talk with Ladybug. 

Vesperia went with Purple Tigress, Ryuko supposed to follow just behind, since there was an odd number total. 

She lingered briefly, pretending to look at her communicator for directions.

“Thank you for doing this, Chat Noir,” Ladybug said quietly. The two of them had retired to a rooftop, their legs dangling over the side. “I’m sorry you were doing it by yourself for so long.”

“I had a bit of help, Bugaboo.”

“I mean it, Chat. Thank you for helping Adrien. I can’t begin to imagine what this has been like for him.”

Chat didn’t answer.

“I still can’t believe it,” Ladybug went on. “Can you believe… I just spoke to the bastard the other day. He seemed… so sad and lonely, so worried. He complimented me on saving the city!” She kicked the side of the building in anger. “I can’t believe I believed him.”

“Even awful people aren’t all bad,” Chat said quietly. “Maybe he really is worried about his son.”

“Maybe,” said Ladybug, the scowl audible in her voice. “We can only hope, I suppose.”

Ryuko left them, hopping from rooftop to rooftop until the surroundings became familiar, riding the rest of the way as a gust of wind, and slipped in through her bedroom window. 

Fitbit has given me great insight into my body and it’s limitations.

When I got my new one, it came with Premium free for a year. So I get to utilize the Readiness score feature. It is so so good at reflecting how my body feels. When it seems I’m getting sick, the number tanks really low. When I busted my butt doing house chores too much, the number tanks really low also.

I’ve come to the realization that I’m not the hare, I’m the tortoise. I function best with a slow steady pace with breaks between tasks. For a long time, I feel irritated about my energy levels, especially as a mom. Why can’t I be like type A , take their kids to ALL the things moms? Like my body literally will not let me function like that. DH also acts like I should plow through any housework, and git er done on a Saturday, or some great task that takes monumental effort on my part. And he cast his feelings of frustration on me when I don’t perform how he wants, with an attitude of I must not be trying hard enough. Which is really annoying and hurtful to me.

But now I see. It’s not “in my head”, and I’m not trying to be “lazy”. My body has a need for breaks, and while I may never get a medical Dx as to WHY, it’s still worth honoring that it’s just how I AM.

I am a far better person when I don’t push until I break. Would we rather I function in a broken up pace, or would we rather I be broken down and incapacitated on the daily? How can I keep up with the mandatory jobs of the day, if I end up in pain and fatigued from taking on too much? Pacing has been my best technique. The numbers of the Readiness score go up when I stick to that approach.

So I really appreciate the Fitbit feature, and it’s been a great relief to see I am in fact tuned in with my body needs, even if other people don’t agree or believe me.

I found a Grey hair today.

Shorter than the rest of my hair, but luminescent against the backdrop of deep brown.

Safe to say, I was less than impressed.  I practically ripped it out by accident whilst foraging around to confirm whether I had imagined that glimpse of pure iridescent white.  Alas, I had not.

It’s a rather unremarkable feeling you get when you come face to face with your first Grey. The Grey.  The dreaded Grey.  It’s a moment of sheer and utter panic followed by a surreal, foreboding tranquility and acceptance, during which I wasn’t sure whether to cry until morning or resign myself to the fact that at the clearly ripe age of 24 I was already on the downward hill to pensioner-hood.

I’m not sure which part of the last year did it.  The obvious answer would be packing up my entire life and shipping myself and a suitcase to the Middle East but at no point during that did I feel stressed so I find that hard to believe…

Perhaps it’s the fact that I spent 3 hours on the phone to FedEx in Germany tonight, practically beside myself with frustration at a missing, and somewhat uber critical, package that had missed it’s deadline.

Fail.  

However, it allowed me double the number of steps I had taken in the whole of today, purely by pacing around my bedroom until… Well, until now (midnight).

Perhaps The Grey is in response to my rather wayward brain?  They say the mind is like a wild monkey, or an untrained puppy and I would testify to that.  Perhaps The Grey is just giving up on trying to keep up with the internal narration of me…

Pacing the Novel (A RavenCon 2022 panel)

Here are 8 tips from the pros on pacing your novel. Are there any tips you use that they missed?

#ravencon #writingTips #pacing

The titular panel at RavenCon 2022 consisted of the following panelists: Terry Brooks, DB Bray as moderator, Patrick Dugan, Wayland Smith, and John Hartness.

The description was: How do you intensify a scene, bringing the reader deep into the narrative, and still keep the novel moving? With three basic types of text (exposition, dialog, description) you can suspend time or send the story…

View On WordPress

The Key To Morgan’s Writing Progress: Confirmed!

The Key To Morgan’s Writing Progress: Confirmed!

Right now, it’s April, and that means, time for Camp NaNo.

For those who are unfamiliar, NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month happens annually in November, where writers from all around the globe pledge to write 50,000 words in 30 days — or about 200 pages. Camp NaNo happens in April and July (probably July for the teachers), and in this challenge, you set your own goals.

While I’ve been…

View On WordPress

coffeebeanwriting:

How do you find the right pacing for a scene? First, figure out if you’re writing a fast scene or a slow scene. An action scene would be fast-paced and intense, while a first kiss might be slow and passionate.

Fewer details quicken a scene. 
More details slow a scene down.

Action scenes thrive off fewer details. When a punch is flying toward your character, they’re not going to notice all the fine details of the setting or their attacker. They’re also not going to have that much time to time to think. The more details you explain or the longer you’re inside your characters thoughts, the slower the action becomes.

A slow, sensual scene will thrive off lots of sensory details. Your character has time to think and feel. Let them hear, touch, see, smell and taste to make the scene as detailed as you want it to be. A good, intimate scene will have lots of heart-racing details that places the reader in the seat of the protagonist.

Your scene can include both fast and slow pacing by changing up how you treat your details and dialogue. 

Dialogue is a great tool for changing the pacing of your scene. 

Quick, short dialogue exchanges with no action tags will speed up your scene and also leave white space on the page. That emptiness gives the reader a sense of movement and progression. 

“Where are you going!” 
“Anywhere but here.” 
“Please, just wait a minute.” 
“No. You had your chance.”

You can slow dialogue down by adding in monologues and inner thoughts, placing in action descriptions, and also adding in longer speeches. 

“Where are you going!” My lips cracked and my legs buckled as I pleaded. Why did he have to be like this? If he would just listen to me…

If you keep your characters moving and physically doing something during dialogue, it can help with pacing, rather than having them halt their actions just to talk.

Lastly, choosing when to reveal information can be dire in your ability to control the pace of your plot. 

We all know that info-dumping is frowned upon, so to avoid this we slowly feed the reader information as the story progresses. By creating questions that your reader wants to know the answers to, you effectively keep them turning pages.

Where you place those questions and their answers change your pacing. Do you want to answer the question within the same scene or chapter? Or leave the question to sauté in your reader’s mind for a big, mind-blowing reveal a few chapters later?

Instagram: coffeebeanwriting

☕ Official Blog: www.byzoemay.com

yourlocalwriterblog:

Pacing is a tricky, tricky thing. Hopefully, by breaking it down into two schools of thought, we can better our understanding of maintaining effective pacing. 

as requested by @whisperinghallwaysofmirrors

First, Some Definitions

According to Writer’s Digest, narrative pacing is “a tool that controls the speed and rhythm at which a story is told… [H]ow fast or slow events in a piece unfold and how much time elapses in a scene or story.“

Pacing can be a lot of things. Slow, fast, suspenseful, meandering, boring, exciting, et cetera et cetera. While we don’t want meandering or boring, getting it to be the other things can be a feat. 

As I go through all of this, I would like to say that the number one thing you should be keeping in mind with the pacing of your story is the purpose.

What is the purpose of this story, scene, dialogue, action, arc, plot point, chapter, et al? This and only this will keep you on track the whole way through. 

Without further ado, here are the two types of pacing…

Micro Pacing

This, to me, is the harder of the two. Macro pacing usually comes naturally with our understanding of overall story structure that we see in books and movies. Micro is much more subjective and labor-intensive.

The first step of every scene you write is to identify what kind of pacing it needs to be effective. Is a slower pace going to nail in the emotional tone? Is a faster pace going to convey how urgent the scene is? Is choppy going to show how chaotic it is? How much attention to detail is needed? Et cetera. And even with the scene’s tone, there are also tones within with action, dialogue, and narrator perception.

There is no one-size-fits-all trick to mastering pacing. All you can do is try to keep it in mind as you draft. Don’t let it consume you, though. Just get it down. After drafting, look at the pacing with a critical eye. Do important scenes go too fast? Are unnecessary things being dragged out? Is this scene too detailed to be suspenseful?

A lot of errors in pacing are quick fixes. The adding or removal of details, shortening or lengthening of sentences, changing descriptions. However, these quick fixes do take a while when you have to look at every single scene in a story.

Macro Pacing

Rather than the contents of a scene, this deals with everything larger. Scenes, chapters, plot points, storylines, subplots, and arcs. This is taking a look at how they all work for each other when pieced together.

One of the biggest resources when it comes to analyzing macro pacing is story structure philosophy. The common examples are Freytag’s Pyramid, the 3-Act Structure, Hero’s Journey, and Blake Snyder’s 15 Beats. They follow the traditional story structure. Exposition, catalyst, rising action, climax, and resolution (albeit each in different terms and specificity). Though some see it as “cookie-cutter”, 99% of effective stories follow these formats at a considerable capacity. It’s not always about how the story is told, but rather who tells it. But I digress.

Looking at these structures, we can begin to see how the tried-and-true set-up is centered around effective pacing.

The beginning, where everything is set up, is slower but short and sweet. The catalyst happens early and our MC is sent out on a journey or quest whether they like it or not. Thetrek to a climax is a tricky stage for maintaining effective pacing. Good stories fluctuate between fast and slow. There is enough to keep it exciting, but we’re given breaks to stop and examine the finer details like theme, characterization, and arcs.

The edge before the climax is typically when the action keeps coming and we’re no longer given breaks. The suspense grabs us and doesn’t let go. This is the suspense that effectively amounts to the crescendo and leads to the emotional payoff and release that follows in the resolution. The resolution is nothing BUT a break, or a breather if you will. Though it is slower like the exposition, it is longer than that because this is where we wrap everything up for total closure. This is what the reader needs, rather than what they want. So you can take your time.

Not every story has to follow this recipe step-by-step. Critically acclaimed movies such as Pulp Fiction, Frances Ha, andInside Llewyn Davis* break the traditional structure. However, they still keep certain ingredients in it. Whether it be the concept of a climax, the idea of a journey, or the overall balance of tension and release.

If you’re struggling with the macro side of your story’s pacing, I would try to identify what the weakest areas are and see if applying these story structure concepts and methodology strengthens it at all. If not, it may be that your story idea doesn’t fit the “substance” requirement of an 80k+ word novel. It may need more or fewer subplots or an increase of conflict or more things getting in the MC’s way. You could also see if adapting it to a shorter medium (novella, et al) or a longer medium (series, episodics, et al) would alleviate the pacing issues.

*sorry all my references are movies and not books, but I’ve seen more movies than I’ve read books

In Short–

Pacing, both macro and micro, are incredibly subjective concepts. The only way to really find out how effective your story’s pacing is, is to look at it through the lens of traditional structures and ask for feedback from beta readers. How a reader,who doesn’t know the whole story like you do feels about pacing is the best resource you could have.