Board Thread:General Wiki Discussion/@comment-26475800-20160415011629

Just because I feel like this is one of my stronger suits as a writer, I wanted to talk about pacing. Pacing is, more or less, how the story flows. If it is written in short sentences it will feel choppy. If it is written in long sentences it will feel long winded. So what is the best way to pace a story?

Before we answer that, I feel like I should go a little more in depth about how to make a story flow. First, if you want to tell a story it should have three basic parts: the beginning, the middle, and the end. That kind of goes without saying, but it's easier to break it down by saying it that way.

So the beginning is mostly when you are introduced to the characters. This could be done a number of ways, and I don't really want to get into how to make characters more likable right now (but if people like this post, then maybe I will with a later post.) In the beginning you should also introduce the conflict.

The conflict is your plot. It is what the main character is moving towards reaching or resolving by the end of the story. So if you are writing about a boy who is trying to become a famous dragon rider, becoming a famous dragon rider is the conflict and plot. Easy enough, right?

This is very important, because if you don't have a plot, well you have no story. You also want to set this up early in the story to let people know what it is about. The plot could be something simple, like listening to voice messages, or more complex like going to the moon. (Please forgive the shameless self promotion.) Whatever the subject you are writing about, make sure it is known early on.

The next phase of a story, the middle, is where things start to build in tension. A plot twist can happen here, and it is normally a good place to put one. If you want to learn more about plot twists please look here: Plot Twists and Tips.

A quick description of a plot twist is this: something that you didn't expect to happen, which helps to move the story along. Twists could be used differently, but for this section of the story, it is normally the kind to twist you would find. Every writer uses plot twists, or at least every good writer. Think about it for a second, how boring would it be if Bilbo was able to get rid of the ring without running into all the problems he ran into.

The end of a story, which is what most of the writers here focus on, is where everything ends. Bet you didn't see that coming did you? This is where the characters either fail or succeed in doing whatever it was they were trying to do from the beginning. This is also a great place for a twist, but be careful not to use something that is going to make every it won't make people cringe in a bad way. I.e. it was all a dream.

Okay, so now that we know the three main parts of a story, we can go a little more into pacing. Every section should have a nice balance of long and short sentences. Some people like to use really long sentences, for an example of this look at Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities. The very first paragraph is all just one sentence. It is that famous quote, which no one seems to be able to finish, there is far too much of it to remember. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

I personally can't stand sentences that are that long, so I don't use them that often, but when I do, I do it for a reason. Sometimes long sentences can cause the reader to feel paranoia, long sentences slow the story down, making the reader have to take their time to read each word, and sometimes that can cause a feeling of not being able to escape. This is good to use when there is some kind of tension building for the protagonist. It can relay that feeling to the reader, especially if what you are writing is very emotional.

Long sentences could also be used to get as much data out of the way, as quickly as possible so you can keep the story going. If you used a period every time you could of use a comma, it would feel choppy, and bog the story down. So the story would drag on and on, and feel like a documentary on how paint dries.

On the other hand, short sentences can be used to create stress and excitement. Short sentences can make the story move fast. So it would make you feel like you are moving fast with the characters. This is great when there is a lot of action going on. One thing leads to another, and BAM, your right there with the characters. Feeling the fear and excitement they are.

So that is a brief overview of pacing and how it can work. I hope this has been helpful to some of you. If this was knowledge you already knew, please feel free to share anything that I may have left out. I wasn't trying to go too far in depth with this subject, but just give enough to help people with how to write a story that would flow nicely.

I hope to see some of your work on the Wiki, and even better, in a book one day. And pacing is one of the tools that is needed to get your stories seen. Thanks for taking the time to read this. 