Lady Dae Writes

            What lessons can writer’s learn from the tortoise and the hare? Pacing is what. The tortoise won because he put himself at a good steady pace and got across the finish line, whereas the hare wore himself out halfway through the race. What’s this go to do with writing?

            Well it goes two ways for the writer. One is that the writer should pace themselves and not try to rush to the end, not only because it can burnout the writer, but it can make the story seems rushed and ruin it’s pacing. However, you try watching a tortoise race and see if you stay awake long enough to see him get to the end…. See what I mean. Pacing does depend on the genre of course. Suspense and Thrillers are generally fast, but even they don’t have to be rushed and God forbid their slow. Anyway, there are many examples of bad pacing in a novel and it happens for one reason or another.

            One reason it happens is that the writer is trying to get done with the novel. It happens to me. I want to finish this novel and get it over with because in four more weeks, I start school, so this four weeks is it for a while and I pump out the story, sometimes leaving details and words out that will affect the pacing. Not only that, but when that adrenaline rush kicks in as I write the end of my novel, I almost always miss a few crucial details that I have to go back and edit in.

            The worst type of rushing though is the kind where the pacing gets messed up because the writers is obviously trying to rush to get to a particular scene they’re trying to write. I never had this problem. I’m always one who liked a good set up so that when I got that scene, it really packed one hell of a punch. But a friend of mine did have that problem where the pacing was too fast, therefore when he got to that part he wanted to write, it didn’t seem explosive or important because no events led up to it. It had no impact, no release of tension.

            On the flip side, there’s the stories where the pacing is obviously too slow and focuses on things that really don’t do anything to build up the story at all. This usually happens when the writer is trying to get to a word count and fill in the story to meet the goal. I used to have that problem, but now my novel is a million times better since I cut it out.

            So you think you have one of these problems huh? No need to fear. Lady Dae is here with tips on how to fix these issues.

            1) You don’t have to write in chronological order: You really don’t If it’s a matter of you rushing through the novel to get to the part that you’re really excited about, write it down. Writing out of order like this can also make the story less daunting as it will be like writing a bunch of short stories to put together. Do be careful of the flow of the story when doing this though. Make sure it’s not choppy when you put it together and edit accordingly if you see any continuity problems. Personally, this doesn’t work for me. I generally need to write up to something, which bring me to my next tip.

            2) Write up to the scene: Generally, this helps me not drag out my novels, but it can also help a writer who rushes. If you put yourself in the mindset that every scene you write must somehow move the plot forward so that you get to where you’re going, you can help your pacing. But only can it help focus you so you don’t rush, but it can stop you from writing a bunch of unneeded scenes and chapters that are just there for the sake of nothing.

            3) If you feel like you’re in a rush, stop: This is the best thing to do if you’re prone to rushing. If you feel rushed, like you only have an hour to be done before you have to go to school or something important, just stop. Sometimes I won’t even get started because no doubt I’ll be beating myself over the head trying to add detail to something I rushed through.

            4) Listen to Music: I know some people can’t listen to music and write. That’s fine. But a little music can really help with pacing. Fine a song that goes with the tome of whatever you’re trying to writer and write as you listen. The best music for this is soundtrack music. Try it.

            5) Rome wasn’t built in a day: Your novel won’t be written in a day, and even if that was the case, you’ll spend much longer editing it. So better to slow down and take care of these issues that have to go back and do some serious editing for structural problems that are a result of bad pacing. Trust me. You don’t want to do it. Take the time to make sure you have a nice pacing now.

Word Count, Pacing, and the Filler 

Any writer who has written a novel knows what this is and if you don’t know what it is, you will know it after this article and during NaNoWriMo when they’re halfway through the month and feel themselves starting to lose their momentum. It happens to every good writer. Some just know how to push through it better than others. So what exactly is the dragging middle?

Well, I akin it to that long road trip I take with my family to Chicago every year. In the beginning it’s all exciting and you’re ready to get started, but halfway through, a long car ride with five siblings who won’t shut up and parents who play their music too loud so you can’t hear yours gets to you, not to mention there’s no internet on the road. It’s the same with writing. Once the excitement of the beginning is over and the writer begins to get into the complexities of the novel,  it can get frustrating and less exciting because in the middle, execution is everything and we have to make sure that the middle ties into the conflict we presented at the beginning and is actually going toward the climax that will be at the end because like the trip to Chicago, sometimes it seems like you’ll never get to the end, and it’s these time you just want to say to hell with this novel and in the case of November, “to hell with NaNoWriMo.”

 But do not fret dear writers. There was a mirage of things that helped me get through the middle or that scene in the middle that just wouldn’t come out right and stopped me from getting to the end. Here are a few tips.

I know this. I’ve done it and it really has slowed me down at times. You see that 50k requirement or whatever happens to be the goal and it just looks like you won’t makes it, so you drag out a couple of scenes to help you out. That’s wrong I say. If the scene doesn’t want to be drawn out longer, let it be short and move on. We’d be surprised how long our novels actually are without doing that and dragging out scenes like that slows down the creative process. I find that the pace I write determines how fast the ideas come and dragging out a scene takes creativity from what I could be using for the rest of my novel.

I don’t care what anyone says. Writing takes on a mind of its own when it wants and we writers have to let it do whatever gets the job done. We may want to write one thing, but the setup of the story takes up in another direction first or maybe never goes back in the direction you want, and it’s okay. You’ll find going with the current is much easier than trying to write against it and gets you through your ending without so much hassle.

This one seems obvious, but good pacing will keep you on track in a novel, knowing when to slow it down, speed it up, but not rushing to get to the end because there’s this big battle scene or confrontation at the climax that you want to get to. It improves the flow of creativity when you give your novel a good pacing and doing so paces the writer. Don’t rush to the end. If you feel the need to do that though…

Who said you have to write your novel in order? I don’t think that a rule of NaNoWriMo and it shouldn’t. If you want to get to that awesome confrontation at the end, then by all means save your novel open another file or do a page break and write it. The page break actually works better because when I get back to my middle, It means I have something to write up to and it’s fascinating to write that one scene and see the story meet up to it. It’s like taking a hard test sometimes. When you’re stuck on questions 20-25, but have the rest of the test to go, you skip the question and go back to the stuff you do know to save time and then come back at the end to correct which leads to my final tip…

Sometimes the dragging middle is just a result of the fact the we writer’s are nitpicks of our own writing and the scene isn’t quite coming out the way you want or there’s something about it that’s really wrong that needs to be fixed. If writers did that all the time, there would be many published authors because the writing would never get done. Listen, you’ve got thirty days to write a novel in NaNoWriMo, and even if you didn’t, doing stuff like this is a waste of time because I can almost guarantee that scene might not even make the cut or it’ll be changed completely anyway. So just keep going. That’s why you go back and revise later. Focus on writing the story.

So in conclusion, the dragging middle is a straight up pain in the but hopefully these tips will help the perfectionist that are writers (because perfectionist is just another word for writer) get through NaNoWriMo without feeling stress or inadequate or just make it to the end of the novel period.