How to pace your stories, part 1 · 12:01am Oct 27th, 2014
I've been procrastinating about this request for a long time now. I'll be the first to admit I'm not exactly an expert: I have some raw talent and a bit of experience, but certinly no formal education or in-depth expertise. I guess that's all you need for writing fan fiction: gumption. At the same time, I believe that all writing--fanfiction or otherwise--can be held to higher standards.
Pacing isn't something I think about. If I read a first draft and then thought "Gee, I should rewrite this and improve the pacing," I wouldn't have the slightest clue where to start. So, in the spirit of thinking about things more consciously, I'll do my best to describe my personal feelings on the topic. This guide it going to be short and to the point, and probably poorly paced. It's important to note that "Pacing" can mean a whole lot of different things. This post will focus on the most concrete kind of pacing: the plot.
Also, not too many pretty pictures this time. Sorry. Instead, I'll be doing something I promised myself I would never do... showing my planning documents for a story of mine that underwent a rigorous and extensive period of highly disciplined daydreaming. The Death of Daring Do: The Engine of Eternity. Since I'll be including excerpts and passages from my planning phase, it should go without saying that this review will be filled with links to serious spoilers. If you haven't read it first, either do so now or don't click on any links. The blog entry itself will remain spoiler free.
Step Zero:
Example: Here's what my planning document looked like the day after I got the idea. It took an entire day to write all that.
Step 1: The Ending
When I first get an idea for a new story, the most important question I ask myself is "How does the story end?" That's right. Bizarrely enough, the climax and the denouement are always the very first thing I plan out. After all, that is the purpose of any story. Serious writing is a goal-oriented activity, and clearly defining the conclusion to your story gives you a solid goal to work towards. Without a solid goal you run the risk of babbling on and on, creating long passages that either have no focus or serve no real purpose... naturally, this will do terrible things to your story's pacing! Increasing your wordcount is not a worthy goal: brevity truly is the soul of wit, and a good short story is much harder to write than a good novel!
What if your story intentionally has no clear end? I'm sure many stories on Fimfiction are completely open ended by design, with no clear conclusion in sight: the writer simply adds a new chapter whenever they feel like it, and the story is only finished when they get bored of it or write themselves into a corner. I'm certainly not going to condemn open-ended stories: it seems like lazy writing to me, but I'm sure there must be at least a few examples on Fimfiction that are utterly brilliant and engrossing. If you want an open-ended story, however, you'll still need a goal: think of the feelings and emotions you want to evoke in your reader. That is your goal. Alternatively, you can use an episodic format: whenever you sit down to write a new chapter, try to think of a clear ending for that particular chapter and how you want it to fit in with all the others.
It's veeeeery important to note that the "goal" of your climax doesn't have to be made up of cold, hard facts. What really matters is the impact you want to have on the reader. The experience you want to recreate in the reader's imagination. A murder mystery isn't really about "who done it". It's actually about tension, suspense, brilliant logical deduction that seems obvious in retrospect, and--of course--mystery. The identity of the killer is just a tool to trigger the desired reaction in the reader
Example: Here's the next part of my planning process, where I flesh out the quick one-sentence blurb. Yes, the spelling and punctuation is atrocious. That is intentional. When I'm still in the daydreaming phase, I try to ignore my inner editor
Step 2: The Beginning
However you choose to organize your plot, you should always start at the end and work your way back. How far back? I'm glad you asked: always begin your story as close to the ending as possible.
Seriously. Every story is a journey to the climax, and good writers know how to cut the fat. Backstory is not story. Prologues are not story. Exposition is not story. Introductions are not story. Author's notes are most certainly not story. Guess what? *Story* is story. Think of all the major plot points that absolutely need to happen to ensure that your climax and denmouement make sense and have the desired result. If a major plot point is unessecary or counterproductive to how the story ends, don't waste your time with it. Be sure to do this while you're still in the early planning/daydreaming phase. An ounce of prevention will save you and your readers a lot of grief.
You know the first half of the first chapter of Death of Daring Do, where the Main Six face off against the Indomitable Diamond Dutchess? Kind of comes out of nowhere, doesn't it? Just dumps you in the middle of the action. Well as it happens, I wrote an entire backstory that explains everything. You can check it out here.
This was useful to me as a resource. Why didn't I include this in the story itself? Because it would be BOOOOORING! The story isn't really about her, or the history behind this spectacular, action-packed encounter. It's just an excuse for Rainbow Dash to acquire a dose of Miracle Medicine. How she gets it isn't really important, so I kept the intro brief. We only come in at the very climax of the encounter, and the reader is expected to just hit the ground running. I already feel bad enough that I had to include so much expositional dialogue explaining how the characters got into this mess in the first place. I did my best to make it feel like the sort of corny dialogue you'd hear in a cartoon, but I still feel like it's too klunky.
So why include this scene at all? Partly because an action-packed intro helps to grasp the reader's attention. The real reason, however, is that I wanted to replicate the mood and atmosphere of an actual episode of the cartoon show: a quest to save the day and learn something new about friendship. I wanted to create as much contrast as possible between Rainbow Dash's thrilling action-packed adventures, and Derring-Do's bland, dreary day job. This not only sets up the conflict between those two characters, it also hints at the character development Derring-Do experiences throughout the story. All I do is say "No really, there's a whole episode going on here... you just came in at the the very end of it. Take my word for it." If it's done well, the reader will shrug and go along with it.
Example: My decision of when and where to begin the story depends heavily on which characters play the most prominant role, so character biographies are usually the second thing I work on.
Step 3: The Middle
The ending and beginning are usually pretty easy to pin down, but other parts of the story will vary. Generally speaking, once I have the ending in mind, I dream up all the nessecary plot points as they come to me. It's a pretty vague and nebulous process, and the order you do it in isn't really important. However, one thing tends to be consistant: I tend to think of the most important plot points first, regardless of when or where they're supposed to happen. The simplest, boldest plot points practically write themselves.
In general, there are two kinds of plot points. Imagine your story as a game of connect the dots:
"Big" plot points are the dots. They stand on their own. They're in the story because you say so! If you want Pinkie Pie to build a giant robot and fight space aliens, then gosh-darnit she's going to build a giant robot and ain't nopony gonna tell you otherwise! In short, Big plot points make up the entire foundation of the story. Pinkie Pie builds robot because it's a story about Pinkie Pie building a robot.
"Little" plot points are the lines. They act as transitions between the big points, propping them up and spacing them out. The little plot points need to be believable and sensible (within the context of the story, at least), because they exist to keep the story flowing. Their purpose is to move the reader from point A to point B in the least annoying way possible. Little plot points require more work and thought, but they're just as important for controlling the flow of the story.
Why is this important? Because your story is a series of plot points, and how you choose to arrange them or space them apart will have the biggest impact on your story's pacing. Y'know, that thing this guide is supposed to be about.
Example: Here's what my planning document looked like when I finally got around to thinking up individual plot points:
So to recap, here's what most of my planning documents look like:
STORY TITLE HERE
(1) Two sentence blurb summing up the entire story. That's all you get: two sentences.
(2) Two paragraph summary of the entire story. Stare out a window for at least a day before you flesh it out! At this point, mood and tone are much more important than actual story events.
(2.1) One paragraph for how the story begins and what the current state of affairs is...
(2.2) ...And one paragraph for the ending, and a very general impression of how it gets there.(3) Quick Character Biographies. They're one or two paragraphs each, and written in whatever order I think them up.
(3.1) The most pivotal characters usually come first. Their bios focus on their personality.
(3.1.1) Maybe include a line of dialogue to set the character's tone and voice.
(3.2) Secondary character bios also include a description of their important relationships.
(3.2.1) Maybe include a line of dialogue to set the character's tone and voice.
(3.2.2) ...Maybe include a short conversation or an important action.
(3.3) The tertiary characters are even less important: their bios focus on their role in the plot.(4) Quick plot points. They're one paragraph each, and describe a "thing that happens". These are often written completely out of order, and new plot points are added as I think of them.
(4.1) A major plot point. I think of each plot point as a single event with a particular mood.
(4.1.1) Jot down any related"clever bits" as I think of them: a line of dialogue, a quick action scene, and so on.
(4.2) A secondary plot point.These bridge the gap between primary plot points.
(4.2.1) Each plot point can have it's own "clever bits".
(4.?) Add as many plot points as you need. I try to alternate between Major and Minor points.(5) I dunno. Maybe keep track of any reference material you want to use, like a list of Wikipedia links. Whatever works for you.
To be continued! The next part will focus more on the actual pacing side of things, and how you can use the planning phase to keep things orderly and effective. I will hopefully learn more about my own pacing methods. As I said before, I almost never think about them consciously. But I do think about them in the deep, dark, crock-pot of my mind. The psychic crock-pot of DOOM!
Very nice advice. Starting at the end sounds counter-intuitive to some at first, but like you point out, it definitely helps to keep the story focused, always moving toward a goal.
It also helps avoid Abandoned First Chapter Syndrome, where you write that first chapter cuz you had this really interesting premise, yet you have no idea how it ends or possibly not even know where to go after the premise hits. Premises are, frankly, a dime-a-dozen, but it's not a proper story until you realize the message and the ending, even if it's vague and ill-defined at this stage in the planning process.
I might be jumping the gun a bit on Part 2, but it helps to repeat these steps into the writing process. It's easy to say, "Okay, in this scene, I need to have Fluttershy and AJ go to the store to buy cabbages," in the outline phase, then proceed to write 5k about them shooting the breeze while they shop for groceries. Upon review of the draft, it helps to ask: is this conversation necessary? To quote Vonnegut, does it either advance the action or reveal character? Could this just be merged in with some other scene? Could this scene happen off-screen, and just get a two-line reference in another scene? It helps to play Devil's Advocate and argue with ourselves (or with an editor), justifying our actions within the story we wrote, and defending why this particular element is required in the story. If it doesn't serve a purpose after all, it should probably be cut.