{"id":832,"date":"2017-03-15T21:49:46","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T01:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=832"},"modified":"2017-03-16T07:39:47","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T11:39:47","slug":"writer-walks-reader-gallops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/15\/writer-walks-reader-gallops\/","title":{"rendered":"Writer walks, reader gallops"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I received an email through my website about an essay contest from as organization called AddictionResource.com. There seems to be no fee to enter, and the first prize is $2,000 toward college tuition. The email asked me to spread the word. I googled the organization and the scholarship, which is listed on a couple of college financial aid websites, so it\u2019s legit as far as I can tell, but you should check it out, too, if you\u2019re interested. Here\u2019s the link: https:\/\/addictionresource.com\/scholarship\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On October 5, 2016, Martina wrote, My current WiP is supposed to be a novella, but I find the plot hurrying on too quickly. Any ideas on how to make the story progress more slowly?<\/em><\/p>\n

Also, what do you think a stereotypical \u201cauthor\u201d looks like? I\u2019d like to dress up as one for my high school\u2019s Halloween party, but I don\u2019t think many people would recognize what I was in costume as (or not in costume\u2026 I don\u2019t know). Any and all ideas are welcome!<\/em><\/p>\n

Christie V Powell wrote back, I think pacing is very individualized, and something you have to develop a sense of. Personally I use chapters to control my pacing. I read somewhere that a chapter is like a miniature story, with a build-up to a climax, while ending on some kind of hook. I try to vary the climaxes so that some of them are plot based (Keita and her friends escaped the noblewoman\u2019s house) and some are character based (Carli decided to help the abandoned kids). The best ones are both (Keita defeated the feral dog and then realized she\u2019d been wrong to be angry at her friends). I also try to mix up whether they are cliffhangers (the boulder slammed shut over the tunnel, locking Keita\u2019s friends inside), or ending on a poignant image (the lizard that had been petrified because the enemy thought it might be the main character sank into the sand). The rest of the chapter leads up to the climax in some way or another.<\/em><\/p>\n

Interesting! I\u2019d never thought of chapters as controlling pace.<\/p>\n

Oddly, if done right, slowing a story makes it more tense.<\/p>\n

Imagine cell phones haven\u2019t been invented yet. We\u2019re on a train (as I happen to be right now). Someone is waiting for us at our destination with news, which will be wonderful or awful. Our futures hang in the balance. The train stops between stations. Minutes pass. Do we relax or grow more tense?<\/p>\n

We grow more tense–even if a second before the train stops we\u00a0were wishing the trip would go on forever, with knowledge endlessly delayed.<\/p>\n

Detail slows things down. For example, suppose we\u2019re writing the train trip rather than living it. We know nothing important plot-wise is going to happen until Shirley, our MC, arrives at her station, but we want to make the journey work for us. Lanie, our MC\u2019s sister, takes Shirley to the station and presses something into her hands. Shirley finds her seat. She\u2019s early, so the next seat is unoccupied. If it stays unoccupied, she thinks, that will be more comfortable but will be a bad omen. Let someone come. If it\u2019s an old man, that will also be bad. She looks out the window to see her sister\u2019s comforting form, but Lanie has gone. Why didn\u2019t she know to wait? Or had she known but something befell her? Shirley looks down at whatever Lanie gave her, a palm-size something wrapped in newspaper and tied with cord.<\/p>\n

And so on. We can\u2019t go on forever, making the written train trip take longer than an actual ride on the Orient Express, but we can spin it out and heighten the tension thereby.<\/p>\n

In this example, I\u2019ve slowed the story mostly with Shirley\u2019s thoughts. So thoughts are one tool.<\/p>\n

Setting is another, especially if we make it serve our story. The train groans and wheezes as it leaves the station. Shirley (thoughts again) wonders if it\u2019s going to break down. She goes to the dining car, which smells exactly as her mother\u2019s pot roast used to. And so on. The windows may be grimy, so she won\u2019t be able to recognize landmarks. The seats are soft, slumber-inducing\u2013but she doesn\u2019t want to sleep!<\/p>\n

Dialogue can slow our story down, too. A nosy man sits next to Shirley. They talk. She tells him her story, or she lies. If he doesn\u2019t know it already, the reader gets the backstory of the train trip. Or the reader gets the lie, and, depending what we do, knows or doesn\u2019t know it\u2019s a lie.<\/p>\n

It may be helpful to ask a friend or a fellow writer to read our story and point out any places that seem rushed and any spots that he or she didn\u2019t understand. Sometimes the moments that are unclear are the ones that need expanding.<\/p>\n

And sometimes, occasionally, once in a while, a story is straightforward. We think we\u2019re writing a novella, but it\u2019s really a short story. We\u2019ve done everything right. There just aren\u2019t many twists and turns. Nothing wrong with that.<\/p>\n

As for an author costume, though it\u2019s way past Halloween, I think it\u2019s all in behavior not in what you wear. Hang a sign around your neck. It can say \u201cAuthor\u201d and then you sit alone and stare out a window, occasionally talking softly to yourself. Or it can says \u201cBrilliant Author,\u201d in which case you move from group to group and hold forth about character development and plot devices and the good sentence. Martina, if you’re reading this, please say what you did wear.<\/p>\n

Here are four prompts:<\/p>\n

\u2219 Theseus\u2019s father waits on the shore for his son’s ship to return. If Theseus is alive, the sail will be white; if he’s dead, it will be black. Using plenty of detail, write the scene of the father’s sojourn. Make his wait exciting. Write at least three pages. Include thoughts, dialogue, and setting.<\/p>\n

\u2219 This probably has nothing to do with slowing things down, but can you believe Theseus? He forgets to change the sail and lets his father think him dead–which has tragic consequences in the myth. Write a story that explains Theseus\u2019s forgetfulness, if that’s what it really is.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Fairy tales in their original form are pure telling. In lots of them, a loving mother dies. Alas, she doesn\u2019t get much of a sendoff, maybe five words: The queen sickened and died<\/em>. In old western movies and TV shows, sometimes a character would be shot, then stagger several steps, collapse, rise up on one elbow, gasp out a few words, and finally die. Write the queen\u2019s death scene. Spin it out. Have her revive a few times. Show what her death means to the people around her.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Make up Shirley\u2019s reason for riding the train. Write the trip and make the news at the end be a surprise.<\/p>\n

Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I received an email through my website about an essay contest from as organization called AddictionResource.com. There seems to be no fee to enter, and the first prize is $2,000 toward college tuition. The email asked me to spread the word. I googled the organization and the scholarship, which is listed on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[191],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions\/836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}