Let's try this one today. Follow #TenThingsAboutPacing to collect them all!
https://twitter.com/luna_luminarium/status/1039895794160164865
1. Pacing a novel is not simply a question of slow=boring and fast=exciting. It is mostly about managing tension within the narrative. #TenthingsAboutPacing
2. It's also about *varying* the pace - any pace, fast or slow, becomes boring without variety. #TenthingsAboutPacing
3. You also need to consider the length of the piece you're writing. A short novel or story needs to get moving a lot faster than a 1000-page epic. #TenthingsAboutPacing
4. In general, action requires a faster pace, while building tension (and relaxing it) needs a slower one. #TenthingsAboutPacing
5. To speed up the pace, streamline your sentences. Short, graphic sentences with relatively sparse imagery generally help to speed up the narrative. #TenthingsAboutPacing
6. To slow it down, use longer, more contemplative sentences. Linger on the description and sense-impressions. #TenthingsAboutPacing
7. Dialogue tends to speed up the pace. Description slows it down again. #TenthingsAboutPacing
8. It's important to give your reader space to recover from fast-paced, exciting action scenes. A quiet, possibly humorous scene between slices of fast-paced action maximizes the impact. #TenthingsAboutPacing
9. As a rule, it can help if you pick up the pace at pivotal moments in your plot - the beginning; revelations and reversals; the beginning of a new act; the end. #TenthingsAboutPacing
10. Vocabulary choice affects pacing. Short, simple, onomatopaeic words speed it up: long words and unusual vocabulary or imagery slow it down again. #TenthingsAboutPacing
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