Pacing

[Peg Herring]

Another interesting refresher at Sleuthfest concerned pacing. I'm a pantser and probably always will be, but I've learned over time that there comes a reckoning. I write until I get to a certain point. I know the beginning and the end, but there's that muddle in the middle that must be dealt with: things have to happen, people have to be spotlighted as either red herrings or to foreshadow their guilt in the end. But it can't lag or droop. It has to have focus, clarity, and interest.

That's when sticky-notes can help, they tell me. Put all your main plot points on little notes and stick them on a large poster-board. If you use different voices in your narrative, make them different colors. When this is done you can see at a glance where the voice changes and how much of the story is told in each voice. You can also see where things must be added, left out, or moved in order to clarify and advance the plot, and of course it's easy to move them around with the portable little stickies. Looking at the plot this way lets you see your pacing and make sure that it arcs ever upward, with smaller action-arcs along the way that lead to the big finale-arc.

I've done this with note cards with less than spectacular results, but I'm thinking the sticky-notes might serve better, maybe even be fun. I'll try it in the next week or so and report back.

[Dana King]

I often use note cards of different colors, either for which character's POV the scene is in, or for which sub-plot is prominent. The colors make it easy for me top see if someone or somehting is hogging the story, or has been neglected.