One, Two, Three… One, Two, Three

I watched a movie this past week called Shall We Dance? Not the Hollywood version with Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez but the Japanese version, which is slightly different. Needless to say it was a good movie and fascinating to see the progression of our protagonist through his dancing and his life. Got me thinking about how dancing and music can really mirror the pace of a story. Make sense?

Think Jaws the movie.  I bet just by mentioning that, many of you could come up with that goofy song played every time the audience is made to believe the great white is nearby or something is going to happen.  I bet it worked for you when you first saw it, am I right? Same thing goes for most movies. Some kind of sinister music for suspense or horror. Mellow music to evoke emotion or calm the audience.  Paring music to scenes is an art in itself. Same goes for choosing a pace in our novels.

What? Pace you ask? I know, many times we writers don't even think about it. We just start writing or plotting and you aim to have several points (inciting incident, climax, etc.) but other than that, things just fall into place. Or do they? How many books have you read with sagging middles? Or have you picked up a book and gotten to a really exciting scene and all of a sudden the author is concentrating on the details in the carpet and wallpaper?  I have and my first reaction is to either groan or skip through that part until I get to the part I want to know about.

So how do we keep on pace? Most often, I believe it's important to start with a scene. Quite simply, a scene is where something happens in our novel. Many times, authors aim to start books with something exciting and captivating. Whatever you choose, you want your readers to be hooked and keep reading.  Following a scene or scenes, we have sequels. Sequels are parts of our books where our protagonists, villains, etc. get to contemplate what happened, or where we as authors try to create an emotion about what just occurred. A very simple pace for a book would be scene-sequel-scene-sequel… I've found this works great for shorter works but can be more difficult to sustain with longer works. A longer work might require a couple sequels between each scene or if the novel is action packed, you may have more scenes and fewer sequels.

Either way, we as authors set the pace throughout our novels.  Areas of the novels with more action or drama may require more scenes whereas areas with less action may require more sequels. Whatever you decide, make sure it is a pace or rhythm which will keep your readers on track.  The last thing you want is a novel so action packed you make your reader dizzy or vice versa, your reader starts snoozing a third of the way through.

So back to that drawing board and setting your pace. Believe me, your readers will be all the happier for it.  Happy writing and good luck!

Filed under: Toni Kelly, Writer's Life, Writing Topics