On Your Mark—Racing in Fiction

Few events excite us as much as a race, a competition of speed. Sports fans love racing. Readers love to read about races, and writers rush to fill that need.

Image from Pixabay

For this post, I use the term ‘race’ to mean a contest of speed, not a means of differentiating people based on physical characteristics.

In fiction, a race allows a writer to introduce thrills and tension, to reveal a character’s traits, and to heighten conflict. Races often pit the protagonist against either a...