I’ve talked here about pacing before, but that was about the pace of the story arc over the entire book. Today I’d like to get a little more specific about writing for pace in a particular sequence of events in a story, and also about emphasis.
Timing
Writing is nothing more than stringing together a bunch of words: verbs, nouns, pronouns, conjunctions. But when we are writing, our task is more than simply providing information to our readers. In fiction, especially, it’s all about recording and eliciting emotion. Giving our readers a sense of the timing of the action is a great way to support that emotion.
Let’s say my character, Hector Human, is running from an unknown pursuant down a dark street. The chaser is dangerous, deadly even — a predator. Hector is running for his life, even though he doesn’t understand why. He only understands the danger. How might we convey that? Continue reading “Writing for Timing and Emphasis”
Paladin’s Odyssey
Depending on where you’ve been keeping yourself over the past couple of months you may have heard rumblings that the market for self-published literature has bottomed out. Kindle Unlimited has reduced earnings for Indie authors and forced many to return to their day jobs, there are too many traditionally-published books on the market at lower prices, or insert any other complaint here that shows Amazon slighting indie authors. As with everything we hear, whether it’s online or in the realer world, we should examine the sources and try to determine their motivation. Once we’ve done that, we often discover that the sky isn’t really falling and there is no reason to get fitted for a tinfoil hat. Not yet anyway.