Story "Flow" ~ Pacing

Story transitions can be difficult to maneuver. 

Someone on Reddit asked his fellow writers which aspect of their writing they're most proud of. I almost responded, but so many people replied, "dialogue", my answer would have been redundant. Yes, I do excel at dialogue, which I believe can not only advance a story seamlessly, but reveals a lot about individual characters' personalities.

Thinking about my almost-response, though, it turns out I'm quite proud of the pacing of my stories. It may be that I'm proud because I've been able to overcome that initial deficiency.

I've read books that contain jarring scene changes, and not jarring in a good way. Absolutely if a writer wants to shock the reader with an unexpected act (think murder or an explosion) "jarring" is the way to go. It creates tension. But you don't want to make a reader tense because they hate how you've broken up a perfectly good storyline for no reason.

A lazy way to segue into a new scene is to play out the current one for too long. Often, I'll end a scene with dialogue that is sort of a denouement. Except you don't want to spoil that by dragging out the dialogue needlessly.

Completely made-up example:

That's it; I'm done.

Done with what?

You know what.

Are you really sure you're done?

Come on! This is the correct scene ender: 

That's it; I'm done.

Now you can transition.

End with that line, leave an appropriate amount of white space, then begin a new scene.

Not only does it leave the reader curious about how the character will show that they're "done", but it's a natural break, one that won't have readers gritting their teeth.

This bad example is also bad writing. So many writers online talk about their "overwriting", a problem I've never experienced and in fact sometimes wish I could (I notoriously write short). You know, the people who brag that they just completed their 240,000-word novel. But are those thousands of words simply self-indulgence? They're enjoying writing a particular scene so much that they can't let it end? 

There is an instinct in knowing when a scene has ended, but knowing also involves doing it wrong a few times, until the light bulb goes off. Reading back what you've written and feeling that something is "off". Or worse, reading it back and thinking, "Now I'm bored."

Of course, bad pacing (specifically, trimming) can be fixed in the editing process. Unfortunately, I can't write that way. As someone who doesn't plan a story, I need the right flow to keep me moving along. When I set about distilling my bad second novel, I found particular scenes that were either too long or completely unnecessary. The trouble was, I was in love with those particular words. I don't often write narrative that leaves me glowing with satisfaction. Alas, I had to become a mercenary. At first I took the coward's way out. I deleted the offending text, but pasted it elsewhere, just in case. That "just in case" never happened. Despite my grief, I found that the story flowed better without it. While it's true that I have to be more brutal as a "novella-ist" instead of a novelist, a writer can't simply leave in a vomit of unnecessary words simply to meet a word-count requirement. The right pacing is just as important in a novel as it is in a shorter work. 

The other part of transitions (where the word "flow" comes in) is that you don't want to take the reader out of the story. While the goal is to segue into a completely different scene, the new scene shouldn't come out of left field. It needs to have some connection to the previous one. As in my example, I would write something that demonstrates how the main character is truly "done". Maybe she's at home packing her bags...or she goes out and gets sloppy drunk...or something. I'm not switching over to her taking a leisurely drive in the countryside and admiring all the lovely trees. Unless those trees are somehow a metaphor for her current state of mind, in which case it had better make itself known ~ fast. On second thought, just no. She needs to be doing something; not contemplating.

I write this post to bolster myself, and if it helps someone else, great. Certain aspects of my writing come naturally, while others need constant reinforcement. If I don't take my own advice, all this talk is just "overwriting".