How to Achieve Good Story Pacing

[@Just__Jamieg33k]

As a non-native English speaker who prefers to write in English I often feel like throwing myself into a horrible situation for my stories. But I would like to say that your videos have helped me so much to take a more critical look at my writing. I was able to realize why my story didn't work and after years of not looking at it, I started a full rewrite. And I am already feel so much better. Not only this video but all your videos have been so full of helpful information I can't wait to watch more! Thank you for sharing your craft!

[@EmilyBourne]

“Enter late and leave early” that is so helpful. Oh my god my middles are always a mess. This video was so helpful, will be rewatching and rewatching this.

[@joy941]

Good luck with The Deadly Middles!

[@kb470]

:) i dont understand what that actually means in practice

[@rociopenin7823]

Same

[@SysterYster]

@@kb470 I'd say, enter a scene when it's calm, build up to something and leave before it's resolved. Then the next chapter can start with the situation being resolved, calm, build up the next thing, leave early again.

[@josiahmadera9796]

"Enter late and leave early" sounds like me at a party

[@julesb.1840]

The story curve has a name!! With some slight alterations, it's called Freytag's Pyramid! Just in case any of y'all are studying English.

[@kittysrock16]

I’m binging all these before I start writing

[@meatforge]

How is your book going?

[@hearthoseokb7784]

Sameee

[@LavenderChill]

How’s the book going?

[@bryanbrosta9816]

Bro idk if ur still writing but if you're similar to me here's some advice: sometimes when somebody is getting little focus, it's best to merge two characters into one in a next draft or something. Also world building shouldn't intrude on plot, location and then location might just drag it out

[@hibuhemu2311]

@Leland Moises no, nobody does give a shit

[@irinaphoenix2169]

Someone explained pacing to me as the number of questions your story raises vs the number of questions that are answered, and that really helped me understand.

[@elfstones93ify]

If you don't have one already I'd love a video on trilogies and how we plot our MC character arcs across all 3 and also in each individual book. Or any advice about how to go about a trilogy. Thanks!!

[@hooligan2661]

Okay, I know I'm not an actual author, but I like to think that I've read a decent amount of books to get a slight inkling of what's what. There is a author on the site I write/read on, and most of her books are trilogies. You write trilogies exactly like how you would write a novel, but pace it out more. The first book is like the introduction, the second is the action packed middle, and the third is the resolving finale. For the first book, this is where you introduce the main characters, make sure your plot's coming out and just give the reader a good idea of where your story falls. The first book is the beginning of the whole story, you would leave it nice and sweet, with an introduction that should be rather long, so make sure it has spice and excitement, but the biggest event happens right around the end, and you leave the whole story on a cliff hanger to get your readers pushing for the second book. On the second book, every moment should be packed with little pieces of action so that your readers don't get bored. Again, the biggest event is right around the end, and I find that if you continue the story with the first chapter of the third book either right after the second or a good time period after (around a year or two in your story), this tacks in viewers. The third book should be the one where there's the most action. There should be a huge event right before the middle of the story, and from then on there's some emotional, fluffy bits (the emotion depends on the story) before it goes into the rebuilding of your MC's happiness. I know you probably won't read the whole thing, but if you do, I hope it helped you on your writing.

[@hinata5736]

Sarah This sounds quite good, but I wouldn’t really think of it that way. As an author you don’t get the opportunity to tell your readers things like „this is the first book, so I’m going to bore you with much character and worldbuilding, but stick to the story, because I can promise you the second book will be exciting!“ You oftentimes only get one chance and if your readers aren’t convince by your first book they won’t read your second or third one. The fact that you have to „get to the point quite fast“ in stand-alones isn’t that you don’t have much time to describe everything and that you have to be able to finish the story within a certain wordcount, but rather that you don’t bore the reader, hence books in trilogies should also follow that rule. In general you want every book to be written as a stand-alone, exciting and just... good (elements like backstory, actual story, character development etc. balanced out) and each book should follow its own three act structure (or what you prefer). But besides that they also have to fit together and form a compact story that looks as you described it. Although the books should have a solid structure, you can introduce one to the main cast in the first one and then skip that in the second or third book, after the first and second book there should still be some unanswered question for your third book to target and so on... -> three individual books with individual plots and and an overarching plot that connects them all

[@gamewriteeye769]

If you have the right resolution that is a cliffhanger that wraps up the current story, that is rightfully so the balance needed to be achieved. I call it not the "cliffhanger" but the "clipboard" of storytelling.

[@TheAngelOfDeath01]

For me, good story pacing is what you achieve when you keep your story concise and to the point. It's one of those techniques you really cannot 'unlock' until you do something else first. Stories with things like info dumping, or too many in-between scenes that doesn't move the story forward are slow story culprits, meaning you don't want to take two or three pages on covering a breakfast scene or a shopping scene just for the heck of it. It must be relevant to the story. I don't care if a story is 50.000 or 500.000 words in length if the story pace is balanced.

[@amandaodom2413]

Felt “fine” about my opening set up and inciting incident.... But while I was watching this, an idea came to me... one that would improve my story tremendously! Fantastic! Right? Wrong!!! Now I have to rework the first 30k words in my book. So thank you Alexa Donne for completely messing up my writing groove 😂❤️

[@animezae]

Me every time I watch her videos lol

[@Frisklordofyoutube]

dude the same thing happened to me and now i have to restart the whole thing

[@ryzikx]

same

[@beautifulandmotivated3181]

According to “the write practice,” Stephen King said your story should be 25% beginning, 50% middle, and 25% end, and you can determine this structure by looking at word count.

[@LadyOfTheEdits]

Or just look at the story as a whole. I don't feel like doing word count. It's limiting

[@-hayday-7350]

I personally love Stephen Kings novels, and I gotta admit that the pacing in his books are perfect.

[@karenamyx2205]

@@LadyOfTheEdits That's like saying when you are driving, you don't feel like using roads, they're limiting. Lol Yeah I guess, if you consider structural integrity limiting.

[@kz1231]

Just found your videos. Love them. I have SEVEN books that I dread editing and all of this has been incredibly helpful. Now I dread editing them... uh... differently. But I feel like I have a game plan, and for that, I can only thank you.

[@thecaptain7238]

I rarely read, so I've probably read five novels in my life, and none of them had an identifiable plot structure. And I loved it. I hate predictable structure. I'm very good at picking out patterns and structures and predicting outcomes, and if I saw that in a book I would probably put it down.

[@bytheBrooke]

This is such a hard topic to cover and you did it beautifully! Your story curve talk was solid! Also, love the cherry shirt :)

[@TheCosplayInsanity]

What if a character has to travel a long distance (and time (I tend to let logistics influence my story)) to get to the next main plot event? Shift the attention to another POV or weave in a sub-plot that relates to the main plot and have minor events for the subplot when they reach different towns and cities?

[@kyraezikeuzor]

That’s a good idea!

[@idontwanttohearitidont4792]

Are they going on a quest?

[@LadyOfTheEdits]

Ooooo I love this!!! This is what I do in my books. It's so fun!!!

[@veros7106]

I LOVE how you connect the technical/academic techniques to larger, squishier concepts. It is super helpful to see the way the planks and nails build the house! Thanks so much for the GREAT content :)

[@vinceknox4425]

I had momentarily forgotten how writers used the word “pants-er” and when you said you were one, I was like “she pulls people’s pants down?!” Oops.

[@akgwriting9481]

Lol

[@darknightofthesoul7628]

Alexa, for starting off seeming to be unsure of how to present story pacing to us, I must tell you that you did a smashing job of it! I especially appreciated your use of the bell curve - that brought it into focus. You are...amazing!

[@TaxiMathGirl]

This is so good, wow!

[@ninaspages]

Hello Alexa. I am so thankful I found you're channel here on KZbin. I am actually writing my own story and I was kinda stuck and felt like giving up but when I saw your video on harsh writing advice, I was instantly cheered up by all the things you said because it is true. And now I am trying to revise my story with your advice in mind. Thank you. Your videos are really helpful.

[@chibaemi00009]

Same

[@emberdrake81]

What are your thoughts on time skips and flashbacks?

[@NopaliToons]

The advice I was given on time skips is they're only to be used when you're trying to get to a specific outcome / discovery sooner and NOTHING happens that is relevant to that end. Ex. Characters need to wait 3 weeks to get their 23 & Me results posted so they can find out if they're related. --> Time skip, because we need to see what happens as a result of that discovery, not if they went to school, brushed their teeth, etc. If something plot-relevant needs to happen, put it after the discovery. Flashbacks...use sparingly. If you have to make it a flashback, then why isn't in the story to begin with?

[@SaraLea]

Ooh good question about flashbacks. In the story I’m currently writing, I need flashback to something that happened in the main characters childhood and have been trying to figure out the best way to do that- a prologue, a flashback in the middle of the story or???

[@officialname9817]

@@SaraLea just put it where u feel it works there’s no rule to writing and no one can tell you how to write

[@lcchoreography8360]

Word count stresses me out! My writer friends are always talking word count, whereas I just write, only to then get sucked into their word count obsession. I then spend entirely too much time thinking about my count being too low at that part in the story, agonizing over revealing too much too soon. Pacing kills me.

[@akgwriting9481]

Whereas mine is too much, lol me too

[@xphoenixrising]

So you are the first person I’ve run into that was able to explain the bell curve to me. THANK YOU. I was struggling to apply my novel to it, since it doesn’t follow a hero’s journey, and you helped me immediately put my story into context. Do you have a video that goes into each of those stages? I thought you did but my mobile app is failing me! Great video!!!

[@AlexaDonne]

I'm so glad it helped!!! The story curve helped me a lot because I also don't really follow the Hero's Journey. I haven't done videos for each thing, but I did do intro to story beats, which goes over a lot of the beats: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gaGaf4VomNKGiZY.

[@xphoenixrising]

Alexa Donne That’s what I was thinking of! It was really nice because I had your example, Jane Eyre, to think about when I saw it and how you would apply that story. Examples are helpful, especially when they aren’t THG or HP (as wonderful as HP is ❤️). Alexa, you’ve totally helped me hit through a major part of my brick wall! Now I just have to figure out whether I should kill these two characters or not. Ah, to be a writer.

[@AlexaDonne]

Oh I do use THG as an example a lot! It's my go-to b/c the structure and arcs are great and I've read it so many times haha. But I'll try to use other books as examples, too :) (I always vote for murder, btw. Conflicts! Stakes!)

[@xphoenixrising]

Alexa Donne THG has great arcs, especially for what is popular in the YA genre! I think for me, I start panicking because I’m not writing that genre, so I can’t figure out how to apply it. You have tons of great explanations, this one just happened to really speak to the one particular problem I was having LOL you’re doing a great job 👍

[@kennybills]

nice detailed info on pacing. it can be a tricky thing to figure out and not be too fast or slow in each scene and through the entire story. thanks!

[@chibaemi00009]

One day I'll post a link of my book here. I was about to give up on my first book then I found your harsh advise for newbie writers. I'll write that damn book now, since my health is getting better. I thank you in advance. Your videos will be my guide now. God bless you!

[@OnLyhereAlone]

#chibaemi00009 hope you're doing well. How far have you gone in that book?

[@chibaemi00009]

I'm currently stock on chapter 10 because I kept editing what I've written on the previous chapters 😭 Whenever I reread them to get inspired to write more, I always end up having better ideas and I edit. Now I'm stock, though I'm done writing all the plots to finish my book. But I just can't seem to move on to the next part.

[@OnLyhereAlone]

Good to know. At least you've started. Too much information has been the bane for me to start. I've decided to not watch anymore "tutorials" now until I'm stuck or ready to edit. I hope to start asap.

[@chibaemi00009]

I hope we both finish our books with a bang! I wanna talk to you again once we're done with them. Are you writing any right now though? Stay safe btw.

[@hibak8196]

You definitely simplified this for me, thanks!

[@Yours_sincerely_thedreamer]

In my book I use pacing as a stilistic device: In the beginning my character is quite depressed and the world seems to rush past her, she only now and than describes little snips of her surrounding and moves through the world without caring about where she is and what is going on around her. When she gets better she describes more and more of her surroundings and is more invested in what is happening. Do you think to play with the pacing like this is a no go, or do you think it can be done good?

[@elnazhashemi-w4j]

Wow that actually sounds very exciting to me. I'm not expert, so I can't answer your question, but I'd love to try your story.

[@bclocke2303]

I am thankful for the advice of jumping into the story and leave early and the curve structure. Plus, looking at books of my favorite authors. I thank you so much.

[@SensibleSoulHealing]

I looooove your graph!!! I think it's the best I've seen. It spoke to me. I really found myself thinking about past books I wrote and where I went wrong in the past when i was a more novice writer. Thank you for such a profound reflection experience!!

[@kerijosephson2005]

Thank you, great advice. Keeping the arc in mind is super helpful as I get started. This is all new to me, thanks for giving me the confidence to get started.

[@RPBCACUEAIIBH]

If you want a hook at the beginning of your book, you may wanna start at the inciting incident on the story curve here 11:18, and only hint back to the setup section rather then actually writing it. ;)

[@julietbullen-dunbar7059]

I enjoy listening to your shows. I find something every time that sends me back to a WIP to fix, change or re-ponder.

[@Huyedelomalo]

This was a very good one. Thank you Alexa.

[@michdie1046]

This video made me realize my book idea needed a midpoint turn 😅

[@annel1991]

Thanks bunches, Alexa. I very much am a person that loves revising over and over and have trouble creating that first draft. The tip that didn't work for you, but I have a feeling will for me, is the quick and dirty draft. I might even start it smaller, at around 5000 words, but I'll see what works best.

[@nuthinmuffins5073]

This channel is sooo under-subscribed! I've perused various booktubers and, while most are just fine, they're geared more towards beginning writers and folks who may be writing as a hobby. And don't get me wrong: everyone should write for fun if they're willing to! Writing is excellent therapy and a brilliant form of communication, and I believe everyone has at least one story in them - waiting to be told. That said (and again, not to sound like a braggart), I feel like I was born to write. I've had a relationship with it since I first began to understand the concept of books. It's a relationship that has had many highs and lows, eventually leading me to this point in my life, wherein I've got my proverbial shit together and have finally committed to a novel. It will be the first of many projects, because I have a backed-up flow of them. My stories have been building behind a psychological dike for decades. Now that I've torn down the barriers, ideas both whole and partial are spilling over the embankment and flooding my daily consciousness. So many stories, so little time... Every English and writing teacher I had, from kindergarten to college, encouraged me to follow writing as an actual career path. Not a day of my adulthood has gone by without me feeling pangs of regret and shame for letting them, and especially myself, down by not taking advantage of what appears to be a precious gift (and ew, really, I hate how boastful that sounds). On the other hand, those negative emotions are tempered by the wisdom I've gained which tells me it was necessary to live a life filled with misadventures and flaws, because it's given me both inspiration and perspective. It's allowed me to meet some incredible characters and learn things about life that I wouldn't know any other way. And for that I am grateful, and understand the time to begin could only truly be now; I had to reach this point in my own hero's journey. Anyhoo, the point of this is to say that this channel is the only one I've found that's actually helped me write better prose, because the advice is suited to writers who have more confidence in their commitment to the craft. I feel Alexa has a fair amount of confidence in her own writing, and she strikes me as a good writer, without even reading her work (in fact, I probably will do so at some point). It sounds like she has a thorough knowledge of key resources about the writing process, so it's almost like an online class. It's also harder to find booktubers who give so much insight into traditional publishing. She's completely convinced me to go that route. But what really sets her apart, in my opinion, is how she addresses every aspect of writing, and does so in a way that makes me feel like she has confidence in her viewers. She treats her audience like we are already in the community. It gives people inner strength to have such a resource. Like I said, this is the only channel I've found that actually gives me advice I don't already know, even if some of it is stuff I knew intuitively, it's great to have help conceptualising it in such an intelligent, professional, yet amiable fashion. I sincerely hope her channel grows in leaps and bounds, as well as her writing career.

[@billyalarie2841]

the only thing i would say is that, unless your reader is looking for short, snappy paragraphs with punchy pacing and relatively simple phrases and wording (which i don't mean as a bad thing, please don't think i mean to say that style equates to poor writing - i loved The Hunger Games, for instance), you're not necessarily shooting yourself in the foot by writing chunky paragraphs with long sentences; however i think the purple prose is slightly (but only slightly) subjective, but you would be able to tell if a novel like The Road was written by someone whose prose is purple, rather than the guy who wrote that one, Cormac McCarthy, who i consider to be an absolute master.

[@001SpecialAgent]

I think it is partly subjective and I think most good writers will be able to do both and just work to determine what works best for any particular scene. Some scenes need to be fleshed out and built well and detailed, others need to get in and get out quick to keep the train rolling.

[@lysatronix]

This is absolutely so helpful. I got my notes back from my beta and it was a bunch notes about pacing (although he didn't mention the word so I don't think he knew what he was referring to_, and then I had a freak out because, oh no! I'm terrible at writing! But for real this video is so helpful, especially the part about the bell curve. I definitely have to butcher my own book just to get it right.

[@MadisontheLawyeringArtist]

Your hair looks so sleek and cute in this video! And your advice is amazing as always!

[@scottherf]

Hey Alexa, solid video. I totally agree regarding the BS2 beat sheet a li'l denouement in the right spot goes a long way! Cheers, scott.

[@Kelly-ib1hf]

I read Brightly Burning in one day on vacation. I couldn't put it down! You definitely nailed pacing. Can't wait for your new novel!

[@Miko_Maus]

Omg 9:46-9:55 had me laughing so hard. I totally get what you’re saying. Delivery was so endearing and funny 😆

[@timhill7565]

Much love for the info!

[@emmakusmaul8832]

I love how you mentioned reading a LOT of things with good pacing! and haha I'm actually just about to start reading Harry Potter so that's perfect :)

[@cringemeister04]

Emma Kusmaul 🎶 Miraculous 🎶

[@rileye5347]

I’m on the 4th book, it’s a great series and it’s very well written. I haven’t found a page in the books that I didn’t enjoy.

[@Noxstandingby]

this was really usefull, thank you! Though sometimes I wonder how I should use pacing because I'm writing a series. Should I follow all the beats in each book, or should it be spread over the whole series? or both?

[@shannenlibres2365]

I want fast pace, when think fast pace I think Deathnote. Seems every thirty seconds or so new info, a new mystery, a new challenge comes up and you just have to know what they make of it. That's what I think makes it addicting

[@officialname9817]

Death note isn’t a novel

[@shannenlibres2365]

@@officialname9817 so what? It's still a story and you can still learn from it

[@officialname9817]

@@shannenlibres2365 shows and books are different? Pacing for the two are different??? It’s easier to do that in a show because you have images while in writing it’s obviously gonna be a slower pace???????? If you’re learning story pacing then maybe take most of your info from stories with good pacing do I need to explain this? Did you bother to think about why I commented what I said or did you just start moving your fingers?

[@shannenlibres2365]

@@officialname9817 I do mostly learn from actual books. Im gonna learn from any media I want. If you have a problem with that I don't care. Have a nice day.

[@lazercomplex6891]

I do have a question about pacing with the three act structure. Do you continually build up the pacing and make it go faster until it reaches the climax (turning point) and slow it down, or do you balance them out and have more of one another as the story reaches the turning point?

[@AlexaDonne]

I like to build slowly up to the mid-point, and then have things tumble downhill pretty fast... there are always little moments of pause in act 3, but nothing that will drag the pacing too much.

[@lazercomplex6891]

Alexa Donne Thank you for the information! I will definitely use it to help me with my stories.

[@lovemochaxx]

i'm somewhat stuck in honey right now because i'm unsure of what my story's genre is. my story is about a boy named naomi novák whose biggest dream is to climb k2, the savage mountain. the longest part of the book would be his journey up the mountain (he does it alone) and there are some parts were it gets pretty suspenseful. i assume it'd be a drama or a thriller, but i have no idea! can someone help?

[@relishin]

(I know this is so late but oh well) I struggle with this too, but it depends what sort of themes you have and how you delve into yhem. If you go into detail about death and grieving and pain and maybe religion or racism or any sort of themes like that in depth I would guess at adult, if not I would say YA. Genre wise...I have no idea. Sounds like Adventure, Drama, possibly thriller but if it's only a small part then possibly not thriller. I'm pretty sure mine is YA but I'm not 100% sure, it might lean into adult as I do deal with insanity and deep grief and gruesome death but I don't know. Don't take my word as law, I only said something bcs I've done so muvh research on it for my action-thriller and I just thought I'd have a guess at a track.... Yeah. Word vomit. Woo.

[@beautifulandmotivated3181]

This video was helpful. Thank you.

[@writerericjames4901]

Great video thanks for mentioning three act structure and ticking clock and tournament as pacing techniques :)

[@Starboard528]

Thanks again, Alexa!

[@juliagane317]

This was so helpful I took a screen shot of your bell curve and I was totally going to use it

[@sarawawa8984]

Pacing is the thing I struggle with most and I haven’t found a lot of tips for it! It’s just so confusing for me and I never get it right or consistent

[@vernalviolante]

Thank you for efforts. I can tell you put a lot of work into your videos. Could you perhaps go into more detail about the mirroring you mentioned and provide some good examples?

[@adipocytes3073]

I NEEDED THIS

[@samlucas3243]

Can you do a video on how to balance negative, action and dialogue in the Page?

[@TheVioletWolf]

Goblet of Fire is my fave of the series, too.

[@theresegrant2402]

Love ALL your stuff, Alexa! Whenever I have a few minutes to kill, I turn on my Alexa youtubes. So helpful. Thanks!!

[@christinekaye6393]

Another thing about pacing: After an intense (physical or emotional) scene, give your reader some time to catch their breath with a slower scene.

[@MorganForteMakeup]

I love your videos so much! I’m wrapping up a 100K novel after 11 years (yikes)! And I’m trying to think ahead to editing because my manuscript is such a disaster. Your videos have been so helpful and you’re so beautiful!!❤️ thanks for sharing💞

[@joy941]

What I'm worried about is that my story has NO middle. Yeah, I said no middle. I started, and then had an adventure or two, then skipped to the end. So the first 5 chapters explain my character´s life. Chapter 6 and 7 are the "middle" the following events are leading to the end, connected to it. What should I do?

[@kennybills]

check out this post by Jim Butcher about writing middles: jimbutcher.livejournal.com/1865.html

[@qine6559]

Subscribed. You had me at Jim Butcher.

[@aps-pictures9335]

Could you talk about writing for a plot when you plan a sequel? Surely this might strongly change the ending?

[@johnterpack3940]

I'm curious about this too. I'm working on a story now that has a whole lot more to it than can possibly be covered in a single book. But I know it's bad form to end the story with obvious plans for a sequel.

[@SysterYster]

I'm afraid I'm gonna disappoint people with my ending... I build up a fight, the fight happens and the MC wins, then I set up book two after that, with what could be seen as a second breaking point I suppose. I don't know if that's a good idea or not. :/

[@greyscaleanon7551]

Is it possible to have an "inciting incident" in the first sentence? Like, if the POV is from the cause of said inciting incident rather than the main character?

[@raftheconfusedbean5010]

How much of a page should buying something at a shop take just wondering this would help me alot. Thanks

[@r.brooks5287]

Depends how important the scene is and what else is happening in that scene.

[@Bookdragon11]

I think it was really good! Not confusing at all 😁. Thanks! 😃

[@MaracuyasArt]

this was really helpful- I'm not much of a writer but I want to create comics, so these videos are so godsent to me TT

[@sebastianholcomb5129]

I actually learned a lot from this. I actually didn't even consider this a problem until I saw this video and now it's like why didn't I know this could be an issue, it's so obvious. So thanks for the vid. You gave me a lot to think about. 😁👍

[@elle496]

Advice please! I’m writing a fiction book that takes place over the course of 13 years. I don’t want the book itself to be too lengthy but I don’t want the pace to be too fast. Advice??

[@lblack3336]

I have way-too-fast pacing but I also use way too much description so I’m really confused

[@001SpecialAgent]

Is the description world-building rather than detailed actions?

[@officialname9817]

Then your book is mostly description and little to no plot development

[@SysterYster]

Oh, I am trying to reduce my word count so much right now! Shortening sentences, removing entire paragraphs, rewriting things more tightly. XD Gah! But hey, it gets better. :P

[@aeronprosek7963]

My book faces a serious dilemma. Nothing I do truncates it enough that the inciting incident happens before...I think it's chapter twelve, which is simply not excusable. There is action and character development before that, but I need that time to set up my characters and the stakes. So I'm either terming "inciting incident" wrong or getting it seriously wrong in my book.

[@activelifetransformation]

Amanda Prosek I don't plot so l don't usually take that into consideration, not to mean that it's not important. But what l have realised about story is that it evolves in an order that builds up and curves down by itself......You don't need to worry much about introducing characters, worry about telling the story. If you start with an incident at the beginning. As a reader l will get in the story from there with the character or characters present, as the story goes, as l learn what happens after the beginning incident is how l begin to know about other characters. Don't worry too much about setting up or introducing characters. The story does that for you. What happens in the story and who it happen to is what introduces and sets up characters and it is what makes readers know who they are. Tell your story. Don't try to set it up. Allow yourself to be a vessel to the story. Don't try to think of yourself as the creator but the listener, who then tells what he hears. That means you don't have authority over your story, you have to follow it and allow it to go where it wants to go, but it's your duty to apply logic to It, end of the day you want people to understand what the story is about.

[@ACloudWithoutAir]

im convinced pacing is purely subjective. I drool to huge 500 word novels.

[@scarlet8078]

Tbh I agree with you. Right now for most 'popular' fiction, publishers want super short words, sentences and paragraphs. Online you can find research that shows statistically how long the words and paragraphs are in best sellers over the last year, 5year, 10year, etc. and you'll see it getting shorter. Now, some books are literally being told in text msg format. Like wtf lol. I dislike that but I guess some people love it, and it's cheap for publishers bc their costs are determined by the # of words/ pages. My fave authors are ppl like GRRM, Cornwell, Tolstoy, Tolkien, Atwood, etc. so what do I know

[@Grains_of_truth]

May I ask what is a too high word count for a chapter on a fiction / Romance?

[@GlamAngel90]

What about pacing a romance novel?

[@naimayusufmohammed9064]

Please don't make them fall in love in an instance, that's not realistic. Don't make it take several books to fall in love because a reader isn't going to buy eight books to read one love story.

[@kyfvrzn1130]

I tend to write in fragments-how about transition words?

[@cringemeister04]

I’m a pantser too but I don’t do that other thing because I’m a noob and lazy with trying to do that stuff *cri*

[@myrkflinn4331]

All i need is how many pages i should generally spend on the start or intro or part 1 to get into a vibe or idea. Not words cos those drive me mad. Its my first attempt at writing.

[@LadyOfTheEdits]

My books pacing are slow and steady.

[@jfalconredskins]

Great video

[@harukaotaku7721]

So... How can I take pace with my chapter having a lot of things going on?

[@likesunset03]

I'm reading Brightly Burning right now. Is your kitty the one Luna is based on?

[@DarkPrinceOfClowns]

I LOVE the flow chart you have. But you keep going off on tangents and forget what you were talking about in a couple of places. You said the Denoument was super important...but you never explained WHAT it is... (Other than something french sounding.) So... What IS it?

[@MegatronTarantulas]

Denouement refers to any cleanup that is done after the climax of the story. In an action story, after the boss is killed, the denouement may be the heroes getting off his island before it explodes, getting their wounds treated, and getting medals from the president. At the end of a mystery story, after the criminal's identity is revealed and they are dealt with, the denouement may be the detective explaining any possible inconsistencies to his sidekick that lay to rest the thoughts it may have been someone else. It is not a term of the op's invention, so you can do further independent research elsewhere. Hope this was helpful.

[@ZombieJohn]

Love her vids! ❤️

[@crystalwolfer4117]

Can pacing be too tight?

[@1979viki]

Love your videos! Can you give an idea for good movies with good pacing? :)

[@the7thseven873]

Pacing is Cats??... Well. Uhh, sounds kind I weird but, ok, If you say so. I'll put more cats in my novel📖🐈✍🏾 Love your Videos, Much Love and Respect🎉💯📖

[@newtoatheism5968]

I feel like act one was too slow so I have to end up fast tracking the second act

[@SysterYster]

In almost the exact middle of my story, the MC gets word that his wife is kidnapped... I guess that's good. But in general, I think my story has a too long mid-point and it might drag a bit. But I'm not sure. Arrrgh! I really need so much feedback on my story. XD

[@brandongrey9240]

The harry potter books are wordy af.

[@macronencer]

Don't ever read Lovecraft :-\

[@rileye5347]

Rach I agree that it wasn’t needed, but I enjoyed it. (This is my opinion, I respect all of your opinions too) I thought it was a cute addition to the books. It really depends on the writer I think. I’ve found wordy books that I strongly dislike because I find them boring, but I’ve also found wordy books that are entertaining, and I don’t mind.

[@officialname9817]

@@rileye5347 wouldn’t work for me tbh I like books that make every word count so if a book is wordy or has too much filler to fatten it up imma return it

[@BettyBonkers]

Is the goal for the pacing to always be fast?

[@AlexaDonne]

No, not always! Pacing can vary depending on the genre of the book and the expectations of the reader. So, for example, if you are writing a thriller, it pretty much HAS to be fast-paced--that is a hallmark of the genre, and what readers expect. YA tends to be pretty fast-paced as a rule, as well, though there is some wiggle room in some cases with character driven YA, and with genre. Adult literary needn't be fast paced. Etc. I write and enjoy reading character driven genre YA, so personally I have a pretty high threshold for "slower" pacing--I like to feel settled int the world and characters, and while I like the characters to be active and for things to move forward, personally as a reader I don't demand breakneck pacing--certainly not at the expense of characters! But I'll warn you that many editors/readers DO demand faster pacing and if you write character driven/slowly paced work, you can struggle with querying, submission, etc... it may just take longer to find the right people who share your tastes and vision. This was the case with me... I got a lot of rejections for pacing, and a common theme in some of my reviews has been "slow beginning." I did trim down my first act A LOT, but it is still "slower paced" than a lot of people like. Sometimes pacing comes down to taste!

[@-hayday-7350]

This is my ABSOLUTE struggle in writing, I end up making my stories to fast. I have always wanted to write a horror novel but I feel like my book is going to be terrible.

[@qaix2497]

you wont know until you do ! and even if it does end up sucking that's fine too, a terrible book is still a book :]

[@-hayday-7350]

@@qaix2497 yeah, and besides it’s great practice.

[@LauraTwoPointO]

Thank you for this video! Your talk of the three act structure really helped me think about the pacing of my current work in progress.

[@AlexaDonne]

Yay! I'm so glad it's helpful :)

[@likebeggarpolice9231]

So what you mean... Is that if a person falls and trips In my story... I can stretch that scene to 3 more pages with the power of pacing... God

[@DanCreaMundos]

When you start playing with youtube speed modifier to change the pacing of the video (?)

[@mirandansa]

As Alexa spoke, the cat paced in.

[@remyscreepycorner5135]

*writes down* pacing is cats, got it

[@Nathouuuutheone]

"[...] in what I like to call the dénoument [...]" Gurl, saying it in french doesn't make it your thing hahaha I've been calling it that since elementary school because that's just what it's called in french and I was thaught in french. Anyways. No hate, just sass. Been watching your videos as I write my first book, it's been helpful and interesting. Thanks for the free educative content.

[@AlexaDonne]

... I know it's not just my thing? But it IS missing on most beat sheets, and so I add it. It's literally a part of 5 act structure, so.

[@Nathouuuutheone]

@@AlexaDonne I'm sorry, the phrasing "what I like to call" often implies some sense of creative ownership. (I think?) Also, about the five act structure, I meant that "dénoument" in french is just resolution and is often the name for the third act of a three acts structure that goes "Élément déclencheur, péripéties, dénoument" (lit.: inciting incident, adventures, resolution) And again, as I said, no hate, just sass, and I enjoy your content

[@Nathouuuutheone]

@@AlexaDonne ah, relistened to the bit where you explain denoument and now I get it. You mean it as its own separate thing from the typical defined beats. It got lost in translation the first time for me for reasons I explained

[@clareagrippina6569]

Do the cats count as a cliff hanger? Because I want to keep watching for more of them.

[@elizabethk3238]

Worse is when you read a really good story, told by a good storyteller, only to have the ending dragged out. Such an anticlimax..

[@marysimmons1141]

I'll review this video again.