The Secret to a Well Paced Plot (and it's ridiculously easy) | Writing Tips

[@jcandye1]

Awesome! Another thing that really helped me with pacing was when I was told, "Your reader will see it like a movie." So if your characters are in a fight scene, it wouldn't make sense to describe their surroundings or have a ton of introspection because they have to act fast, meaning you need short, snappy sentences to see how fast the movement is. I don't know if I explained that well enough, but I think I learned it from Abbie Emmons. Thanks for the vid! I really liked how you described the chapters as heart rate.

[@munafausta327]

Yeah, you did justice to it. And Abbie Emmons is amazing. I think she was the one who said that too

[@futurestoryteller]

This one always seemed a little obvious to me, but it's one of the reasons it's hard for me not to just write a talking heads story. Despite the admirable efforts of seeing impaired dubs most movies don't give you enough time between lines of dialogue to describe new details, so it doesn't help so much that it flows like a movie in my head too

[@Nai0100]

You explained it so well and simple. I will keep this comment screenshotted for later

[@michaellopez4746]

You can describe speed in slow motion. Remember that. When writing you're absolutely right but also you can bend the rules of time perception don't forget that. You can write a millisecond in 10. Sometimes fast doesn't always mean short winded.

[@ondinedraws]

@@futurestoryteller I'm writing my story in the form of a script, because it will be a comic. Maybe instead of thinking of a movie, a comic would make more sense. Each part you describe is like describing the illustration of a panel. More panels will literally take more space, and therefore longer to read. In high action scenes you'd typically use 4 or less panels, and when writing in summary, you'd use 6 or more panels.

[@erikaroth6049]

Making a choice that affects the plot in every chapter is a great rule!

[@erikaroth6049]

And the end of each chapter being marked by the protagonist's emotional shift omg

[@0Raiin0]

Okay, I think I get it: So you decide what a chapter is: Inciting Incident, Buildup, Main Event, Wind Down, and that is usually what your chapter is. However, in sections when you want to slow down, you may spread this across chapters. In chapters you want to speed up you have them all in one and maybe with fewer pages than you otherwise would. Did I get that right? Interesting!

[@jaleesah]

You summarized that so well I screenshot it

[@joshuasinclair4463]

Thank you both!

[@animesen]

4:58

[@DBT1007]

a chapter is not an arc 😅 a buildup arc, can consists of like.. 3 chapters maybe. or something.

[@allegedchicken5406]

Thank you so much. I have really bad adhd and I could NOT follow this video to save my life. No shade on the creator! Their work is lovely. I just do poorly with fast talkers and info-heavy dialogue. I'm not exactly the smartest and need a lot of time to process things. So I appreciate you breaking it down like this. Thanks, amigo. ❤

[@portiawrites]

I love the insight of ensuring that each chapter includes a choice for the protagonist!

[@ShaelinWrites]

It's been one of the most helpful things for me!

[@thenovicewriter3196]

@@ShaelinWrites Shaelin, do you have a choice for the protagonist per scene or per chapter?

[@ShaelinWrites]

@@thenovicewriter3196 It's up to you to define what you want each chapter to be in your book! For me, I aimed for once a chapter, since that suited the pacing I wanted.

[@mjpennell1603]

Struggling with this so much right now… I wanted each chapter to be an “episode” in my character’s life, but now my first chapter is literally 30,000 words. I’ll be keeping your insights in mind as I try to break it up!

[@phitc4242]

I've conpared the mushoku tensei WEBnovel (not light), which averages at around 5k words / chapter. as we both may know, it is adapted, and from my observstions, 2-3 or rarely 4 or 1 chapter made up like 1 episode... on average edit: there's also a light novel, but I have no clue on how long their chapters are. there is a list somewhere on google that shows which chapter of the light, web, and anime belong together. might be interesting to look at

[@nina-w]

you could separate the book into parts with chapters within!

[@thenondualisticmystic]

I sympathize as someone who tends to write long myself. The first novel I ever drafted was waaaay long. I would recommend researching the concept of "kill your darlings." Allowable length for a book does depend a lot on your specific genre, but generally novels are around 70,000 words to 120,000 words total. In future drafts, keeping the story down to the most crucial points is so important to keeping the readers' attention. I know it's hard and it sucks. Best of luck.

[@kanyenortheast3546]

I’ve heard that “bad pacing” only happens as the symptom of a larger problem. For example, a fight scene that has too much build up and not enough payoff feeling too slow/fast at moments. The idea that each chapter should be clean and semi-isolated definitely helps identify those problems and fix them. (Source: just did it, worked wonders)

[@thuydungie]

your timing is immaculate! i've been struggling so hard with the pacing of my book (currently stuck at the 20k words mark as ALWAYS). at the beginning, i already thought about what i wanted to do with each chapter but i didn't make the connection that i could use that guide to pace my story. my book is about a divorced protagonist with trust issues and each chapter represents an important step of opening up to their love interest but also potential friends. so the pacing revolves around the development of relationships and now that i have that clearly in mind, it'll be so much easier to arrange the events i want to implement. thank you so much.

[@ShaelinWrites]

the 20k mark is literally the ✨hardest part to get through✨ good luck, you've got this!!

[@Exayevie]

@@ShaelinWrites That's awfully nice to hear, since I'm in the same boat!

[@sachisen6651]

I'm currently writing a multiple POV story, and I think I kinda applied this advice unconsciously. I write each chapter by scenes, and whenever I look at it after I've finished, I always realize how much it looked like a short story. It's much easier and would really make your pacing good.

[@J.W.Ellenhall.BookLover]

Great tip! Another great way to use scene breaks that I've seen a lot in Terry Pratchett's work is he'll transition from one scene to another at exactly the moment where Character A in one part of the world is experiencing the same thematic conflict type as Character B over in another part of the world, which moves multiple plot lines along really well without losing readers in stories with a big cast.

[@FablestoneSeries]

I treat chapters like scenes in a screenplay. Every time the camera moves to a different location, time, or POV is start a new chapter. This is where a background in film comes in very handy. I've had chapters that were less than 1000 words long, and i've had chapters that were 11k words long. It all depends on the requirements of the scene.

[@nelsiegeografo9185]

There's this book by Peter Hessler, I think it's Rivertown and there's another one I forgot the title. But what I noticed and what I like about his writing is his chapters will express one main idea and he would depict it clearly. As you say, they're like short stories focusing on one event. But at the end of the chapter there would always be a hook or a statement that would make you ponder only about the scenes happening in that chapter. And by the end of the book you just consolidate all these experiences you had for every chapter and realize that they're all leading to one main concept. I like that.

[@gladiator652004]

I like how Agatha Christie uses a "humming and hawing" chapter to slow the pace and give the reader a break - Poirot, his sidekick and the police musing about who might be the murderer and outlining their next moves and that's all.

[@merendalrendar2073]

One thing that's helped me is thinking of each chapter as accomplishing some combination of 1) plot development, 2) character development, and 3) worldbuilding (I'm trying to write fantasy). I use these to help my pacing as well, as character development and worldbuilding tend to be slower pace, while plot development tends to be faster pace, and using these combinations I can try to create the overall pace of the book. I want people to be able to say "ah yes, chapter 14 had this big plot development" or "chapter 17 was huge for the main character developing."

[@PhoenixCrown]

Your last point is what I naturally arrived at when I wrote my first/only novel: I basically asked myself in my first edit, "What is the point of this chapter? What does it accomplish?" I've heard your plot, char, world break-down before and like that as well. I encourage you to recognize that you can do ALL 3 in a single chapter (or many chapters). I'm an amateur, so I'm working on this stuff as well. Good writing!

[@mkb8659]

I've naturally ended each of my chapters with some kind of realisation or turning point for my character/plot. At the end, SOMETHING always happens and the chapter builds up to that moment.

[@Dwoods451]

I just imagine mine as episodes in a show and leave them on little cliffhangers like it would work in a show.

[@jaleesah]

Woah! I think I just had an ahha moment. This is the thing I’ve been trying to nail down for awhile but the answer only now clicked for me. I’ve been wondering how I make my books as fun and readable as some of the ones I love and I think nailing a quick pacing is what I want. Up until now I’ve been all over the map. Some scenes drag on, others are speedy and I never figured out how to control it consciously. Thanks for sharing.

[@Anna-ob8we]

You are so close to 100k!

[@amy-suewisniewski6451]

I keep checking to see if she's hit it yet! It's refreshing though that she's not obsessing over it but I still think she deserves it

[@zeenies222]

So exciting!!

[@erikaroth6049]

Omg yes

[@Christina4JesusChrist]

I'm so glad you mentioned people who want slow pacing. For the longest time I didn't understand why I wanted to write the book I am writing now. It is a Camp thriller but I want it to be slow, there is romance and a lot of drama. But I wanted it to be a learning opportunity of self reflection and faith as well. I love books that make you think and I was so worried I was the only one because I don't see books that are purposefully slow and kind of feel like you are binging a series in a stand alone. But now that you explained this pacing hack I can never look back lol it makes so much sense but I never thought of it that way. Thank you

[@gamewriteeye769]

I just find all the advice you give to be so practical and helpful. Thanks as always, Shaelin! Keep going; you understand the beats of a good-hearted plot with the characters.

[@FalloutUrMum]

Shaelin, I know you didn't go anywhere, but I've been dealing with a lot of stuff and been too busy to write. Now I'm getting back to writing and it's so good to watch your writing tips again, thanks

[@rudolphpyatt4833]

I am also an improviser (discovery writer). I also improvise on guitar and other instruments; point being, I vary the length of the chapter the way I might vary the length of a musical phrase. Listen to the great jazz soloists doing this and controlling the pace. You can vary chapter length in the same way.

[@ShaelinWrites]

Ohh this is such a great analogy!!

[@jackhaggerty1066]

The great jazz soloists had the great controlling pace as you say which is why Kerouac listened to them so much. *NAIMA - John Coltrane.* KZbin. Lonnie D Hillyer. *Bill Evans - My Foolish Heart.* KZbin. jane8948. Bill Evans took a year off just to develop his playing. He was friends with Glenn Gould and loved his Goldberg Variations. There is a sadness to the music of Bill Evans that haunts as much as Coltrane's Naima.

[@IsabelA-hp9yt]

Saw this and immediately sent it to my author friend. I’m with the others, you are reading our minds! Edit: my chapters usually just end up being turning points, reveals or emotional shifts. It just occurs and I know.

[@sandbagger1912]

Really useful video. In my last novel, I faced a big issue of pacing. At the top of the list was that the novel spanned 62 years from 1950 to 2012. I split my novel into three parts. The largest gap was between parts one and two, where the gap occurs. I tried to use the shift from Part 1 to Part 2 to get the reader from 1950 to 2012, but it was still too jarring. So, I wrote a chapter at the end of Part 1, which was a stream of consciousness chapter gliding over the major theme of the novel (kind of like a change of season or music montage in a movie) as it evolved over sixty years. This allowed me to give the reader a sense of the passage of time and inform them about the evolution of this theme without delving into the plot. At the beginning of Part 2, the plot resumes and we are no longer in the past but in the current day.

[@jackhaggerty1066]

Your novel starts in 1950 the year before I was born in Glasgow, Scotland. I can't emphasise enough that the whole fabric of society in which I was nurtured has altered beyond recognition. Another planet. It is often said that people don't change, but they do, because culture, family life and the socio-economic moral structures change. Right-Wing politicians privatised our public rail service but the incompetent spivs who run it get more public money than British Rail got. The environmental friendly tramcars were replaced by polluting diesel buses, and our industrial-manufacturing base has disappeared forever. When I go to school reunions I tell my friends that international criminal financiers have ruined our world. Poverty & hopelessness everywhere.

[@gamewriteeye769]

Some tips I can give from my “show so you can tell” advice that I picked up from recent rereads is to introduce a setting by show description, and then you can go on to world building, plot, or narrative, to indicate the passage of time. A sort of structured internal monologue, based on the idea or string of ideas related to it or wherever your thoughts lead you. Don't be afraid to write as much of the story you can; overwriting has the advantage of picking and choosing the best parts to trim down too, whereas if you're an underwriter, you haven't thought that much about the plot, everything is short story style, even if it's a complete narrative. I tried altering my style to be an underwriter, and that nearly sacrificed everything I've mentioned in favor of just “action and dialogue” move the plot. There's so much more than that to make a complete story. And chapters are just one tool to break that narrative up into smaller, digestible bits (depending on the intuition you get) that reaches a satisfying point in the story for reading.

[@sandbagger1912]

@@jackhaggerty1066 So true. Daily life of the early 1950s would be unrecognizable, very different than the way people live and think today.

[@tommycharles5127]

Thank you for existing. You’ve really helped me get into writing.

[@Anna-ob8we]

For me, my chapters are just a scene. They usually end up being between 4 and 8 pages long. They are also not numbered, because my novel is split into dual timelines (ex: 6 days before the murder or 7 minutes after the murder, etc) that reveals more information about what’s going on and allows readers to connect the puzzle pieces as they read!

[@andreannelavoie660]

Same. My chapters are each scene and at first I thought I was “doing chapters wrong”… but each scene ends on an element that causes the next and I’m going for something very fast paced, so I think it works. Also when I created an outline retroactively, I intuitively separated my book into twelve or thirteen parts and I’m wondering if it might be a good idea to include those divisions in the manuscript…

[@jackhaggerty1066]

@@andreannelavoie660 Amina Cain's novel *Indelicacy* is only 150 pages so the chapters are short and revelatory. The structure is part of the revelation. Yiyun Li's *Must I Go* is about 350 pages, the unnumbered chapters are interspersed with diary entries. Again it is all structure. A reviewer from the Irish Times said she missed the two main characters when she finished the book - the ultimate compliment.

[@annebangpedersen3566]

I have newer thought of that! my mind is blown. It makes so much more sense now. This might be the key to unlocking writing a series...

[@erikaroth6049]

CONGRATS ON 100K SHAELIN 🎉😁

[@thenondualisticmystic]

Thank you so much. This was incredibly helpful. Here's a chapter for me: I have 3 character POVs, so each chapter is organized around a central event in their world and expresses this event from each relevant character's POV. (This may take multiple hits per POV, depending on the depth of the event). So for instance, one chapter may have Character A and Character B's POV. Another may have Character A, Character C and Character B. While one other might have A, B, C, and then A again. I also have seperate "sections" outside the normal chapters that contain the content of the social media posts which are a part of my plot.

[@Megan-vb9ze]

This was definitely super helpful! Its' so easy to fall into the trap in considering where chapter breaks should be from a readers' perspective, we forget the benefit they can have for the natural flow of the story. As a side note, this video got me thinking, maybe you could do a video on how to balance faster pacing while still having characters that seem authentic and fleshed-out? I'm confident my characters are very good, but I don't know how to convey that without dragging the pacing down or making the novel too long.

[@riverAmazonNZ]

Same as me, I always saw it as the place the reaader takes a break, but instictively I knew it wasn’t very effective. But I couldn’t see what else to do! Now I know. For this story, the emotions are the key. Thank you, sometimes it’s the simple things that aren’t obvious, a forest/trees situation.

[@robbedblind]

Recently came to this realization after I finished the last book I read. It changed the way I viewed chapters as a writer! Thanks for this video

[@ChocolatexCherries3]

As an outlining author, I used to discovery write because that was kind of the gold standard writing advice when I was younger so once I realized you can outline your novels, that was a game changer. For me, I like to outline the big plot of the novel and then I like to outline each chapter with its purpose and its addition to the climax (like how it relates to the character getting what they need at the end of the book). Knowing the purpose of each chapter beforehand allows me to write the chapter in a way that furthers the point of the novel which helps my pacing significantly. If I discovery write, my pacing suffers as a result because I can write too much or too little because I don't know what I should be writing there. I'm using the chapters as a way to measure my pacing as well, albeit in a different manner lol

[@marandaed4335]

yeah i noticed this problem in my draft, but nothing can take me away from discovery writing.. it just makes writing more fun for me (although its not like I'm going in totally blind).

[@hannahl.4494]

@marandaed4335 Same. Plotting just makes me paralysed when it comes to writing. The expectation of what the scene should be like just triggers overthinking and perfectionism and inner criticism so badly that my creativitiy just goes out the window. Sometimes things just don't work out the way you imagined during plotting. And if you try to force it anyway, it will feel just like that, forced. So I'm just losely plotting the MC(s) and their arc, knowing that things might not work out. So I just losely plot act by act. So I plot act 1, write it, then plot act 2, write act 2 and so on. Plotting it beforehand will just be frustrating because I'm gonna need to re-plot after having written the act that comes before and half my ideas come to me not when I sit down to plot but at random times, maybe weeks after I've written that part. I'm trying to use the plotted stuff as a rough roadmap that prevents me from writing myself into a corner and that makes the writing go somewhere and that prevents sidequests that don't add anything from happening.

[@marandaed4335]

yup, outlining/plotting takes patience to get right especially when 'expert' writers tell you theres a right/wrong way to do it. Do not let that paralyze your creativity, do what works for you, take some advice, twist it up a bit and have fun. Yes i agree, plotting can make shit feel forced as well, which is why i love to discovery write in the first place, having the characters take control of the story instead of me is so much fun to see.@@hannahl.4494

[@5Gburn]

​@@marandaed4335My soul would wither and die if I couldn't discovery write. That said, I am now in revisions and I've added a character so it's down to finding where to put that storyline and what to chop because it changes everything...it'll be worth it, but gahhhhh!

[@marandaed4335]

boy oh boy i know i need my lazy ass to start my outline, and oh dont get me started with not knowing where to put the characters, the pain of pantsing 😓 @@5Gburn

[@msushi98]

This is a genius way of approaching chapters

[@rachelthompson9324]

Chapters: get in late, get out with momentum.

[@LenaLovesgoodStories]

Yes, I see what you mean. I had a similar revelation with scenes. I think my pacing has improved the most since I watch where I put my scene breaks. Slower pacing: start with 1-2 sentences to set the scene and end with a wind down/conclusive sentence. Faster pacing: start with a line of dialogue or an action, end with an action. The difference is only a few sentences, but I think it reads very differently.

[@mrtheseus]

99.9k subscribers ... I WAS HERE WHEN! Thanks for all your great videos, Shaelin!

[@vontheevil]

Sometimes we watch 10 videos and don't get any real lesson, sometimes a video can give us 10 answers to questions we did not know we have! thanks for this video

[@laurenlingbrown]

Thank you for these videos Shaelin. I have learned SO much from you, and it has carried me on this wild publishing journey! - Lauren

[@timmeyer9191]

I write my chapters as scenes and usually with just one location for setting. It worked from my debut self-published novel Baltimore City. Each chapter was a different location for the detective. I've been doing tot same for the young adult fantasy adventure story that I'm working on. I come up with main plot points, and create the scenes around them. Then I create other scenes to connect the main ones together. The scenes become chapters.

[@VickiPetterssonAuthor]

Chaptering is the very last thing I do. There's no point when the scene order may (will!) change.

[@gianlucasteffanoli4451]

I recently read a book called "Identity Crisis" By Ben Elton, and I was absolutely amazed by his use of chapter´s length. They are mostly very short, like 2 or 3 pages long, and I think that the author´s use of chapters like that made me realize that the length of chapters and the moment in which you "cut" the story are an incredible tool to make the story more alive and interesting.

[@joeyessoe]

Thank you so much to sharing! I haven’t heard this from anywhere else before, and appreciate it very much :D

[@nico9544]

thank u so much ive literally been asking myself this for days

[@o_o-lj1ym]

Shaelin videos are the best videos!

[@PhoenixCrown]

OMG such a good question! When I started writing my novel, I tried to learn about what a chapter should be, but I was misled by marketers and agents to believe that my chapters should be, wait for it... ~2,500 words. Profound. Advice. So I think I shot myself in the foot trying to conform to a "standard" length. All that said, I've made a lot of improvements on my story, but this is still a difficult question to answer. My novel is the first in a series, and its main goal is to deconstruct the world our MC lives in, revealing that the Magi are no better than him, and in fact they've deceived and created control structures to maintain class structure that results in extreme inequality (sound familiar?). I think this means I should look at my chapters as uncovering some truth, secret, or reality that moves my MC from worker bee to magical revolutionary. I hit on subplots and other characters as well, so I'll think about how those chapters fit into this goal. Great video, thanks!

[@lillydevil2486]

I kinda feel like I already knew to use chapters for pacing because one of my favorite trilogies (The Ashes Trilogy by Ilsa J Bick--definitely a must-read if you like subverted apocalypse stories) uses that sh!t amazingly

[@5Gburn]

Dang Ashes was riveting!!!

[@ConcreteUniversal]

This is some of the best writing advice I've ever come across!

[@animatorgeek]

I've always thought of it along the lines of what Robert McKee suggests in his book Story. A scene needs to have a change of charge in some relevant property. That could be emotional, e.g. love->hate, brave->cowardly, happy->sad, confident->uncertain, etc. It could also be a more concrete change -- employed->unemployed, free->enslaved, above ground->below ground, etc. McKee was talking mostly about movies, but this way of thinking about it works really well for book chapters as well. Obviously, chapters don't have to be written this way, but it's been helpful for me.

[@paomoreno2527]

Great tip! Thanks for sharing! It's the very first time someone tells something like this. I've used to think chapters where to give the reader a rest, that's why hearing you saying that is a tool for the writer to set the pacing is just mindblowing 🤯

[@mrgreenskypiano]

Completely changed how I view things. I have a new perspective now, thank you!

[@mikaelathunell2822]

THIS!! I've been thinking about pacing and chapters a lot lately (talked to a friend about it as recently as yesterday). Hopefully this will help me sort it out easier. So far, I've been so inconsistent with both the length of the chapters and what purpose they serve. I would say most of them has focusing on a major event/core scene, while other chapters has focused on a reviling a specific characteristic, circumstance but where the scene(s) itself doesn't give much to keep the plot, characters or anything else moving forward. Sometimes, chapters just serves to highlight that there's a time gap. The book stretches oven a period of 20 years, so sometimes I need to jump forward quiet fast, while I sometimes feel like I really slow down so I don't rush trough the most important scenes. As you see, there's no consistency at all.

[@qormi1000]

So happy to discover your channel. Thank you. Very interesting information. xx

[@emilyrln]

At the moment, my chapters mostly end once the POV character has changed their mind about something, whether large or small. I appreciate the advice that chapters need not be the same length; I often struggle with trying to even them out, which can lead to me grouping things together that don't necessarily fit. I'm going to try to be more aware of that going forward and let things be as long or as short as they need to be for maximum impact. Great video!

[@TroyWood-l9c]

Great pacing and clear instructions, love it!

[@trevormcneil9858]

A way I got around the chapter problem was to think of them as scenes in a play, dead stops and cliff-hangers fine in theatre. I’m also a plantser both planning and pantsing, making a bullet list of things to happen in a chapter/scene and then see what happens within those loose parameters.

[@personmcpersonperson2893]

Excellent advice, as expected. You're the best writing mentor!

[@jackhaggerty1066]

Miss Shaelin is not to be confused or conflated with Miss Reedsy. They exist in different time frequencies, a quantum physics conundrum.

[@lapridagaspar]

In the book I'm writing I try to think of chapters as mini-stories, each with its own promises, progress and payoff, while still contributing to the large picture structure. I only switch POVs in between in chapters, never in the middle of one, and I try to only do larger timejumps in the in betweens as well. I also use Parts. Each part follows a different set of POV characters. Part 1 alternates between characters A and B, Part 2 alternatates between A, C and D (who we met in part 1) Part 3 is just B and C Part 4 is A and D And part 5 is A, B and C

[@brigittegerlach]

I divided my current novel into three acts. My main character has trust issues and in each act learns to deal with a part of it. I just hope it does not mess up the action too much. I'm writing Adult Fantasy .

[@mysticmeadowshomestead6209]

Because you asked for what your viewers use for chapters: I'm so new to writing that I was using someone else's structure and overlaying my story on her framework. I was finding that that was pushing me into a series of short stories. So this vid helped to solidify all of that for me. Of course, I'm struggling to finish the first rough draft of my first book attempt, so a lot will change with the rewriting process. But yeah, I need to finish the first draft somehow. I was impressed with the way in which she always had 8-12 chapters per book. So I was taking the average page count of chapters and using that to know when my 'chapter' was achieved. Thank you for this vid.

[@BBPaws]

This was SUCH a great tip! It's going to change everything, thank you!

[@resilientfarmsanddesignstu1702]

I storyboard all my novels. I remix the scenes to create pacing and dramatic effects. Chapters are distinct pieces of the plot puzzle and are often told from different characters perspectives. Characters whose trajectories will intersect in a later chapter.

[@Jeffreymart]

Thanks

[@amandarandomtube4793]

Great advice and to answer your question I've based my chapter's into finding a piece of the "puzzle" being solved. I did it after your advice on keeping our causality consistent and it's really helped the pace 💗

[@authorgkray]

My chapters are only a scene or two long. I understand the struggle so well; I used to be paralyzed in fear that I rambled too much in a chapter just to make it a certain length. Now, I try to be much more concise.

[@matthewkjames4498]

1:19 is the tip

[@allgem9615]

man, shaelin always has our backs huh. i feel like you have the ability to read our minds somehow

[@chloroformnb444]

she probably does

[@munafruit]

i absolutely know what you mean when you say this is almost "too obvious to realise" because it's mindblowing???? but also DUH but also 🤯 thank you so much once again for changing my LIFE (or at least my writing!)

[@ShaelinWrites]

literally before I posted this video I was like "hmm maybe everyone is just going to be like 'duh shaelin...everyone knows this'" but literally sometimes things are so obvious that you don't notice them lmaooo

[@seastorm14]

This was incredibly helpful!! Thanks so much for the insight!

[@bmasters1981]

And another thing about seeing books like movies is in that fact that I am 21 books into the Erle Stanley Gardner Perry Mason novel series, and the way this applies to that is that I imagine the voices of Mason, Della Street, Paul Drake, Hamilton Burger et al. to be the actual voices of the portrayers, even on the earliest novels (Burr, Hale, Hopper, Talman, et al.); when Hamilton Burger is not there, I imagine the guest prosecutors to be various other actors, and the same with the judges in the courtroom.

[@escapeartist1258]

Thanks for this advice! I've long struggled with pacing.

[@roach5367]

THIS IS GONNA BE GAME-CHANGING IN MY FIRST REWRITE THANKS SO MUCH

[@roach5367]

My story is very focused on character relationships and how they change each other, but there’s also a government corruption plot. Perhaps something in between the two chapter types you described would work well for me!

[@evilgenius97]

I was writing and got to a point where i said "yea this is a chapter"

[@KettuKakku]

ooh, something I've been thinking a bit too hard on for my novel (series?) i think for one of the novels i've started writing, with three points of view for three different characters, a chapter is probably going to be two or three scenes that revolve around sort-of smaller action events that build up an overarching (emotional/thematic) event. so the pacing would probably end up being rather snappy, as each chapter would have multiple events to push the plots along ...

[@charityplaysgames]

I love your videos! They are so useful and encouraging and help me be more optimistic about my writing. Thank you! I wish you well!

[@bethezebra]

You 👏 are 👏 a 👏 genius 👏. Thank you!

[@UziDoorman000]

although my pacing is fairly decent, i always felt something was off, this video clarified it, thank uou!

[@magvad6472]

Yeah, I think assigning a plot beat to a chapter is a safe bet. I personally model out chapters to the general heroes journey style event outlines. Whether they ACTUALLY happen in the writing or something else? That's fine, it just keeps the "point" on my mind. Pinch point, New obstacle, overcoming the odds, picking up the sword, etc. Making sure I hit one in the general arc location that I'm in, being aware of the ones I need to hit in the area while Im in the chapter to be aware to produce that conflict in the segment and the outcome. However for me, chapter length is also "pacing". Shorter chapters make the plot feel like it is moving faster even if less is happening in the chapters, at least to me. So when I want the pacing to feel "faster" I tend to break up chapters into smaller parts, sometimes even cutting up a large chapter into smaller ones and spreading it out. Having a few successive small burst chapters in a row can make it feel almost like faster cuts in a movie. Simulating this idea that you are "plowing" through this book all of a sudden when in reality its the same amount of pages. Having faster cutaways between povs can make it feel like more is happening, especially if they are fairly short (a few pages). As long as something compelling is happening in that small segment it can feel, to me, like something is building in the background between the other POVs that have more normal chapter lengths that gets me excited. Like as an example in my current book I have a "darkest hour" for a character that is really a sequence of events all in a row. The chapter was long, but because it's supposed to feel rather like the character is being tortured and it's fairly heavy I broke it up, not really changing the length of the event but making it "feel" longer by spreading it out while making each chapter a burst of torture between the other POV chapters so it felt like the plot was moving quickly even when she in all reality is stuck in the same rut. This both made it feel like she was in her darkest hour longer (which helps with the rising out of it into the climax feeling) and also makes the plot feel like its churning and becomes more disorienting which was the feeling I wanted in the climax...and really all that was done there was formating and structure while the words and length stayed the same.

[@trev8033]

babe wake up new shaelinwrites just dropped

[@emmalampert3977]

This was actually SO helpful!!!

[@cmrigaud1]

Thanks! Appreciate all your content!

[@mrbluesky420]

You're a lifesaver for this one

[@daveshif2514]

each chapter can also be about a element of the story, instead of being purely chronological. aka one subject in the theme can have a good example, a harmful example, and a final comparison of the topics and how they affect the theme through the character.

[@pauline_f328]

In the book I am writing, a chapter = a scene, most of the time. However, I have occasional flashback/memory/dream chapters that give context and/or additional subtext to the story + reflect the MC's internal changes. Those ones always have two scenes - one is the memories of the MC told in chronological order, and the other is those of the second most important character, but told backwards (for structure and stakes reasons). I'm having to be very careful to not confuse the reader, but I've thought about this really hard and it'll definitely serve the story.

[@OlettaLiano]

What I do, is give the MC a plot-related goal in each chapter with a beginning, middle, and end. I control the pacing via the scene and sequel concept. The scene is the part the of the chapter that moves the plot forward. The sequel is where the MC reflects on what just happened and what they need to do next, thus setting up a goal for the next chapter.

[@KutWrite]

i wasn't conscious of it, but yes, my chapters are mini-stories. They're shorter than yours. about 1000 - 1200 words in my first novel ( "Pipeline," an action-adventure) and under 1000 words in my current, sci-fi work ("World in Exile) which I'm "discovery writing" - gee I love that term!

[@wannabeall]

I recommend reading "save the cat writes a novel", I don't remember the name of the author, it's a woman. She has a cheat beat sheet for pacing and the book is overall great for learning

[@meowmiao36]

Thank you so much, this was very helpful!

[@okaforuchenna]

I just combined two chapters into one and was told my pacing has picked up quite a bit.

[@saxbend]

I have also stumbled upon an idea that seems too simple to be worth mentioning but it seems no-one's mentioned it. I don't believe that outliners and discovery writers are especially different. A pantser will write an outline in the form of a draft. The first draft will serve the role of an outline and a key part of the revisions of that draft will be tighten up the plot. The Pratchett quote "the first draft is just you telling yourself the story" and the Gaiman quote "The key to the second draft is to make it look as if you know what you were doing from the beginning" sum this up very neatly. Meanwhile a plotter writes the first draft in outline form, saving the actual prose and dialogue for a subsequent full draft, which the plotter will designate as the first draft, although it's not the first version of the story because the outline takes that title. Both types of writer basically do the same thing and since a novel goes through so many drafts before it even gets read by someone other than the author, never mind reaching the eyes of a publisher, a difference of one draft doesn't seem to be very significant.

[@antoniotolentino8108]

I love this tip in my 1st draft I plant to do this and fixing plot holes

[@fluffyspunsugar]

These were really good tips, thank you.

[@storyphile4518]

I actually just heard this tip earlier this week. Confirmation that it’s a good tip!

[@0Raiin0]

Can you cite where you heard it from? Would love to read more about this kind of thing. THX!

[@Hiushisan]

My chapters tend to be numerous but short. I'm not sure what the standard is, but I usually do around 2000 words a chapter. From the people that have read my work, it seems to work so far.

[@0Raiin0]

Oh, I do have a few quick questions: (1) Can you give an example of an inciting incident for a chapter? (2) Can you give example of what a main event would look like for a chapter? (3) Can you give an example of how the event from one chapter would lead to the inciting incident in the next chapter? You can use a made up story for the examples.

[@e-t-y237]

Ha! I just noticed today in reading the "Little House" series, that it had cool little chapter titles that were both helpful to the tone of the book, and that varied greatly in length. I put it in the bank and then this video popped up. Yes ... good timing, like you are "reading our mail" (they are saying out here in cyber space writing clubs).

[@Squashmalio]

Does Shaelin have a discord or anything? Was thinking it'd be nice to have a place for viewers to discuss writing with each other and share/critique our writing, like an informal workshop kinda thing.

[@TheFatPunisher]

I just write my story as it comes, and each chapter is like a step of the journey. I didn't make any outline or anything. Basically I've noticed that my chapters are growing longer each time I write one, because I'm actually learning along the way. it's an interesting process and probably an interesting read, if you can bare the inconsistent writing, and chaotic plot progression. Chapters ranging from 350 words to 2500. I am using an abusing the English language at every turn.

[@billyalarie929]

I think a chapter for something like what I’m writing has to be paced like moments in a disaster. Who’s involved in the fallout? How does it happen? Who do they go to for comfort? Etc.

[@nbucwa6621]

ooh i really like this.

[@mahmood481]

Jane Eyre is a good example, some chapters are very short and some chapters are very long. Also nice video 👍

[@gao1812]

That was a nice confirmation bias for me as I was already intuitively doing that 😅

[@davidstewart8796]

Very insightful, thank you. I am troubled by chapter length in the my first WIP, they are between 1k and 25k, yes I am finding it very hard. This very much helps

[@Exayevie]

Shaelin, do you have any tips or "tricks" for simply getting information to the reader more efficiently? It made a lot of sense to me when you pointed out that the basic unit of a story is not words or sentences, but information. The trouble is that I feel like I have no tools for sifting the important information from the unimportant info. Also, when I do have important or interesting info it sometimes takes me nearly a hundred words just to get it across. How can I practice economizing?

[@1monki]

I can't think in chapters 😆 I think in scenes, sequences, and acts. I know what each of these structures is and what each of them needs. One or two scene chapters make the most sense to me if the scenes are closely related -- sub-arcs within sequences. Some authors use chapters as sequences. That makes sense too, but it puts a lot of words between chapter breaks.