Writing Advice: Action and Pacing

My friend David Powers King wrote a nice little blog on action and pacing. Essentially, in action sequences you have to work hard to keep the scene moving while still giving enough of the story that people feel engaged and not bored.

I'd add to this that you have to carefully select the details you want to include. I read a story by a friend once that felt very much like a video game sequence. Excessive detail and blow-by-blow description of each and every minuscule movement about killed me--the reader. I don't think he was going for that! I felt like I was inside a really poorly scripted game that just wouldn't move beyond cliche phrasing and tedious description.

On the other hand, if you don't have enough description, you can cause several other adverse reactions: Readers may have a hard time understanding what's going, as they did during a sequence in my current middle grade fantasy, Lizzie Peterson and the Places of Naming, when the main character uses magic to create an ice raft out of part of a river. It was a hard sequence because she was being attacked at the same time, and the river kept pulling the raft downstream. And she's in a cave. And there are three other supporting characters, too.

So I had to rewrite the scene about 10 times trying to balance enough description that you as the reader could really see what was happening but also keep the sense of peril high. Very tricky. In fact, it was the hardest scene to write in the entire book. I hope it works!

So don't be afraid to write a scene quickly to just get the idea out there. Then read it a day or two later and ask yourself if it makes any sense, if the pacing is still quick and sharp, if it is exciting to you as a reader (not as an author). Then get as many people to read it as you can stand. They'll be honest on all accounts, especially if it's not working.

Action and description and tense moments. Definitely a fine balance.