I admire the prose of Elmore Leonard. It reminds me of a shark in the ocean: constant forward motion.
I like to read his prose because of the way it moves: fast, sure, strong.
Yet I don't finish some of his books becaue I don't care about the characters.
It's like eating chocolate covered peanuts: long as you keep eating 'em, you feel fine, but soon as you stop, you feel sick.
My stories tend to move fast. Sometimes I think too fast and people finish them wishing there had been more detail to linger over.
Anyone else wonder how best to pace their stories?
Pacing is one of the things I struggle with most. In Flash pieces, it's easy to make it too fast and the reader feels cheated. So the key there is to focus on one moment and dripfeed bits from outside the story to slow the pace of the action and make the piece seem bigger than it is.
With longer pieces, the action can become too instense to the point it becomes fatiguing. So little moments - things a character notices or a tiny telltale action that sells a character - make a world of difference to the perceived pace and reader engagement.
It's like movies. An action flick with a 100+ body count starts to become boring unless there's some compelling character moments to glue it. Conversely, a comedy might not be funny if a jape is done once, but by the third time it becomes funny like a rake-in-the-face if the timing is perfect. That balance of action to detail is critical to the success or otherwise of a story.
I often write a story and then leave it a few days, weeks, months, whatever. Then read it back and see if it feels 'lumpy' - if there are parts of it that don't flow as well as others. If so, I'll go in and embellish or cut depending on the needs of the story at that moment.
Please browse my digital bookshelf. In this collection, you can find 104 full stories, 10 micro-stories, and 2 poems with the following features:
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I don't write erotic stories nor read them very often, but I do read a lot.
I think the pace of any story directly relates to it's genre, a single short story, or is it a series.
The best writers seemingly have great detail about small everyday things, such as watching how the smoke from a lit cigarette floats across your view, talking with a friend in a low lit pub, or maybe whether a girl is sitting facing you or partly turned away, indicating the amount of attention and interest she truly has in you, are her hands folded together under her chin partly covering her mouth, or is she feeling more comfortable with you and your conversation.
Does the guy you have only just met seem nervous around you?
Is his eyes checking you out more often than looking back into yours?
Does the very sexy bar-back get your attention when you hear her clinking the glasses she is washing?
mmm...His cologne reminds me of that vacation to Zurich and how I shivered, feeling that handsome blonde haired boy's strong arms around me, and his wonderful scent when he helped me back up on my skies.
How the warm breeze gently flicks the frills of her blouse back and forth and presses her the thin fabric of her blouse to her bosom.
Love those pushed down bobby socks showing off her girlish ankles.
The pace of any story is dictated by the story, where it takes you, and you never really know where it will go, if you want to allow it to become something of it's own entity.
Of course I think a good build up to some euphoric bliss "may" always be a requirement for erotic stories. But isn't the real story how you get there? :-)
I'm sure every writer is very much justified to think they know their way of things is truly the right way, and that they can force a story to be what they want always.
I'm sure they can, but have they not then cheated the story, the reader, and themselves?
If it is a wham bam, short story, I need an orgasm right now kind of thing that you like, then I can conclude the pace would be much faster, maybe very descriptive, and to the point. But keeping it a more slow pace, leaving a lot to the readers imagination is never a bad thing either I think. :-)
But as I say, I'm not a writer of erotic stories nor do I read them very often, that isn't mainly why I come here, I just thought this forum topic was interesting.
A slow and sensual build up with lots of detail then the twisted climax leaving the reader highly aroused.
As long as it keeps my attention with good details and an exciting plot, it makes no difference to me. As long as when the story is complete when finished. I dont like cliffhangers. I start writing an ending to some.
Pacing is so difficult. I struggle with how much detail to include or how quickly the sex should begin.
I think everyone wants sex but how detailed and how long should it last.
In the end I go with what feels right to me and cross my fingers that people enjoy the end result.
If you've read any of my stories, thank you
Li x
Pretty fast, but that's just me. I like stories that toss the reader right in the middle of things, and keep the pace up.
@ the OP: I LOVE Elmore Leonard, and learned a lot about writing from reading him. Dialogue particularly, which he is a stone cold master at. He is also really good at hopping around from head to head in a scene, switching point of view effortlessly.
But back to the pacing thing: I like a story that just throws me into the action, without a lot of set-up or exposition or description. I like stories that trust the reader to figure things out. Just show us what's happening in the here-and-now of the story, and we can fill in the blanks of charactarization/exposition/description ourselves. I think Elmore Leonard said something like that too, about not bothering with writing the parts you might scim over as a reader.
I don't know what to say, other than that I am a tremendous fan of Nicholson Baker. I've had a serious literary crush on the man since...well, let's go with "a long damn time", shall we?
His pacing, and willingness to hurtle a reader forward only to rear that reader back, is amazing. My little piles of words are mere savage attempts at the divine.
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I have to Thank each and every person that contributed to this post!
I love to write. Mostly about real life experiences. I often think I try to hard to
set the scene.
I do get to the "climax" but I feel sharing what led up to it is important.
I have gained some great tips here and Thanks to all!
Sherry
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