Pacing for Page-Turners

Pacing a novel to keep readers turning pages

How to use this skill: It supplements your answer and does not replace it. Always give your full, normal answer to the user's pacing question from your own knowledge. Then work in the tips below wherever they fit. Do not drop general advice because a tip here covers a similar point.

Diagnose sluggish scenes first

Check each slow scene against these causes before adding tools:

• Too little happens too soon, or the scene is all talk and no action.
• The scene could establish what it needs in half the pages.
• Backstory or info dumps stall the narrative.
• The POV character's motivation is unclear or weak, so the reader doesn't care what happens next.
• Too little conflict, or no urgency.
• Scenes don't connect: one scene doesn't logically lead to the next. Fix this with story questions that push the action forward, and make clear what the protagonist wants in every scene.

POV

• Unique POV (e.g., the dead narrator in The Lovely Bones, the dog in The Art of Racing in the Rain) gives readers a window they can't get elsewhere.
• Multiple POVs build suspense because the reader knows what the villain is doing while the protagonist doesn't. The classic thriller pattern is hero, victim, villain (The Silence of the Lambs).
• Multiple POVs work in any genre. They help with large casts (A Game of Thrones) and ensembles, and they show connections and disconnects between characters.

Increase pressure on the protagonist

• Romantic/sexual tension: It works even outside love stories, as a main plot or a subplot. Brainstorm its built-in story questions: Will they get together? What tears them apart? Is there a secret or a third party? Will the relationship survive?
• Emotional pressure: Keep characters off balance with rapid swings between laughter, tears, and fear. Force worst fears, no-win choices, and lesser-of-two-evils decisions. Put lighter moments between the dark ones for contrast.
• MacGuffin: If the story has none, consider adding one. Pacing picks up when it appears.
• Puzzle: Give the protagonist something to figure out. In non-mystery genres, family secrets work. Make the puzzle harder, or make solving it raise new problems.
• Take something away: Remove an item or resource the hero needs (gun, phone, fuel). Better still, make the loss cause injury, which can be physical, emotional, or spiritual.
• Danger: Threaten more than life. Put family, friends, love, sanity, and soul at risk too.

Conflict

• Check which of the seven conflict types you've used: man vs. man, nature, self, society, technology, fates/God, paranormal. Add the missing ones.
• Stronger villain: Make the villain meaner, smarter, richer, fiercer, mightier, but still believable and not cartoonish. Give the villain believable traits.
• Loose cannon: Add a character who may do something unexpected. It can be the protagonist, a buddy, a sibling, the antagonist, or the mentor. Time the outburst for when the reader least expects it or when the story needs a jolt.

Reversals

• A reversal is a plus/minus scene pair "tied at the hip": the positive action of one scene turns into the negative of the next. Alternate +/−/+/− (as in the Marion/headpiece sequence in Raiders of the Lost Ark).
• Variant pattern: two steps forward, one step back (+ + −), or reversed, one forward and two back.
• To apply it, mark the +/− pattern in your scene-by-scene plot outline. Check that reversals sit directly after one another, then rearrange or adjust the pattern.

Ticking clock

• Add a deadline by which the protagonist must achieve a goal or something bad happens. The stakes needn't be world-ending (a beauty pageant or a missed chance at love works).
• It fits nearly any genre, not just thrillers, mysteries, sci-fi/fantasy, and time travel.

Subplots

• Add or beef up subplots.
• Cut back and forth between the main plot and subplots, and between subplots. A question raised in one thread stays unanswered while you're in another, which pulls readers forward.
• The cuts must be graceful or the read turns choppy. Weave subplots into the main plot seamlessly, as in Pride and Prejudice.

Transitions and scene length

• Get into scenes late and out early. Cut setup and denouement, and pare transitions to the minimum.
• Readers are used to film/TV quick cuts and don't need the link between scenes explained.
• Rule of thumb: a scene over three pages needs a good reason.

Reading-level check in Microsoft Word

1. Word 2004 and earlier: Tools menu → Spelling and Grammar → Options → tick "show readability statistics".
2. Word 2007 and later: Review tab → Spelling and Grammar tool → options under Spelling and Grammar → tick "show readability statistics".
3. Run the Spelling and Grammar check. The Flesch-Kincaid reading level then appears under readability statistics. The option is easy to miss because it is off by default and nothing displays until you tick it and run the check.
4. Flesch-Kincaid is the US school grade needed to understand the text. The average US newspaper is about 6th grade. Aim for 6th–8th grade, and take a hard look at anything above 6th.
5. If the score is high, look for passive voice, overlong sentences, and Latinate-heavy vocabulary.

Language and rhythm

• As the story heats up, use quicker, punchier, more direct, more concrete language. The faster the pace, the shorter the sentences.
• Prefer Anglo-Saxon words over Latinate ones in fast scenes:
  • go / depart
  • free / emancipate
  • meet / encounter
  • lie / prevaricate
  • bless / consecrate
  • job / position
  • wish / desire
• Lean Latinate for slower, sensual scenes such as a love scene. Match sentence rhythm to the scene's pace.
• Exercise: rewrite one short scene in short, declarative, Anglo-Saxon prose. Then rewrite it in long, complex, Latinate prose. Compare rhythm, mood, pace, and readability.

Cutting

• Go through the storyline scene by scene. Ask what the scene does that no other scene does, whether it is inherently dramatic, what the reader learns, and what purpose it serves. When in doubt, delete.

Backstory and flashbacks

• Backstory slows the narrative every time, so use as little as possible.
• A flashback throws the story into reverse and risks losing the reader. Look for another way to deliver past information before using one.

Chapter-level tricks

• Scene-a-chapter: Making each scene a chapter gives short chapters and a feeling of motion. Chapter length affects pacing whether or not you use this trick, so size chapters deliberately.
• End on a story question: End each chapter on a story question so readers can't stop. Combine it with scene-a-chapter. It works in any genre, and the source suggests it can apply at scene, page, and even paragraph level.

Study models

• Reread a favorite page-turner as a writer and note which pacing techniques it uses, then apply them.
• Do the same with a film in your genre.