Your response was incredibly helpful, April! Thanks so much for sharing all of your thoughts here.

What a fun story! I laughed reading it and I’m glad you liked the issue well enough to purchase it a 2nd time.

What do you think of that particular story in terms of pacing? It’s non-traditional in its structure but I felt, particularly after reading your post, that its structure does much in terms of pacing.

(And yes, I got their email about the extended deadline and submitted two stories right away. I’ve never before made use of contests that let you submit multiple stories in one entry, but I feel like both are strong contenders.)

Thank you, Suzanne, both for your compliment and for connecting transitions to pacing.

As you mention, transitions are the places in our narratives where shifts in time, narrative perspective, setting, scenes, and ideas occur. We want to accomplish a smooth transition for the reader, essentially maintain a narrative flow. How often have we heard either praise or delivered it ourselves, “It flows so well!” or the criticism, “That seems clunky, it doesn’t flow. I’m thrown out of the story.” That last one—about being thrown out—that’s an editorial signal to me. When I edit, and something causes me to pause, the first thing I ask is, “Why am I not reading?” The next qualifying questions are, “Why have I paused, and is it intentional?” This is part of pacing: controlling how and at what pace your reader reads and engages the narrative. If your reader pauses where they shouldn’t, the writing requires some finesse.

We want the flow, that seamless and a seemingly intuitive experience for the reader who moves through the narrative with such ease and page-turing anticipation she hardly notices until the end of the sentence/paragraph/chapter/story/novel. Meanwhile, the writer? She has agonized over creating that seamless, coherent and cohesive experience. How is it done? Transitions, like every other element of writing, relies on effective structure.

Before I comment briefly, I’m posting a few places I’ve found that comment more fully and in-depth on transitions. What I admire and like most about The Millions post by Edan Lepucki is that she refers to two crafts books I like: Joan Silber’s The Art of Time in Fiction and Now Write! Fiction Writing Exercises Edited by Cai Emmons and Sherri Ellis. The Now Write! Series has one devoted to mystery writing that I have found useful and interesting.

Transitions are elements I focused on in non-fiction writing, especially academic, journalistic, institutional, and persuasive writing. Encountering how to move characters and readers through a narrative with transitions is something I’ve had to pay careful attention to with signals for the movement of time, ideas, scenes, etc…An effective way to accomplish this is to anchor the element or create a bridge between the sentences/paragraphs/sections/scenes you’re connecting. This can be done with phrases, imagery, allusion, metaphor, dialogue, setting, even characters. For example, lets think about a scene that requires transitioning to another one in time and that features a different character perspective. One way to create a seamless transition would be to feature the new dominate perspective character in a minor role or feature the characters in the current scene mention her in conversation in a way that’s necessary: what does she add, illuminate or reveal to the story and why is her presence or perspective necessary? Hint at it in the transition moment.

I hope I’ve helped. You’ve brought up a great topic, Suzanne, and I want to research it further. Maybe this topic will feature in a future blog post. 🙂

https://writershelpingwriters.net/2014/07/pulse-pacing-smooth-transitions-keep-story-moving/

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/06/moving-forward-writing-smooth.html

http://www.themillions.com/2012/07/ask-the-writing-teacher-transitions.html

Thank you so much, Cheryl, for your comment, compliment and sharing! You mention one of the most important aspects of pacing to me: emotion and how it generates power, reveals character, and draws in the reader. Learning about and understand the structure of scenes and sequels helped me understand the function of pacing too. Raven Oak has a post here on scene and sequel readers will find helpful. Thanks again, Cheryl, for connecting the topics: https://writershelpingwriters.net/2015/01/writing-patterns-fiction-scene-sequel/

Thank you, Ellen! I love the way you describe setting as a way to slow down pacing and as a way to lure the reader into the story world, only to “illuminate themes through metaphor” and reveal “or shift-something”. This element of surprise and revelation is wonderful and part of why we read. Thank you again for this comment.

Stacy, I would have sworn I had replied your comment, because so much has happened having to do with it. Thank you so much for taking time to comment and for bringing up Bret Anthony Johnston. Since I first read it and this morning, I subscribed to American Short Fiction in order to read his story (and because the subscription kicks off with ASF’s 25th Anniversary issue). I received the issue, read the story, started the next one, and then accidentally left the issue on an airplane during a layover! I was heartbroken to have lost that fantastic issue with all those stories and that pretty note from the Editors. I immediately ordered a duplicate copy, and the careful editors over at ASF noticed. I had to explain everything…And, the whole thing was pacing, pacing, pacing, right? If only I had slowed down, paid closer attention, not been in such a hurry to get off the plane to make my connection, I would not have left those stories behind. As for why you aren’t The Next Big Thing…well, it’s just the beginning of 2017, Stacy, and you’ve had tremendous momentum lately. 🙂 ASF’s contest deadline has been extended to February 15 I believe.

I thought I had pacing down, but…

One of my favorite ways to slow my story’s pace so the reader can take in a recent revelation and make connections to other story parts is to focus on the setting. It’s a great place to illuminate themes through metaphor. Then, just as you’ve lulled the reader safely inside this world, you pick up the pace with another revelation or shift–something lost; doesn’t need to be death.

I’m also bookmarking this article for the future because I’m sure I will stumble on pacing issues with my next WIP.

Thank you, April and all the writers who have offered thoughts here!

You asked about other areas of revision. I’m interested to read your wise words on transitions. From one to scene to the next. One chapter to the next. Time passing. Ways to make them interesting which might also include those hooky endings to scenes.

Thanks again for this amazing post.

I never think about pacing. I like to think that my revisions are generally about pacing whether I know it or not–moving things around, expanding this section with more space to breath, condensing things in this other section. But I don’t think “pacing.” Maybe this is what’s lacking in my stories and keeping me from becoming the next big thing in literature. 😉 Regardless, I’d like to be more aware of it in the future.

One last thing–“Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows About Horses” by Bret Anthony Johnston in the Fall 2016 issue of American Short Fiction. I read it last night and it was one of those stories you can’t help but be envious of while reading. He does amazing things with structure but now, after reading your article, I realize how much of what he does is tied to pacing. Everyone should read this story. If I taught creative writing anywhere–high school or college or local arts groups–this would go on my syllabus immediately.