A Lesson in Pacing

I'm not big on craft books. Oh, I read a few when I was earning my MFA at Vermont College in which the author expressed something in a way I'd never heard before, and it hit the spot. I found it illuminating. But for the most part, they're one-step removed from actual writing, to my mind. Reading them is like reading books about how to paint with water colors.

One or two, and start painting.

Every writer has his or her own mantra, obviously.

For me, reading an actual book is the best way to learn. And one I read yesterday (yes, in one afternoon because I couldn't put it down, so adept was the pacing, the sentence length, the plot) is a fantastic book to read if you're struggling with the pacing of your novel.

THE FORESHADOWING by Marcus Sedgwick. It's a YA. Wendy Lamb Books. 2006.

How come I didn't hear about it?

Sedgwick is English. He writes like a bomb, as they would say. Everything about this tightly-plotted story of a 17-year-old girl during WWI, and her ability to see the future, which leads to much trouble and distress during wartime, is a lesson about good writing.

The sentence length. Not too long; not gratuitously short. (There's lots of that going around. It's a stylistic thing.) Same with the chapters.

Characterization. Perfectly done with a minimum of fuss. Compelling people we care about.

Pacing. It gallops. It jolts. It moves in more way than one. Like dominoes, one thing leads to another to another to another, without ever giving the reader the sense that they're being manipulated. I have rarely read a book that made me want to find out what was going to happen more.

It's good. It's very good.

Sluggish plot? Pivotal scenes taking a long time to get to? Your characters seem to be talking to much and doing too little?

Read THE FORESHADOWING. Carefully. Read and learn.