Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery by Diane Holmes, Chief Alchemist of Pitch University

In the next two articles, we’ll look at some diagnostic tools you can use to help improve your pacing.

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Pacing is hard to study.

And there’s a good reason for this.   Pacing is about the reader’s experience of your story.  And who are you?  Not the reader.  Yeah, you’re just the writer. 😉

Your concerns as a writer don’t actually translate into reader experience. Let me give you a couple examples.

Example #1:

Writer: “I want to create a three-dimensional protagonist the reader can root for.”

As the reader is flipping pages, the reader doesn’t have the corresponding question,  “Is this character 3-dimensional?  Yes.  Oh, goodie, I’ll keep reading.

Example #2:

Writer: “I want to build an understanding of what a certain character’s life is like before tragedy strikes so that the reader understands why this is a big deal.”

The reader, again, does not have a parallel question, “Do I understand character’s normal life so I can fully experience what has changed?  Why, yes, I do. Awesome.”

The Problem

Like a puppeteer pulling strings from behind a curtain, as the writer, you only know what you hope your audience will experience. You can’t see your audience’s reaction. You don’t know if they’re leaning forward in anticipation or bored our of their gourd.

That’s a pretty big disconnect. Suddenly it’s like a deep chasm has opened up between you and your creation. It’s not you separated from your reader. It’s you separated from your own writing

This is where Storytellers have a much easier time. They’re out there in front of their audience, engaging them in story. They have the advantage of immediate feedback. Immediate reality. Immediate success or failure. Continue reading How Do You Know Your Pacing is Working? Part 1 →

Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery by Diane Holmes, Chief Alchemist of Pitch University

Readers don’t just passively let story roll over them.  They solve stories.

They actively

• keep score,
• record clues,
• make guesses,
• follow theories, and
• leap to conclusions.

Readers steal a ride with your characters, except they have the superior position.  Their lives aren’t the ones being turned upside down.  And they have time to come to conclusions about what’s happened and (better yet) what’s likely to happen in the future.

Readers secretly decipher the mystery of your story just like a detective, and when they’ve figured it out, they declare, “By jove, I’ve got it!”  Bad News: now the reader’s bored.

And as a pacing genius, what do you do?

Break out The Game Changer.

Reveal something so startling that everything must be re-thought.  Twist the plot in such a way that for a few minutes the reader’s brain stutters.  Nothing will be the same.  It’s a holy sh*t moment.

The game is still afoot!

This isn’t about doing something random, something outrageous because you’re stuck.

No, this is about out-thinking the reader.  Being such a master of your story that you can use revelation in the most devastating way for your characters AND your readers.

Isn’t that kinda gimmicky?

No.  I do not mean a gimmick. I mean honest storytelling of the best kind.  No coincidences.  No tropes.  No Calvary rescue at the last minute.

I mean emotional, thematic, dramatic PUNCH, people!

Big Plot Twists and Game Changers

The easiest Game Changing examples to spot are big plot twists, punches that reply on large-scale structure, involvement in many scenes, and stunning last-minute revelation.

Examples of Big Plot Twists:

• The Sixth Sense (movie) by M. Night Shyamalan.
• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
• The Thirteenth Tale (Hardcover) by Diane Setterfield
• The Woods by Harlan Coben

But there are other Big Game Changers.

Simply put, a Game Changer is something you don’t see coming, but Continue reading Game Changers: Pacing, Plot Twists, and Reader Engagement →

Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery by Diane Holmes, Chief Alchemist of Pitch University

“What happens next?  Let me guess….”

Guessing. That’s the game readers play with the stories they read.

Being  Wrong vs. Being Unable to Guess

You know from your own reading experiences that if you can guess what’s going to happen next, AND IT DOES, then the story is boring (even if things are exploding and people are bleeding).

As you read, you’re turning pages in order to find out what happens next. And, get this, you want to be wrong. Horribly or delightfully or amazingly WRONG.

But not everything is about being wrong.  It’s just as powerful for the reader to be unable to guess and to know it.  We’ll talk about that too.

Expectations: Big & Small

So readers have expectations, they play along, and they want you to provide something better than what they’ve come up with in their own imagination.

More exciting.  More entertaining.  More outrageous.  More clever.  All those mores.  Be more.

But here’s what we don’t usually talk about as writers.

The Reader-Character Link

Warning:  Might blow your mind here.

Okay, so the reader is playing along, hanging on your every written word.  And they’re reading about characters who are “living” the story.

These characters are also trying to figure things out, play along, get the upper hand.

It’s a pretty cool magic trick to pull off.  The fake character is “really” living the story, and the “real” reader is experiencing the “fake” story through the fiction and character that you’ve created.  Pretty awesome.

This link is important to understand.  When talking about expectations, especially small scale outcomes on the scene, page, and paragraph level, it helps to keep in mind that BOTH the character and the reader need to experience “being wrong.”

If the character can anticipate what’s going to happen… Continue reading Situation Critical! Pacing’s Need for an Unknown Outcome →