This weekend, I learned, once again, about pacing and how important it is. I ran another marathon yesterday. (I know, I know... crazy). It was the Big Sur Marathon and it was fabulous!! I had so much fun running down Highway 1 all morning, looking out at the ocean and roller-coasting up and down the hills. If you ever get a chance, you should try it.
Now, about pacing. One of the important things about long distance running is pacing yourself. Start out too fast and you burn yourself out before you reach Hurricane Hill. Start out too slow and well, you never get to the finish before the meat wagon sweeps you up because the race is over. The key, pick a nice pace that you can keep going at hour after hour but not kill yourself. Easier said than done, I know. It takes practice and training. Lots and lots of practice and training until you can feel what the right pace is and you can do it without thinking.
I seem to have a good grip on it as far as running is concerned, but I'm still practicing and training where it relates to writing. Yesterday I also received an extremely wonderful critique of the first 10 pages of my WIP from a terrific agent. Unfortunately for me, she is the second agent to point out problems with pacing. The first one said it was too slow, so I picked it up. The second said it was too fast. Hmmm... Practicing and training. So I started thinking about running. What is the right pace when doing a marathon?? For me, the right pace is the one where I'm running but can still look out at the ocean and process the world around me. Maybe this works, too, for writing, I thought.
So, I'm back at it. Practicing and training. Slowing down those first few pages in an attempt to take in the landscape and build the world.... but hopefully still fast enough to not get picked up by the meat wagon!
What is your ideal pace? How is it specific to your genre? Just a few things to think about as you hit the course for practice and training...
Happy writing!
3 comments:
First, you're insane if you run "hour after hour." Dude, running is only to be done in spurts, usually if there are large animals with sharp teeth behind you.
Second, I feel you on pacing. I suffered so much from this. This agent said too fast, that one said too slow. What's my deal? Was it a polite way to say I sucked, and they didn't want to say that, so they cited pacing??
I didn't know.
Then I read "Stein on Writing" by Sol Stein. His chapters on pacing and cutting the fat made all kinds of floodlights turn on. And I finally feel like I have a handle on pacing.
Check it out.
Sigh... I know I'm crazy, Elana, but it's so much fun! And I promise not to do any more running hour after hour for at least another year.... :)
Thanks for the advice on pacing. I need it. I'm going to run (figuratively) out and buy that book.
Thank you so much for you comment!
Hi Amanda,
Nice to meet you, I'm a fellow writer. I've had a steep learning curve re: pacing and it's been hard balancing all the stuff-tension, action, story progression. Glad to know I'm not alone with this issue!
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