{"id":8450,"date":"2019-09-20T01:00:19","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T08:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=8450"},"modified":"2019-09-04T13:29:53","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T20:29:53","slug":"pacing-prompt-447","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/pacing-prompt-447\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacing . . . Prompt #447"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When you read the next ditty, read \u201cd-o-e-s\u201d as in female deer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mairzy\nDoats<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mares eat\noats and does eat oats<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and little\nlambs eat ivy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a kid will\neat ivy, too<\/p>\n\n\n\n

wouldn\u2019t\nyou?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Say it fast\nand it becomes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn’t you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Link to what this sounds like.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think of this rhyme when I think of pacing \u2013 paying attention\nto the cadence and rhythm of writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How and when to increase the pace when writing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paraphrased from <\/a>Make A Scene<\/a><\/em> by Jordan Rosenfeld<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By pacing your scenes well and choosing the proper length for\neach scene, you can control the kinds of emotional effects your scenes have,\nleaving the reader with the feeling of having taken a satisfying journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pace should match the emotional content of your scene. First\nscenes should get going with an emotional bang\u2014start big or dramatic, ratchet\nup the suspense or lay in the fear, since you\u2019re capturing the reader here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your first scene is like a cold pool\u2014the reader needs to dive\nin and get moving fast, or he\u2019ll be too cold to stay in the water for very\nlong. In other scene types, you\u2019ll have more leeway with pacing. In the first\nscene, however, a quick pace\u2014with more action and less reflection or exposition\u2014will\nbe a better sell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dramatic scenes \u2013 Start slow, speed up pace to match\nemotional intensity, slow down for reflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speed up pace: Strip away exposition, use dialogue, quick\naction, and hot emotional content to build intensity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When and how to slow the pace<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a lot of action or intense dialogue give the reader time\nto digest what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use description, narration, details and interior monologues\nto slow the pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a character is contemplative, time slows down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During these contemplative scenes you can weave in details. Be\nspecific and descriptive. Give your character something to observe or something\nto do, more than hair twirling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your turn: \nDo a freewrite about pacing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s mine, thinking about Mairzy Doats. This was a quickly written spontaneous\ntype of writing, just for fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go too fast and we get frantic and hear garble versus calm,\nsteady breaths and an even, gentle flow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calm is water caressing rocks, dark green moss going with the\nflow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No rough and tumble white water rapids. No gurgling over\nbrooks, no water cascading over boulders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather, when we slow our writing, we achieve a calm, quiet,\ngraceful feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pace yourself. Eat watermelon slowly. Savor the juices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pace yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Write fast let you lose that thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To slow down, think about the poppy scene in Wizard of Oz<\/em>.\nSlower, slower, snail\u2019s pace slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meditate. Ommmmmmm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To pick up the pace, think caffeine and the energy of a\ntoddler\/child, always on the go. Child knows no pacing. Always running,\ntalking, doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenge self:  No\nsuch thing as Writer\u2019s Block. Just keep writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More on pacing:  Find the right pace by Adair Lara<\/a>: Prompt #70<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you read the next ditty, read \u201cd-o-e-s\u201d as in female deer. Mairzy Doats Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy a kid will eat ivy, too wouldn\u2019t you? Say it fast and it becomes: Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey A kiddley divey too, wouldn’t you? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[365,53,54],"class_list":["post-8450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prompts","tag-adair-lara","tag-jordan-rosenfeld","tag-make-a-scene"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-2ci","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8450"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8484,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8450\/revisions\/8484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}