#but completely INCAPABLE of writing drabbles or short stories. can't do it!!!!

[capnhanbers]

Hi! I love your writing, so uh-

How the fuck does one do pacing?

I got like a story(crazy) and basically the timeline is:

Past, packed with goodly pasted stuff, feels, backstories, etc

Then uh...

Well story starts and right away we have a high tension moment, neat!

And uh...

Uhm..

3 years later we have another one...

Nd then after 2 years we have a packed finale with epilogue

yeah so pacing is the thing i put the most effort into for sure!! :O i even went to a writing panel this week and the speakers agreed that the two things you should prioritize to make a compelling story are characters and pacing.

i know i've absolutely talked about this before but i can't find the post. so i think of it as a waveform.

it's a constant build with every plot point being a wave peak. but the more important part is the DOWN, i call them "breaths." taking a beat to digest what happened in the plot point, and then setting up for the next one.

it's really hard to explain HOW to apply this, cuz what's worked for me won't work for everyone. i'm realizing i happen to be a pretty patient writer just as a baseline, i've managed to stretch out pacing over literally seven years lmao! so that's what i'd encourage i guess, really taking the time to flesh out each plot point without STOPPING the story. always moving it forward. be patient.