Alannah, I’m glad you found something that’s working for you!
Cher, the ARC of the story thing makes a lot of sense!

Hey, where did Jodie post that people are commenting? I don’t see, LOL! :wallbash:

Cher — That is so sad. I’ll keep the family in my thoughts and prayers.

Jodie — Good for you for challenging yourself and stepping outside your comfort zone.

And I think it works well for the way I think. I’ve gotten it all out there, now I can go back and dissect it and get it right. Before, I was so caught up in getting it right that I never go anything out there.

Nancy thank you for your excellent post!

Cher, that is so tragic I will keep the family in my prayers.

Carly, when I first started writing I used to consciously think about pacing but now that I’ve been writing for 100 years or so, it has become more intuitive than anything else. Years ago, a former editor with Silhouette said something to me that stuck. Her name is Melissa Senate btw. She writes for Red Dress Ink now. She said I needed to try and see my stories as a whole rather than the minutiae that goes into putting a book together. She also said that pacing wasn’t about racing. It was about the emotional arc of the characters, shining a light on their internal conflicts. Books that a reader can’t put down are packed with emotion that makes them care so much about what happenes to the characters they can’t put it down and they can’t forget the characters after they finish the book.

Not sure if that makes sense.

One more thing, one of my daughter’s friends who skated with her in Special Olympics passed away this past Wednesday. They think she had a seizure and aphixiated in her sleep. Please include her and her family in your thoughts and prayers this week.

Have a great Saturday all

Cher

Great information on such an important topic!

Carly, I think I do think about pacing as I’m writing, but that’s kind of a problem. I’m taking an online workshop right now, given by Allison Brennan and Patti Berg, called No Plotters Allowed. And it’s much more than the titles implies, a lot of the discussion has been about resistance. What keeps us from sitting down at the keyboard and writing every day.

One of the things for me — which really ties in to Julie’s topic last Sat. (or maybe the Sat. before/shoot, it might have been several weeks ago) of “Rules.” I really realize that worrying about all those “rules” and making sure I”m getting the pacing right, varying sentence structure, using action words instead of passive verbs. Do I have all the elements of scene/sequel. Do I have at least 3 reasons for this scene being here.

I spend so much time thinking about all that stuff, that I end up staring at the screen, paralyzed, and don’t ever get any writing done.

But, my RWAOL chapter is doing a workshop right now called Fast Draft in 14 Days. We’re not allowed to go back and edit, we’re not even allowed to go back and re-read what we’ve written from the previous day. Boy, talk about being out of my comfort level.

But I’ve managed to write 20 pages every day, and every day it’s gotten so much easier. I’m not thinking about all those stupid rules, I’m just telling the story. And once I get to the end, then I’ll go back and take it apart scene by scene. Make sure I’ve got the pacing and action verbs, etc.

Most importantly, I’m having fun writing again. And that’s really nice. Sorry to blab so long. I bet you’re sorry now that you asked that question! Hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend!