Happy 2023! I’m freshly home from lovely Gulf Breeze, Florida, so I’m feeling good about the new year!

I kinda wanted to talk about goals today because . . . well, because I’m me. I love talking about goals at any time of year, but the energy in December and January makes me feel extra fanatical about goal setting. All I will say about goals is that I’m still wrestling with mine and reminding myself THAT’S FINE. Identifying goals is just as useful January 15th as it is January 1st, right? If you’re feeling “behind” on goals, I hope that’s helpful for you.

Instead, we’re going to talk about pacing. By “pacing” I’m referring to the flow of your story. To how quickly (or not-so-quickly) a reader will turn pages. To how often things are happening and changing within your story.

There is no One Right Pace that all writers should seek to achieve. Once Upon A Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber has a very fast pace to it, and it works for that book, which is a YA fantasy. Evangeline is constantly deciding something, going somewhere, or getting swept along into some scheme. It works for that book and for Garber’s style of storytelling.

But The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater is also YA fantasy, and the pacing of it is slower. Not slow. Just slower. There are more words per page. More characters. We stay in one setting rather than moving around. And it works for this book and Stiefvater’s style.

You might find it helpful to think about who you are as a reader. While you might generally prefer faster paced or slower paced books, you probably have a variety of paces that “work” for you. Using myself as an example, I have read and enjoyed The Hate U Give, Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and Truly Devious despite how differently these books are paced.

That tells me there’s no formula for a perfectly paced novel. This is about finding the right pace for your story. The one you’re working on right now because the one you worked on last or the one you’ll work on next might have different pacing needs than the one right now.

This post isn’t intended to be a tutorial on how to achieve the pacing of Stephanie Garber or Maggie Stiefvater or Suzanne Collins or whoever it is that you admire. This is about understanding what contributes to pacing and how to manipulate it.

Why’s it so hard to know if your pacing is right?

Let’s say the scene you’re writing is a thousand words long, and it takes you about 90 minutes to write it.

But readers don’t take 90 minutes to read 1k. They probably read that in 5-10 minutes. That means your perception about the pace at which the story is unfolding is going to be different as the creator of the scene than as the reader.

This plays out in a bigger scale too. One of the most flattering compliments is when readers say, “I read your book in two days!” That’s great . . . but depending on what book we’re talking about, it took me six months to a year to create that final product. As a creator, I’m experiencing the story in a very different way than my readers.

What contributes to the pacing of a novel?

Intended audience: Children’s books are extremely fast-paced while other genres written for an older population (womens fiction, historical fiction, adult science fiction, epic fantasy) lean toward slower pacing.

Genre conventions: This isn’t to say that all romantic comedies have the same pace, but rather that a typical romantic comedy tends to be paced differently than a typical science fiction novel.

How many characters need to be introduced: The bigger your cast, the slower your pacing is likely to be. It just takes time to introduce all those people.

How much time you’re covering: A book that takes place over a span of 24 hours has different pacing needs than a book that covers a decade.

How much description the story needs: A story like Lord of the Rings requires slower pacing because there is a LOT that needs to be described AND there’s a big cast. This storyworld is brand new to us and has to be explained. We need to be told what hobbits are and what orcs are like. The level of description required for “other worlds” genres is different than those set in worlds more familiar to us.

What kind of story problem the character is trying to solve: This is similar to genre, but some story problems suggest faster pacing, like solving a murder mystery or stealing a car. Other story problems, like trying to heal a relationship, might mean slower pacing.

With that in mind, here are five tips for figuring out the best pacing for your novel:

Tip 1: Don’t think about it much in the first draft.

Pacing is one of those components of the story that works best if you don’t look directly at it. Especially in the first draft. Just focus on writing the story the way it feels best to you. Yes, your pacing is too slow or too fast, but that’s not something to fix in the first draft.

Tip 2: Figure out if you’re a putter-inner or taker-outer

I’m a bare bones style writer. My first drafts have very limited description, and that means I’m a “putter-inner.” During my edits, I always have to add a lot to my first drafts.

Many other writers go overboard on description or other things, and they are “taker-outers” in edits. They end up cutting a lot.

It’s helpful to know which one you are, because I know that my pacing is always going to run too fast in my first drafts. That means I don’t get too worked up about it, because I know it’ll naturally get fixed as I add what needs to be added to get the pacing (and the story!) right.

Tip 3: Give it space.

The absolute best editing tool is TIME. I’m currently working on revisions for a book that I hadn’t looked at in eighteen months, and it’s amazing how easy it is to spot problems when I’ve had that much distance! Eighteen months is pretty extreme, but giving yourself a few weeks or a month away to get some perspective will really help you diagnose pacing issues.

Tip 4: While you wait, read books that you think are similar.

While you’re giving your manuscript some space, it’s great to read some other published books that are in the same category as yours (genre and target audience). This will help give you a good idea of how these stories are paced, and you’ll be in that rhythm when you come back to your book.

Tip 5: Revise, revise, revise and ask someone to read for you.

You know that book that you love and reread and push into other people’s hands? That book is the result of hours and hours and hours and hours of revisions. By the author. By the author’s friends. By the author’s critique group. By the author’s agent and editor and line editor and copy editor and then the author again. Amazing books do not just happened, even for fantastic, seasoned writers.

So, if you read your manuscript and think, “Ugh, this scene is slow,” or, “Ugh, this is moving too fast,” that’s okay! Pacing is a fixable problem, and if you’ve had some space and input from others, it probably will be pretty easy to figure out where you’re rushing and where you’re dragging.

Do you think you lean towards pacing your books too quickly or too slowly?

Stephanie Morrill writes books about girls who are on an adventure to discover their unique place in the world. She is the author of several contemporary young adult series, as well as two historical young adult novels, The Lost Girl of Astor Street and Within These Lines. Within These Lines was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, as well as a YALSA 2020 Best Fiction for Young Adults pick. Since 2010, Stephanie has been encouraging the next generation of writers at her website, GoTeenWriters.com, which has been on the Writer’s Digest Best Websites for Writers list since 2017. She lives in the Kansas City area, where she loves plotting big and small adventures to enjoy with her husband and three children. You can connect with Stephanie and learn more about her books at StephanieMorrill.com, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.