101 Writing Tips from an Exhausted Reviewer

Pacing

Reflective chapters or chapters focused on character development are fantastic. It helps orient the reader, or process any of their decisions.

Building Blocks.

And no, I'm not talking about Lego. Unless you really want me to.

My favourite Lego building is this kickass monster truck I made when I was twelve.

There.

Happy?

Anyways, so it comes down to each individual word you write. Then, this changes your sentence structure, overall. For example:

She walked to the other side of the room, where the wooden door, framed with purple onion rings because that's a cool design, stared back at her.

There's that. Or there's:

She waddled to the onion ring door.

Completely different structures, and they lead to a complete different pace.

Then, paragraphs!

At first, Cushions thought Blanket would be okay.

Then, she saw the blood.

It was red and sloshy, falling onto the carpet. Streaming down, down, down the cotton surface, and coating the vase of flowers in bright green. Because, even though I said the blood was red literally two sentences ago, I got bored and changed it to green.

Sue me.

Consider that, and then consider:

At first, Cushions thought Blanket would be okay. Then, she saw the blood. It was red and sloshy, falling onto the carpet. Streaming down, down, down the cotton surface, and coating the vase of flowers in bright green. Because, even though I said the blood was red literally two sentences ago, I got bored and changed it to green. Sue me.

Then, chapter lengths!

Notice that I'm not saying that some things are 'right' or 'wrong'. Because there is no right or wrong, really. It all depends on the mood you want to set, and what you think is the most effective for the context of your story.

Similarly, there isn't really such thing as 'a perfect chapter length'. Some stories have 1,000 word chapters. Some stories have 5,000 word chapters. Some have 4 word chapters. However, as long as they have a clear beginning, middle, and end, and keep your reader engaged, you're good to go!

If you think your pace is going a bit awry, then look at your building blocks. Go right down to the word level. Shape them accordingly.

Purpose.

Which scenes are you fleshing out?

Do we need to see him walk into the flower shop, pay $50 for a bouquet of roses, smell them, get his $3.74 change, ask the shopkeeper about the weather and the robot apocalypse, and then leave the building?

Or would it be better to just show him rocking up to the hospital, with roses, that we can safely assume he had bought after dipping down to a florist shop?

Experiment.

Give your story a fresh look!

For example, we know the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. However, what if the story started at a new place -- what if, to instantly speed up the pace and hook the reader, the first scene was both the tortoise and the hare being a single inch away from the finishing line? Then jump back to how it ended up that way?