Story Pace: The Speed That's Just Right

The pace at which you tell a story is a critical part of story telling. Knowing if you're moving too fast or too slow at any given time will help keep the flow of your story at its perfect speed. It's not always easy to know what that ideal pace is, but instinct mixed with your best judgment will help you figure it out one way or another.

Just like tempo in music, stories have their own form of tempo. If you change the tempo of the song, you can turn a fantastic work of art into an indistinguishable shrill. The same thing can happen in writing. If you don't follow the right pace, what might have been a masterpiece could read as much less. Pace is an element that no writer can afford to ignore.

Like most things in life though, saying its important is easy, but actually doing something once you know that isn't always as easy. It's not like you always sit down, begin writing, and the story hits the perfect pace right off. It isn't always recognizable, or obvious from the get go. It could be at any stage of your writing process that you suddenly grip the natural pace for that story.

Writing is a journey of self discovery, and many times you just have to follow your gut and go with the pace that feels right to you. As we write, we grow, and that experience allows us to write better. That includes finding and writing the correct pace. Depending on personal situations, you may have editors, and others working who can help you find the correct pace. If you're just starting out, this may not be something you've ever even considered. No matter what stage you're at in your writing life though, pace is an important element in what you do.

My advice to writers when it comes to pace is to keep it in mind. When you're reading lines, or writing them, make sure you give pace a thought during the process. It's important to remember to look at the project as a whole, and not just as individual paragraphs and sentences. If all those don't come together to establish the right pace, it may damage the flow. It is just another of the many factors that must be considered when writing. The story will be all the better for doing so.

I'm Benjamin C. Andrews, an author sharing my writing knowledge with others. Visit http://magicjarpublishing.blogspot.com/ for more writing tips and tricks, and other quality information.

Just The Right Words For Your Novel

Ever struggle for words? All writers do at some time or another, but when we get them, there's an incredible rush of adrenalin, and this can be hard to describe. Words used to depict everyday human emotions and thoughts and expressions can absolutely mean one thing in certain contexts, and other things when used in a different way.

First we start with a scene or even a few sentences. Keep in mind what genre your novel is in. Is the story for children or young adults? If adult, there are many genres and even blended genres to keep in mind. There can be a fine line between erotica and porn, for instance. There's also hard and soft romance and the former may also cross over into soft erotica.

Ideas and words may come at any time so if your routine is to settle into the living room to watch some TV and you've turned off your main computer, then keep (in the least) a pencil or pen and a notepad handy, but an iPad or a netbook also works great. Anything you see or smell of feel while watching TV or out and about can trigger a whole group or sentences or paragraph or a simple few words. Email yourself these thoughts and print them out the next day. Watch live plays and shows as often as you can.

We often cannot connect why watching an opera (especially if you haven't seen many) can trigger an entire subplot in your novel. All you need to do is to take the concept of feelings from something which has moved you, and translate them into your own words. Novels are best written by people who are native speakers of that language. Every culture has the written word and stories, so no matter where you are born, you can add your own unique words to any writing.

Make it a habit to learn new words, too. Be keenly aware of the often subtle differences between love, lust, sex, sensual, etc. Plainly spoken body part words used in erotica can make a powerful statement and be certain to stay away from any "purple prose". Try and vary your descriptions because too much of anything is boring and will make readers either drift off or away from your book.

If you are writing your first novel for Epublication then we can't stress enough how important a cover is. Be prepared to change the cover if the book isn't selling. People cruising the web for Ebooks often notice the cover first, then if you get them to stop and read a sample, they may want to read the rest. If you cannot design covers then get someone to do it for you, and concentrate on just the right words for your novel, instead.

If you'd like to find out more about how to write just the write words, and other interesting subjects for writers, then check out Huebner's latest novel, The Mozart Killer, on his blog.

Write What's Right for You

Writing can sound very easy on the surface. Fiction or non fiction, there are countless subjects in the world that everyone can give their two cents on. Once you sit down and start pounding away at those keys though, you will start to realize the words don't always cascade across the screen at an amazing speed.

Luckily, this can be rectified by writing about things you are familiar with. If you're experienced at building things for example, you will probably find it easier to write about building a project, and the tools involved, than building an entire book about the history of the paper industry. Not that you couldn't write about that if you wanted to. With enough research, you could certainly produce such a book with almost no prior knowledge.

Writing outside what you know can be very difficult though. As most people who have written a book can attest to, even completing writing about things you know can be arduous at times. If you're barely sticking your head into the world of writing, you are in for a wild ride. It's amazing how difficult writing a bunch of words about something can be. As the page count grows, the job itself becomes heavier. Sometimes you run out of steam, and don't know where else to go with it. Or you could meet up with the notorious writer's block. There are many road blocks that could show up between typing that first word, and the long trip to reach the ending phrase.

I've always loved fantasy books, and so I chose to write them too. I had boundless ideas as I started writing, but some days it was hard to even type out a single sentence. When I think of choosing to write something I wasn't familiar with instead, I shiver at how hard it would have been.

If you want to write about something you aren't very familiar with, the best piece of advice I could give you is to get familiar with it. Even if it delays you beginning, take some time and learn about it. See what other people who write about it have to say. Trying to write about something you know little about, and just learning as you go along, can have damaging effects on your writing. It can become fragmented, and the cohesiveness of the writing as a whole can suffer.

Writing is a great tool that allows us to share thoughts and ideas with the world. However, if you believe it to be an easy thing to do, you've got another thing coming. Just like many people drop out of college before completing their degrees, many people drop out of writing before reaching the end. Lessen the chances of that by starting with what you know. It will make this difficult task a little easier to manage, and build your confidence until you can write with the best of them.

I'm Benjamin C. Andrews, an author sharing my writing knowledge with others. Visit http://magicjarpublishing.blogspot.com/ for more writing tips and tricks, and other quality information.