Groups / Writers for Young Adults / Pacing for YA -Need Help...
Hi ladies,
I am writing my first YA novel and I am in the beginning pages and realized that I have a pacing problem. I do not want to have this problem and I want it fixed. I know an editor at a publishing company who wishes to see my work and she mentioned before that she always notices problems with authors and their 'pacing."
I noticed that I like to write my story as if its literally day by day! OMG. I have skipped a day or two by using transitions by page 39 but I think if I keep it up at this rate my manuscript will be like 500 pages! My story's duration is 6 months (Jan-June end of school year) and by page 42 which I believe is still considered the beginning (correct me if I'm wrong).
how do you pace your story to fit it in the timeline. The editor I know said either the author is speeding or taking way too long.
Please advise as to how to make my story work within the 6 months duration and how to properly pace.
For example: my story starts in January and the school dance is in February. I wrote 39 pages so far and I believe that I am only at day 4 still in January. With 42 pages written shouldn't I be at the school dance already thats in the month of February? Is that right? or am I doing something wrong?
Thanks and I hope I am explaining correctly,
T.Swift
part of the SparkPoint Studio Family
You're right Shannon-We must be true to our writing style! I'm going to hang in there :-)
You're welcome! And good luck on your re-writes.
I hope you aren't too frustrated. Pantsing it may take longer in the revision process, but I love the way it feels to write and see where the story takes me. In the end, we have to be true to our own writing styles (and revise like crazy!).
Thank you SHannon! I am going to get that book like this week lol I am more of a pantster. I am in the middle. I tried to come up with an outline on index cards and on a legal pad. but I am still not 100 percent sure this is where I want my story to go. I have a feeling that I am just like you, I will have 100k words and will have to cut back. I already have a problem with to many words-and my editor friend has to always edit what's not important. Maybe I need to try and plan each scene so I can know what to cut. another writer suggested that if its not important or move the scene forward I must cut it out!!! man, back to the drawing board. Thanks again :)
Wow thanks Jennifer. I have some work to do! I think I am going to revisit my story and shorten my timeline to 3 months. I just studied a YA book for pacing and the author's story was only 40-50 days. I am going to go through one of my most favorite YA authors ever!! -Judy Blume, I am going to see how she paced "Forever" to get an idea. I so appreciate you giving me an example of how to jump to 30 days in a single paragraph. I am going to work on re-writes this week. Thank goodness I caught this so early in the book.
T.Swift!
Jennifer's suggestions are great. I struggle with moving time as well, but I'm worried you may be stunting your story if you begin worrying about pacing to early in your writing process. You say you are in your beginning pages, so I'm assuming that means you've just begun your first draft.
Are you a planner or a pantser (fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants writer)? If you write detailed outlines, you can look there for scenes that don't advance the plot and can be cut. If you're a pantser, like me, it takes longer, but helps if I let myself write the LONG first draft. I don't like knowing exactly where the story is going, so I end up writing more than I'll ever need and then cut it WAY back during revision. I don't worry about pacing until my first or second revision.
During the first draft, it's easy to feel like everything you're writing advances the plot. I remember bristling when a critique partner said I had a lot of fluff I could cut, but he was right. Once I was ready to seriously revise, it was easier to see what was backstory, character development, important vs. not-so-important subplots, and actual story. I focused on the story and cut back everything else. In doing this, I shortened my whole manuscript from over 100,000 words to right around 60,000.
Basically, I don't want to see you stunt your creativity by getting ahead of yourself in the writing process. But if you've got the whole first draft finished (or if you're a planner and you've got the whole outline finished), then it's time to start cutting for pacing.
A critique partner of mine suggested I read McKee's STORY. There's a lot of tips and information in there on pacing you may find helpful. I didn't love it as much as he swears by it, but it gave me a jumping off place.
I think you have to tell the events and details that move the story forward and skip the ones that do not. You have a long timeline, so pick the important components of the story and write those. A paragraph can easily skip from one time to the next. For example:
"Mr. Thompson told us to write a thirty page essay on what was important to us. But by the end of month I'd only written twenty pages of cliched drivel about world hunger because I'd been too busy drafting text messages to Josh and then erasing them. Why hadn't he called?"
Or you can use chapters to move it along. In the second book in the Twilight series, the author skipped writing about certain months by using one word as an entire chapter (the month that was passing) and that was it. It was very effective. I think she wrote three months like that. J.K. Rowling does the timeline thing very well and while her later books are quite long, the first one is standard size.
Also, skipping time can be done by changing character perspectives.
I hope this helps.