I don’t mean wearing a hole in the floor when under stress, I mean building appropriate tension throughout a story!

As I continue to mine the bountiful gold of Swain’s “Techniques of the Selling Writer”, pacing has become an issue. My writing prof said it would happen, but I didn’t want to believe her. Sadly , I am facing the truth that my love for words can, if I let it, impede the effective telling of a story (At least, in novel form. Those gypsie storytellers can probably get away with it!).

I am, admittedly, a slowy, flowy, whimsical kind of person. It’s there in the clothes I prefer, the designs I decorate with, and in my dancing. It also comes through in my writing. Now it isn’t that this is a bad thing per se, but long sentences, paragraphs and even words release tension while sharp, short, terse ones create it. So, to tell the story in a way that lets the reader experience it emotionally, I need to pace the words to match the appropriate emotions. This means being deliberately choppy, which is just against my nature.

My prof would say that I am resistant. I would agree. However…

I. Am. Learning!