Pacing in Your Writing

Cary gave us some tips on pacing today:
Biggest distinction: what the story is focused on.

Fast vs. Slow

Emotions, thoughts,

Fast: background fades away. You will cut a lot of adjectives and adverbs - use descriptive verbs instead.
i.e. was a glorious, beautiful sunrise. --> The sun had lept into the sky.
Slow: wider view. You take in details around you, backgrounds, scenery, overall view of characters.

Transitions: Don't jump between fast-paced and slow-paced. Try to build up to faster-paced sections, and build-down to slower sections.
i.e. including details that give the reader a sense of foreboding makes them expect a faster-paced scene. After an intense, stressful scene there might be a sense of relief, and at that point it is natural for the pace to slow down.

Also, it can be helpful to think about the tone of your scene, and how that affects how you write it. See our post on Tone.