To Pace is the Race
29/06/09 10:36 Filed in: The Series
So I haven’t written on my blog in over a month. It’s not like I haven’t been busy.
So here’s the skinny:
I decided that while my book was moving along and I was getting into some real good action I began to realize that while I liked the pacing I better examine how pacing happens for some of the more successful book series that are out there. So I am examining the Potter series, The Percy Jackson series, along with literary classics like Huckleberry Finn, etc. To see how the pacing of these books have panned out.
With Rowling, I loved that her books were as long as they were but you never got bored with descriptives or plot development. The characters and their inner struggles carried you along and how plot points that seemed so inconsequential the moment you read them played a part at the conclusion of the series. The smaller points were bread crumbs leading to a great climax.
With the Riordan series, the journey is more classic as it mirrors the ancient Greek myths. There is a brevity to the sequence of events yet the character development doesn’t suffer for it. This series is a fast but interesting read. While the Percy Jackson series never competed with the tomes Rowling wrote, they both have solid and well developed characters that are equal parts wit and adolescent foibles.
I am looking to shorter stories, and more classically written pieces as well. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are also on my list to examine.
I guess what I am getting at is that I want to understand this part of the craft. I have solid characters, I know their strengths and weaknesses. I know where they come from, how they develop, etc. What I am unsure of is the linear events that come at them throughout my series.
I have outlined my series so I have a real good feel for the arc, but I am a bit unsure of how fast to throw it at the reader. While I find some points interesting, in plot or character development, I might appear to be rambling to a reader who has no knowledge of what is happening where. Thus, the examination of successful authors and how they build their stories along the way. I am not looking to follow their formula exactly but I want to understand the rhythm and pace a bit more. So I will have a stronger barometer for wherever I am in my own story. A ‘rambling’ compass, if you will. Something to keep me on course and not allow me to stray (too much) for my own flights of fancy.
So that’s what’s been going on with me over this past month.
Oh, and then there’s the decision to abandon my day job and go back to school (there are times I think it was a crazy move, and at others it just feels so solidly ‘right’.) So yeah, there’s some trepidation about my living circumstances... but I can’t spend too much time lamenting that.
Press on...
Until next time (and it won’t be another month til then, I promise you)...
W.
So here’s the skinny:
I decided that while my book was moving along and I was getting into some real good action I began to realize that while I liked the pacing I better examine how pacing happens for some of the more successful book series that are out there. So I am examining the Potter series, The Percy Jackson series, along with literary classics like Huckleberry Finn, etc. To see how the pacing of these books have panned out.
With Rowling, I loved that her books were as long as they were but you never got bored with descriptives or plot development. The characters and their inner struggles carried you along and how plot points that seemed so inconsequential the moment you read them played a part at the conclusion of the series. The smaller points were bread crumbs leading to a great climax.
With the Riordan series, the journey is more classic as it mirrors the ancient Greek myths. There is a brevity to the sequence of events yet the character development doesn’t suffer for it. This series is a fast but interesting read. While the Percy Jackson series never competed with the tomes Rowling wrote, they both have solid and well developed characters that are equal parts wit and adolescent foibles.
I am looking to shorter stories, and more classically written pieces as well. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are also on my list to examine.
I guess what I am getting at is that I want to understand this part of the craft. I have solid characters, I know their strengths and weaknesses. I know where they come from, how they develop, etc. What I am unsure of is the linear events that come at them throughout my series.
I have outlined my series so I have a real good feel for the arc, but I am a bit unsure of how fast to throw it at the reader. While I find some points interesting, in plot or character development, I might appear to be rambling to a reader who has no knowledge of what is happening where. Thus, the examination of successful authors and how they build their stories along the way. I am not looking to follow their formula exactly but I want to understand the rhythm and pace a bit more. So I will have a stronger barometer for wherever I am in my own story. A ‘rambling’ compass, if you will. Something to keep me on course and not allow me to stray (too much) for my own flights of fancy.
So that’s what’s been going on with me over this past month.
Oh, and then there’s the decision to abandon my day job and go back to school (there are times I think it was a crazy move, and at others it just feels so solidly ‘right’.) So yeah, there’s some trepidation about my living circumstances... but I can’t spend too much time lamenting that.
Press on...
Until next time (and it won’t be another month til then, I promise you)...
W.