I've started writing my first fic and I find myself having major problems with pacing, things I want to last a whole chapter end up taking 700 words.

So, what're some good tips and rules to pacing? Maybe I just need to give up trying to make things fit a whole chapter and go with it?

 

I'm not a writer, but I guess if you put up a bit of your work here, people will be able to help you more.

 

I'm not a writer myself but i would still strongly recommend you not to attempt to attempt to write a lot when you do not have much to say. A fast paced story is often the best, if you can write your plot in 20k words, do so. No one wants to read a long winded story with little real content.

 

Aingeal, JWH's advice is best; put your story in Work By Author section. That way you'll get specific advice.

Here it will just be theoretical because we don't really see what your problem is. You may not have atmosphere, you may not have enough dialog, the actual length of the scene might not be enough for a lot of words, etc., etc.

 

Post in WbA. We'll be able to help you more there.

 

Depends on how well you can keep things together without making things complicated or long-winded. I was always best at short and fast when I wrote stories for school, though I definitely wouldn't post that crap on the Net.

But people have different writing styles, so it's hard for us to give coherent advice without getting a feel for yours. WBA thirded.

 

Pacing is an issue I've always had as well, and the only real solution to it is planning. Don't plan length, plan plot to the minutia, and then write that out as comes natural with dialogue, description, and structure at the top of your mind.

If you've already done this, or believe you have, then go post it up on WbA. Hell, even if your work is just you 'going with the flow' and writing what comes to mind, we can't help unless we can critique it and tell you how to improve.

 

I expect you'll put your draft in WBA, so I won't ask you yet again to do so. The following are general observations:

Pacing is the kind of thing you tweak in revision. I wouldn't fret it too much in your first go at your story.

That said...

If it's too fast, it's an easy fix--use any of a number of techniques (use an aside, zoom into some activity, make an otherwise irrelevant action drip with meaning and symbolism) to slow things down. Think Quentin Tarantino. Put a slow-mo into your prose and let something cool happen. One of my favorite scenes in film is in the opening of Apocalypse Now, where Captain Willard is given his mission over a dim sum lunch. So much happens in that scene in the details, yet so little in the actual advancement of plot. Watch and learn how to make a minor scene poignant.

The opposite, making slow prose go faster, is much harder--you have to trim, trim, excise, and trim. You have to drown your babies, your turns of phrase so precious to you when you wrote them. You have to streamline down to the very basics and use active verbs, short sentences, death to participle tone, and read your work aloud a dozen or so times to get it to come out right...

You're fortunate you have the former problem.

 

Okay, I'll give it a few more nights of writing, keeping in mind Perspicacity's tips and then post it up in WBA.

 

Finding the penis is usually not part of most people's pacing strategy so you wouldn't have been able to help Oz.