Pacing Yourself

Life is a marathon, not a sprint; pace yourself accordingly.
— Amby Burfoot

Pace yourself, pace yourself, pace yourself. And take time to rest. I guess if you don't rest and rejuvenate, then you harden, and I don't want to harden.
— Haley Bennett

Pace yourself in your reading. A little bit every day really adds up. If you read during sporadic reading jags, the fits and starts will not get you anywhere close to the amount of reading you will need to do. It is far better to walk a mile a day than to run five miles every other month. Make time for reading, and make a daily habit of it, even if it is a relatively small daily habit.
— Douglas Wilson

So last week I was super late with this post. Normally I write it on Saturday night and schedule it to appear on Sunday, but I was super tired and figured I’d have plenty of time to do it in the morning. And I might have, if I hadn’t forgotten how time consuming the actual wordage report part of these posts can be.

Then it took me a while to come up with a topic for this section, and then I had to hunt up appropriate quotes for the topic. And then, of course, I had to do a little research so I’d sound like I knew what I was talking about.

So what does this have to do with pacing yourself, you ask? Well, nothing really, except that I started working on the wordage report of this post yesterday, and got to thinking about how one of the advantages of reading books I’ve read several times before is that it’s easier to read just one chapter and then do something else for a while rather than gorge on the whole thing at once, and in between chapters I could do other stuff – edit for a while, read a chapter, write for a while. I figured I was finally learning to pace myself, and voila! I found my blog topic.

Which is my segue into the importance of pacing in writing. Pacing is crucial to the flow of your story and keeping the reader interested. It affects the mood of the story, allowing your reader to connect with the characters.

There needs to be a balance. If your story is too fast paced, you’ll tire out your readers. Too slow and you’ll bore them. You’ll find the balance also depends on what kind of story you’re writing. Thrillers are faster paced than character driven stories.

Descriptive passages will slow things down while dialogue and action will speed things up. Slowing down the pacing of the action at key places can build suspense, while speeding it up will have your readers on the edge of their seats. The length of your sentences and paragraphs can help control the pace as well – long ones tend to slow things down, and short ones will speed things up.

Start with action to draw the reader in, and once you have them hooked you can start filling in the details. Break up long sections of description with a bit of action or dialogue so the story doesn’t become boring. Then break up long sections of action or dialogue with some well-placed description to give your reader a breather.

To build suspense, reveal your details in small doses. Showing speeds up the pace; telling slows it down. Read your scene out loud to see where you should speed the story up and where you should slow it down

And don’t forget to pace yourself.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

Considering how busy my week was, I’m surprised I got so much done. But it’s a good feeling all the same, and I’m getting the urge to write again *knock on wood*. Who knows, maybe I’ll even start something new this week.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts –
1316+721+246+958=3,241
Poetry
246 (included in blog posts)

Total words: 3,241

Three-minute words –
110+106+95+116+87+125+100=739

Goals For Next Week:
Return to doing a three-minute word each day, rather than doing seven of them in one day. Write something other than my three-minute words and blog posts. Maybe even try my hand at the prompt Writers Digest sent me.

EDITING:
It was a good week for editing. I finished Beet Down by Jamie DeBree, and sent it back to her. It’s always so much more fun to edit someone else’s work, and even more so when it’s a writer who knows what they’re doing. :-)

And hold onto your socks, people. I actually got some editing done on Magickal Mayhem too. A total of 53 pages worth of editing. Woohoo!

Goal For Next Week:
Keep up the good work on Magickal Mayhem.

MARKETING MONDAY:
This time I did forget about sending anything out. I honestly don’t know what my problem is there, but I do know nobody is going to buy my work if I don’t start sending it out.

Goal For Next Week:
Submit two flash stories and one poem.

TECHNO TUESDAY:
Be still my heart! I finally set up my Kindle Paperwhite. It was both easier, and harder, than I expected. Easier, because pretty much all I had to do was connect it to my WiFi and sign into my Amazon account. Harder, because my books are all just sitting there in a big lump. Also, I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off – and then I discovered they don’t actually turn off, not completely. I’m sure once I get used to it, I’ll love it just as much as my old one.

Goal For Next Week:
Do something else technical or educational (like access one of my tutorials).

POETRY WEDNESDAY:
Not only did I get my poetry post up on time, I spotlighted a new form. AND I had fun doing it.

Goal For Next Week:
Share a new poetry form and new poem.

CRAFTING:
My stitchery guild had the second needle felting class, and I came home with a totally adorable mini cactus. I have since done a second one, and now I’m working on a sansevieria. Who knew stabbing sharp needles through yarn could be so much fun?

Before I could embroider something on my tote back, I had to remove the blurred design I ironed on a week ago. It wasn’t as easy to remove as I thought it would be, and while waiting for it to dry, I started a blue pillow for the granddaughter with the dragon she drew for me on it.

Goal For Next Week:
Finish pillow. Finish sansevieria. Start embroidery on tote bag.

WHAT I’M READING:
Last week I finished Blood Magic, and then read Jewels of the Sun, Tears of the Moon and Heart of the Sea, by Nora Roberts. I also read my carrot book - Immortal Rising, by Lynsay Sands, which I felt I was entitled to because I caught up on other stuff.

Goal For Next Week:
Find something other than Nora Roberts to read.

GOAL REVIEW:
My blog posts were up, and other than last Sunday they were all on time. It’s so much easier when I start working on them earlier on the day before they’re due.

It was mostly a good week. I got my writing done, I got my editing done, I even shared a new poetry form. I didn’t submit anything for publication, but I did set up my Paperwhite finally. I figured it was stupid to be reading the same books over and over when I had 2,000 unread books sitting in a cloud waiting for me to access them.

I feel like I’m finally making a few steps in the right direction, and I can only hope that next week will be even better.

Happy writing.