In the dark theater and smelling of butter, I sat watching The Amazing Spider Man 2 with my wife. The movie was fine as Fox Spiderman films go neither horrible nor the next big thing. As one of the characters was once again in mortal danger, my wife leaned over to me and asked me, “Does it seem like this movie is going on forever?” I sheepishly nodded because of course I’d been the one that suggested the movie. I looked down at my watch and was shocked, it had only been running for an hour and a half, there was still an hour more to the movie. Spiderman did not amaze me.
…in a red-eyed goose rage.
Reading something or even watching something that is too slow, can taint the rest of the picture or book. All these tv shows and books take liberties that they haven’t earned, in my humble opinion as a professional mass media consumer. I could be getting crotchety and feeling that many stories have been told over and over, so please makers of fiction I implore you, get to the good bit that tells me what makes yours unique and of utmost importance. If I buy into your story then you can spin me a long yarn, not before. Trust with the reader or the viewer needs to be gained. Just like the goose down at the local pond if you approach me before you’ve gained my trust, I’m likely to shred the whole loaf of story in your hands in a red-eyed goose rage.
Now that I got the idea of a maniac goose shredding people’s loaves of bread out spite onto the page, I will attempt to summon a few examples of what holds a story back for me.
When I world build I attempt to build the world up around them as the move through it.
Stories pacing will need to slow down and speed up at different times throughout the telling of it. Maybe the story has began and the inciting incident hasn’t occurred yet, and if you need to be building lots of the world before I find a reason to be invested please pump the breaks on that. The story should probably be setting up the world as quickly as it can. Everything that is told should matter to the story, not the world, but the narrative of your story. When I world build I attempt to build the world up around them as the move through it. Having your diorama of a world setup before you characters get to play in it won’t be interesting, to some it may be I suppose, but from my perspective your characters should exist in the world not be apart from it.
We’ve all done the dance of the deadly details. You want things to be lush and layerd and intricate. I know that your dwarves are part of a country with nine different states in it, but giving the history of each state in one go will only confuse me and end up throwing lots of details that I may end up attaching to the wrong name. Each dwarf may speak three different language and each language may come three different ages of the dwarven people, but is that important right now? It hopefully will be because that is the reason that the story is being told. It is being told right now because of what is happening…right now, not thousands of years ago!
There is a limit to the amount of paint you can put on your world in a single layer, put it on too thick and nothing will stick.
There is a limit to the amount of paint you can put on your world in a single layer, put it on too thick and nothing will stick. I need the paint that colors a world to be put on one thin layer at a time. Each coat will further enforce the shape of things and the detail of everything.
I welcome a well timed reminder, a nudge that is there just in time when you need it. Monotony can set in if those reminders turn into tiresome gnats flying through nonstop. I’m pretty certain I may be guilty of this, but I’m aware of this so I try to stop myself from doing it. If something has been said once, twice, or maybe three times, it is no problem, but if the same note about a character or story element is repeated until it is the only thing that can be heard, those pleasant little reminders have gone too far. Only through revisions can these nagging details be trained and honed into pointed bit of story that tells what it needs to.
The beautiful thing about writing and creative endeavors is the ability to refine. If movies could only be shot once and never edited, The Room would stand the test of time as a classic. Books without any editing would hardly ever make sense, well at least mine. There isn’t a hard and fast rule to the pacing of a story, so explore, try, and experiment. A careful balance always has to be negotiated. It isn’t easy to find that perfect speed, but with effort I hope to find it.
A Few Things After Words 