Two things that I think I do intuitively well — and I know there are a number of things I don’t do well and I could list those too if you want — but two things I think I do well are pacing and also transitions. And the two things are connected, I think. Anyway, pacing, how can we describe that? It has to do with the way a story moves along and the flow of the narrative and I can sense when it’s time to back off, switch scenes, or move into a slower paced mode for a while before revving it up again. In order to do that, one has to make those changes not abrupt and uncomfortable.
And that’s what I think I do pretty well. And I mention that only because every now and then, of course, an editor gets involved and makes suggestions. And sometimes I say, but if I take that out, I’ll lose that beautiful transition I made, which the editor won’t have noticed. Of course it’s good if it’s not noticed because you don’t want one to notice it, you are supposed to feel that it’s smooth.
But in cases it’s so smooth that that he doesn’t realize that it will throw it off if I lose that. So I’ll have to get back and re-transition. But those things I think come intuitively to me when I’m working. And I just sort of know when to slow down, when to speed up. Maybe it’s like driving a car, maybe one could make even that analogy that you know that there’s a curve and so you slow down, otherwise you might smash. And I think the same thing could be said of writing. You know that you’re coming to a difficult point and you need to slow down rather than just throw it all into a collision.
