Writers Tricks of the Trade VOLUME 8, ISSUE 4 | Page 8

FLOW IS KEY
F RED R AYWORTH
What makes the action in a book work. There are many misconcep-
tions, and that’s why I wanted to take a look at the concept of
flow—one of the things that makes you want to keep turning pages.
I
n various forms, I’ve talked about this
before. Story flow.
I read a lot. Okay, I’ve also talked
about that a lot. At Disneyland, the most
inspiring place in the world, a lot of things
popped into my head, including the seeds
for this article. That spark of an idea came
to roost when I’d finished the book I was
reading during that trip and started the
one which had 152 short chapters. That
made this thought come full circle back to
what I’d read while stuck in the hospital.
Story flow. It can make or break your
story.
First off, I’m not going to condemn
every style I don’t like personally, but
then again, I am going to explain why I
think they’re a detriment to an easy and
enjoyable read.
Being a writer is one thing. However,
before we were writers, we were readers,
true? I certainly hope we still are, because
that’s the whole reason for taking up this
passion, to make something readable ei-
ther for ourselves, or eventually for other
people.
Why torture your readers?
HERKY-JERKY
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE
Digging up examples of past books I’ve
read, there was the example of a recent
science fiction novel I read. The style was
herky-jerky, frenetic pacing. The author
wrote in random thoughts, expected the
reader to have read the previous two
books, and buried the action, which was
admittedly relentless, within that jumbled
mess. In a way, the pacing was steady, but
the writing distracted from that.
I’ve read other novels where they
would start slow, pick up at a frantic pace,
slow down, have a burst of action, then
nothing for a very long time. Finally,
they’d end with a small burst of action.
The chapters were very long, like thirty
pages or more, with no scenes.
To me, that’s as herky jerky as the sci-
fi writer with the relentless pace.
SNAILS-PACE
This is getting more into the literate
way of things. The pacing is almost non-
existent as the author spends all their re-
al-estate developing the characters. Plot is
a side issue. The chapters are long, the
paragraphs are very long and the narra-
tive tends to be rambling.
This is a word lover’s dream.
During a period of time when I was
stuck in the hospital, I read a murder-
serial killer story that moved at a snail’s-
P AGE 3
W INTER 2019