In this video, I'll be looking at pacing emotional intensity and viewpoint. Fast pacing doesn't mean that time goes by quickly for the characters. But I think you've got that by now. Fast pacing means the reader gets lost in the story. Time on his watch ceases to exist for him. Creating high emotional content and your story requires more words per minute of storytime.
One technique to prepare the reader for an emotionally charged scene or an emotional revelation within a scene is to momentarily slow down the pace and give the reader time to prepare for what's coming. Just create a little void and and then the readers intention comes back to Oh, what's now on page 127. at the touch of love melody has taken a ferry to course Cortez Island, which is a little island between Vancouver Island in the British Columbia coastline. They're in Scott's home in the midst of an uncomfortable conversation. I'm in Melody's viewpoint at this point of the scene and she has something she needs to tell Scott. I temporarily slow down the pace to signal the reader a change is coming. She turned away from him so that he could not see into her eyes.
She stared through the window at the smooth shining water of the little Bay, the narrow gorge that opened out to the ocean. I'm deliberately using narrative to slow down emotionally here and give you time to prepare for what's coming is just a short narrative passage. Then, she said, I thought you should know that, that you had a right to know. I'm pregnant. She turned and he was staring at her. She wasn't sure what it was in his eyes.
He He blinked and she thought maybe it was shock. She had wanted it to be joy, but she should have known to keep her dreams in the music accrue, he said slowly Say that again. She didn't. He had heard her the first time. She could not keep staring at him wondering what on earth she was reading what he was reading in her eyes. Was he reading her young dreams of happy ever after all those words and a half page more for maybe one minute of storytime high emotional content.
Hopefully the readers eyes are racing or heart beating quickly. In these moments of high emotional intensity when time disappears and the readers eyes start racing over the words. The focus has narrowed to report details in eyewitness style. 20 pages later on page 147. Melody and Scott have been making a mess of navigating their new reality. After doing everything he can all his adult life to avoid family life.
Scott's unwillingly fallen in love and he's tumbling stumbling to get his bearings. He's proposed marriage but because there's no warmth in his voice or his face, Melody misinterprets his awkwardness for rejection. She clasp your hands together behind your back, lift her lips and whispered, do you love me? his jaw flexed, something in his eyes flared briefly and was gone. She felt tightness in her throat and swallowed a few seconds of storytime but we're deep in Melody's viewpoint feeling her emotional distress. pacing is connected to everything in your story.
As pacing changes viewpoint changes, the reader is drawn deeper into character viewpoint in the intensity of reading a fast paced scene, the author is using a close up camera shot. Then the pacing slows and the depth of character viewpoint moves into shallower waters. This is the wide angle shot And we've slipped into a shallower viewpoint. When the author shifts from scene to SQL the pacing changes, the scene feels close and fast, emotionally intense, deeper and character viewpoint. The sequel slows down because we've stopped stepped back from the intensity. There's time to think pacing changes as significance changes.
When you start looking at pacing in the stories you read, you may notice that even inside a scene the pacing often shifts the author consciously or unconsciously adjust the emotional intensity as the scene develops. If something important is coming, the author wants the reader to feel it coming. To know it's important and builds the readers expectations ahead of the event. One technique for building emotional intensity is sending a message that communicates the character Tension before the significant part. In that scene segment we just read, she clasp your hands behind her back, licked her lips and whispered, that's a warning. Something's coming.
Do you love me? If melody was going to say, should we have eggs for breakfast, I'd never have shown those nervous details. I'm slowing down the flow of storytime momentarily, describing Melody's body language to communicate emotional discomfort. It's a signpost for the reader, something important is coming. In the next lesson, we'll look at more writing techniques that can be used both to increase the emotional pace and to slow it down, giving characters and readers time to think and recover between scenes. Thanks for watching, and I look forward to seeing you in the next video.