Pacing, getting the balance, right? If you're watching a horse race and someone says the pace is slow, no one is confused about who's pace you're talking about. It's the horse. But when my editor wrote to tell me the pacing was off in my fifth book, Jenny Stern, I hadn't a clue what she was talking about. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines pace as the speed at which someone or something moves. And speed is the rate at which someone or something moves or travels.

The word pacing is obviously related to time, driving speed is calculated in miles or kilometers per hour. But that didn't help me much. Was my pacing too fast or too slow? How could I tell which parts to fix and exactly what does the writer do when the pacing is off? It was a slow book, you might say, but what does that actually mean? Does it mean time passes slowly or too fast in the story?

Does it mean there isn't enough out Or that there's too much action. Besides, my head editor hadn't said the pacing was slow or fast just but it was off. Then I had what one of my writer friends calls an epiphany moment. When we talk about pacing and stories, what we're really talking about is the way a writer distorts the reader's perception of time passing. When your emotions are stirred while reading a book, or watching a movie or playing a game, you're eager to know what's going to happen next. When you're immersed in the story, hooked by curiosity or feeling anxious for the character, you can easily lose your awareness of the passing seconds and minutes.

Suddenly, an hours gone by and you had no idea of time. Wow, is it 3am already, I'm hardly going to get any sleep tonight. What a great book though. Your involvement or lack of involvement in what you're reading or watching towards your perception of time. This happens in your life all the time. You think, Wow, I'm having so much fun the time just sped by.

And speaking of time, it's time we take a look at the three different clocks involved in storytelling. Coming up next. Thanks for watching and I look forward to seeing you in the next video.