In an article for Writer’s Digest, James Byrne shares tips for handling pacing in a thriller novel. “I have no idea how to define pacing in a thriller novel,” Byrne says.
Ok, then.
Byrne does know that pacing isn’t a one-size-fits-all element. Some mystery novels begin with a murder. Others don’t occur until a few chapters or 100 pages have passed. The actual crime is irrelevant to the pacing of the story being told.
Byrne uses a steno pad to draft scenes and develop the pace of his novels. As he reviews each steno pad page – about 130 words of draft writing – he asks some questions about what he’s written. “Did I move the plot forward, deepen the character, add a funny line, set up a reveal, or plant a clue (false or otherwise)?” he writes. “If not, pick up the pace, Byrne. Did I write an entire action sequence, like a fight, in a single page? OK, apply the brakes brother, and remember the axiom: Write quick things slowly and slow things quickly.”
Another method is studying the greats. Byrne suggests marking up a copy of a murder mystery or thriller you love. Flag the pages where the murder occurs, where secondary characters appear, and when clues are dropped. Use your notes as the scaffolding for your story.
You can also set page goals for your story beats. Mysteries have common elements: plot movements, character bits, revelations, clues, action sequences, and other items. Byrne suggests setting a metric for how many of these elements need to happen within a certain number of pages. A fast-paced story might need several of these elements to drop every few pages. If your story has a different energy, you can stretch that out to 10 or 12 pages. Experiment until you find a pace that works for you.
