Of Pacing, Tension and the All-Important Artistry of Holding the Reader’s Attention…a

Author, Ken Follett, writes, “There is a rule which says that the story should turn about every four to six pages. A story turn is anything that changes the basic dramatic situation. It can change it in a little way or change it in a big way. …You can’t go longer than about six pages without a story turn, otherwise the reader will get bored. … Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, follows the same rule. In Dickens it’s the same; something happens about every four to six pages.”

The author of at least 20 novels, many of which are thrillers that have achieved international success, this list includes Follett’s well-received historical works, The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, the latter of which made the New York Times Best Seller List.

Adapted for film, The Pillars of the Earth debuted July 23, 2010 on Starz as a mini-series.

When it comes to pacing, Follett’s admonishments are well taken. But what is he really talking about?

Pacing.

The all-important aspect of timing regarding a novel proves incredibly important when it comes to reading a 1000-page novel, which both The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, contain.

That Follett, a master writer of thrillers has also written these long works that have achieved not only acclaim from literary critics, but praise as well from readers whose time like mine and yours stands in short supply says he knows a little bit about need for engaging the reader’s attention and how to achieve this.

Maintaining a reader’s attention requires many things, crafty and authentic dialogue, vivid scene structure efficiently drawn, and interesting plot and that all-important but often elusive factor of something continually happening that re-engages us, as a reader when the action begins to wane.

It is said regarding screenplays that something must happen every 30 minutes.

When hearing this in a class in which I participated while earning my MFA in Creative Writing, I immediately thought, then asked how might this rule apply to writers. In other words, how often do we need something occurring?

It seems that Follett has answered my question–every 4-5 pages.

The basis for this occurring rests with the cause-and-effect efforts of plot.

Those of us who create outlines–Follett does this too–can build this into our plot, or rather re-arrange events to achieve this.

One writing teacher I recently studied under cause this aspect of crafting a plot as, causality and build, the idea behind this being that not only does one thing happen as a result of another or previous action, but also that each resulting action, reaction or event builds on the earlier response and does so with and increasing tension established by an escalation in conflict.

As writers we continually hear and read about the importance of conflict.

And yet we often forget its role.

The conflict our protagonist experiences and creates in response to the dangers and challenges she or he faces must build towards greater tension.

This tension creates the footsteps leading to the arc of both character development and transformation and action, both external and internal.