Writing Great Fiction

Lecture 19: Pacing in Scenes and Narratives

z A third kind of balance to consider is that between action and exposition

or between scene and summary.

o In most narratives, the writer shifts back and forth between

modes of storytelling. On the one hand, writers usually

dramatize the most important and interesting events as separate

scenes, with the full complement of action, dialogue, and

setting. On the other hand, writers often need to get across a

good deal of important background or expository information

that isn’t necessarily very dramatic.

o Expository passages often stand outside the time sequence of

the narrative—such as when you pause the action to describe a

setting or to tell a character’s backstory—or you might simply

summarize a long period of time in a few paragraphs in order

to get the characters quickly from one place to another or from

one dramatic moment in the story to the next.

Pacing a Whole Narrative

z Leo Tolstoy’s 7KH'HDWKRI,YDQ,O\LFK opens with a short chapter in

which a group of Ivan Ilyich’s fellow lawyers talk about his recent

death. After that, Tolstoy spends the next 11 pages or so of this 50-page

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The son of a civil servant, he becomes a civil servant himself, and his

professional life is devoted to rising through the bureaucracy, while his

personal life is devoted to social climbing, marriage, and fatherhood.

o The overall effect of the story depends on Tolstoy convincing

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life are the least dramatic part of the story, Tolstoy summarizes

them at a rapid clip. He tells us what we need to know—and no

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o About halfway through the novella, Ivan falls off a ladder, and

his injury leads to a mysterious illness that ends up killing him

only three months later. Suddenly, this Everyman’s life has

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of his life in 11 pages, Tolstoy spreads his last three months out

over 35 pages. The pace slows, and there’s a greater amount of