I was writing this last week when I encountered a serious problem. The story was happening too fast. I had reached a big point 35 pages into the first draft. Now let me clarify: big events early on are okay, but only if they are the right event. Not this event. This event meant I was on pace to end the book at 75-80 pages. That's pretty bad for a book that is supposed to hit 200 pages.
Pacing is a pretty important element in books, and one that the reader notices, but doesn't think about. Each event is given the appropriate amount of time to develop. That way big events have the impact, and little events don't drag on, boring us to tears.
Good pacing doesn't mean a book is a page-turner either. I've found some books that were enjoyable to read, but also easy to put down. The pacing was good, but not necessarily compelling. And that's fine.
Anyway, I'm just pontificating. Pacing isn't something you can plan correctly. You just have to know. Did I get here to fast? Did I get here to slow? So when I got to one of my big events at page 35 I knew the pacing was all off. It came too fast for anyone to care. I had no time for the characters to develop. I had to put on the breaks. I went back and put in a new "Chapter 2", pushing back all my other chapters. This added several pages to the story and I have a new "Chapter 4" waiting in the works as well, which will push the event farther back.
The way I have it planned now is that the event will hit at about page 60 instead of page 35. That puts me on pace for a book that's going closer to 130-150 pages. That's still shorter than my goal, but it's much closer to what I want it to be.
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