Episode 117: What Makes a Story Feel "Fast" Or "Slow"?

A detail from the cover of the French edition of Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, a novel whose prose takes its time.

People talk about "pacing" all the time when it comes to storytelling — but what does "pacing" mean? How do you make a story feel like it's moving faster or slower, and why does this matter? And how do you figure out what pace your own story needs to move at?

Notes, citations, & etc.

Die Trying By Lee Child, a Jack Reacher novel, features very quick prose.

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville, on the other hand, reads more slowly.

The Monk and Robot books by Becky Chambers are sometimes described as slow-paced, but a lot happens in them pretty quickly!

The epistolary novel Clarissa by Samuel Richardson could be one of the slowest reads ever, but it’s a pure delight.