Pacing

Pacing is extremely important to your story. Readers want you to get on with it, so don't dawdle--we get it. We don't need the trip to the corner store told in depth and detail. I can't tell you how many times I've hit a brick wall reading a book all because the pacing was horrendous. Even if your story drags on in only a few scenes. It's still too much.

In my own experience, my novel deals with The Lincoln County War, but because my book was meant as a character study on Billy the Kid, I really didn't want to delve into the war too much, but there was absolutely no way around that. Without that war, there's no Billy. So what I did was this: I told only the most essential, necessary points of that war. The points that, and this is important, moved the story along. It's actually important to touch on the things that not only help your reader to understand what the hell is going on in your story, but also keep the path clear for you to keep going. You don't want to lose your audience.

So many authors want to bloviate, maybe because they want to showoff how profound they can be. Believe me, this does nothing for the story. What's important is telling your story in a most effective manner, and if you drag on about something, not only will your reader become bored, but they'll get lost. So your ego will ultimately destroy the impact of your book.

You have no choice but to deviate in some cases as it pertains to allowing your readers to understand where you are going. It's knowing when to quit and not get caught up in the reverie of telling the tale.

And believe it or not, being an avid reader can, over time, instruct you, without knowing it, on how to move it along. If you're a natural you'll probably pick up a lot of key pointers if you read as religiously as I do.

Since I'm not some Creative Writing professor and don't have all day, here's a link that can relate it to you better. Pacing Your Story