Fiction Writing: How to Use Good Timing

Show Notes: You have a great story idea, as example: Car chase but the road is out. This is an example. Your writing it from the protagonist point of view. The key story element is that the road is out. The idea is that the main characters are driven to their own destruction. Right it out the way it happens but the problem is, the key scene is over before the reader or viewer knows it happened. Good timing in fiction writing is essential. What is suspense? Suspense is not about what is happening but what the viewer thinks could happen. It's anticipation. Use timing to make that key scene a more spread-out element of the story. Lead the viewer to suspect that the outcome or something like it, may happen. Don't let the best scenes be over before the viewer has a chance to enjoy it. Find ways to let the viewer live out the best parts of the story to it's fullest. There are other stories that are part of your story that are not written and those are the stories of what your viewer anticipates might happen. A lot of great scenes only take a couple of seconds but there are ways let the viewer enjoy the scene for a longer period of time. Use timing to get more out of the key scenes. Find some way that the viewer can anticipate. Find ways to allow the viewer to live out those key scenes more. Real life is full of clues about what can happen. You can entertain your reader more by building up suspense. Suspense can also happen right in the middle of something. This is why fight scenes and flight scenes and chase scenes entertain viewers. The best way to leave the writers mind and go into the readers mind is to read your story to someone else. Motivational tip: It's hardest to get started, once started it's a hell of a lot easier to work on your art. So it's better to do your art only ten minutes every day than to do it for two hours every once and awhile.