It doesn’t take a major in fine arts to pace writing. Obviously, in certain scenes we want to “up” the action by upping the pacing. For example, in an action scene or crisis scene, use shorter sentences and paragraphs. Race the reader through the page. Also, select words with more impact. Consider alternative words when reviewing the piece before ending, or for some people before starting, the writing session.

Easy, peasy.

The opposite is true when slowing the pace of the writing to give the reader a chance to catch their breath and reflect on what just happened. Slowing the pace can add a chance for the reader to savor the moment and its impact on the protagonist.

Warning: Don’t get wordy to slow the pace and show off that you have a dictionary. Don’t slow the pace to the point that the story, and possibly the reader, is dead.

Unofficial double prepositions get gone. There are approximately 150 prepositions in the American English language. They are single words and compound (two-word) prepositions, such as “because of,” and “out of.”

What is an “unofficial double preposition”? I might have made up the term, but I see it all of the time. For example, “…piled up under a tarp…” Two prepositions back to back isn’t the end of the world or the end of a writing career, but too much of that is simply annoying. Removing the word “up” does no harm in the image portrayed.  Wordiness is boring. The grammar rule is that a preposition is followed by a noun, according to many sources (not cited, you can easily find them and I don’t want to promote the sites).

The point is to use pacing as a literary device, not simply reckless writing to hit a specific word count per day.