How to master pacing in nonfiction writing and why
There are lots of things we can do as nonfiction writers to help our readers absorb information, stay tuned and leave them wanting more. One of them is setting the right pace. Knowing how to deliver information at a pace that runs alongside a reader’s learning curve is a canny little tool to have in your kit. Offering too much too soon, or too little too late, sounds the death knell on a reader’s sticking power. Here’s how to handle pacing in your nonfiction writing.
What’s to come
- When is pacing important?
- Keeping pace with words
- Keeping pace with headings
- Keeping pace with illustrations and graphics
- Keeping pace with lists and textboxes
When is pacing important?
Always! I mean, it’s commonly thought to be more important in fiction than nonfiction because it’s primarily associated with elements of story-telling, like plot, character development and the emotional impact of a scene (suspense, calm, excitement) that a writer builds in the reader. The same could be said for creative nonfiction when writing a memoir or biography.
But pacing has a place in nonfiction and it’s just as important, albeit for different reasons.
Pacing in nonfiction has less to do with taking the reader on an immersive flight of fancy through waves of towering and crashing emotions and more to do with helping the reader out.
The goal of a lot of nonfiction is to impart knowledge, change habits, persuade, enlighten. And so a good nonfiction piece will deliver that goal by dropping knowledge nuggets in an easily digestible way that suits the appetite of the reader. You don’t want to outface them by overloading their plate from the get-go. Nor do you want to drip feed info so slowly that you leave them hangry and disinterested.
Gauge the information drop speed carefully, as the rhythm you create will guide your reader’s attention to where it matters most. Try some of the following tips to keep up a good, varied pace and watch your writing transform.
Keeping pace with words
One way fiction creates drama and elicits an emotional response from the reader through pacing is by varying sentence and paragraph lengths. Single words or short phrases keep a short sharp rhythm and tight speed. It can make you tense. Jumpy. On your seat edge.
Long flowing swathes of text can set a calmer tone and build a deeper sense of belonging and ease in the story or scene. Mixing it up is crucial.
Sentence and paragraph length and variety is as crucial in nonfiction writing.
Nobody wants to read a page that is wall-to-wall words.
It’s offputting.
Keep it bouncing along. Variety is spicy, you know, so turn up the heat.
Keeping pace with headings
Well-placed headings help the reader to navigate the text to make skimming for particular subjects easier. They also help to lock details and facts into the reader’s mind.
Visually, anything that breaks up a block of text into manageable, memorable pieces is a gift to the reader, making complicated or lengthy passages easier to read and digest.
Keeping pace with illustrations and graphics
All kinds of learners, whether visual or otherwise, benefit from having information presented in ways other than simply the written word. Adding visual features to the page, like illustrations, figures, tables, graphics, breaks up the text and changes the tempo of the piece.
They can give the reader a rest from word-heavy passages and help to keep up interest. But be wary of using them without justification. If a visual doesn’t add anything to what’s being said or help readers see the information in a different light, perhaps you need another pacing device to maintain interest.
Keeping pace with lists and textboxes
Lists and textboxes don’t only break up blocks of text to keep the page visually enticing and the pacing rolling along at a bouncing tempo, they also present information in an easy-to-read, easy-to-absorb format.
Displayed lists can serve you well when highlighting key details or breaking up otherwise overly long sentences/in-text lists. They can also act as great chapter summary devices.
Textboxes also change the pace and add interest to a page, but also provide an opportunity to break from the flow of the text to add, say, a case study, an example, a summary, or an exercise to further the reader’s understanding, reignite interest in a topic or consolidate learning.
Use these features wisely and consciously to elevate your blog/article/book and keep your readers hooked.