You’ve revised your opening five times. Cut hundreds of words. Tightened every sentence. But readers still lose interest before they finish Chapter One. The problem isn’t your writing—it’s pacing. Discover the 3 biggest pacing mistakes that kill your opening and what to do instead.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”
Episode at a glance:
[02:32] What is Pacing?
Pacing is how you modulate the reader’s experience. You can write the tightest, fastest action scene, and if the reader doesn’t care, it’ll still feel slow. Good pacing isn’t about speed. It’s about creating a question in the reader’s mind and making them crave the answer. It’s your reader moving down the page without slowing down because they’re riveted by wanting to know more. That’s how you control their experience. That’s how you control pacing.
[04:30] Mistake 1: Starting Too Early
Writers do this because they think they need to establish normal life before disrupting it. They need to share the character’s routine, their world, their relationships, so the reader understands who they are before things go wrong. So they’re trying to create the context before the character’s life gets upended.
Better to start where your character’s life is slightly off balance or incomplete. This creates an open story loop the reader is eager to close. Now the reader is leaning in. They care. They want to know more. That’s pacing. The mistake isn’t writing slow or quiet openings. The mistake is writing openings where nothing’s pulling the reader forward yet.
[07:22] Mistake 2: Answering Questions Too Fast
You create a question, but you answer it or resolve it too quickly. This happens when writers think they need to hook the reader with a mystery or a dramatic moment, but then they immediately explain it and deflate the suspense of knowing more.
Your opening is like a strip tease. You want to withhold and delay. Reveal a little at a time over the course of the story. The reader doesn’t want the answer right away. They want to wonder. They want to be curious. They’re starting to make expectations, and they read to see if their expectations are correct or whether it’s going to be thwarted in some unexpected way.
[10:33] Mistake 3: Filling Space With Extraneous Stuff
This is when backstory and exposition slows down your opening pace.
You only want to include information the reader needs to understand what’s happening right now. You don’t need to explain the characters’ history. You just need enough for the reader to follow the scene in the present moment. That may mean a sentence or two of backstory.
Because here’s the thing about backstory: readers don’t care about it until they care about the character. And they don’t care about the character until something’s at stake. So if you’re front loading backstory or world building or exposition in your opening, you’re killing your pacing – not because that information isn’t important, but because the reader doesn’t want or need it yet. Give the reader just enough to follow the story right now and trust that they’ll care about the deeper context once they’re hooked.
Links Mentioned In This Episode:
The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
👉 If this episode helped you, please share it with another writer who needs encouragement. And don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode.
Rate, Review, and Follow on Apple Podcasts.
“I love Writer Unleashed!” If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show. This helps me support more writers — just like you —to bring the story burning in their imagination onto the page. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. It’s chock full of writing tips and inspiration every Tuesday. Follow now!