19.04: LIVE Recording - Pacing with Guest Fonda Lee
Writing Excuses
Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2024
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Pacing is one of the most subjective and difficult aspects of storytelling to get right. What is pacing? How do you know what the right pace is for a story, and what techniques can you use to speed up or slow down your narrative?
Homework Assignment from Fonda Lee:
Take a page of a work-in-progress project and experiment with the pacing. Ideally, this should be a page with some dialogue or tension between characters. First, try to speed it up: cut description, be tight with dialogue, move the scene quickly. Then do the opposite: rewrite the scene but this time slow it down. Include more context, character interiority, exposition, and scene building. Compare the two versions. Which serves your story better?
Thing of the Week:
Sign up for our newsletter:
Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.
Join Our Writing Community!
Our Sponsors:
* Check out HomeServe and use my code homeserve.com/excuses for a great deal: https://www.homeserve.com
* Check out Talkiatry and use my code Talkiatry.com/WX for a great deal: https://www.talkiatry.com
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donations
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends. |
| 0:05.6 | If you would like to learn how to support this podcast, visit |
| 0:08.9 | www.patreon.com slash writing excuses. |
| 0:15.0 | Season 19 episode 4 |
| 0:20.0 | This is writing excuses |
| 0:22.0 | pacing with fond elite 15 minutes later This is writing excuses. Pacing with Fondalie. |
| 0:24.0 | 15 minutes long. |
| 0:25.0 | Because you're in a hurry. |
| 0:27.0 | And we're not that smart. |
| 0:28.0 | I'm Mary Robinette. |
| 0:30.0 | I'm Dung-One. I'm Aaron. |
| 0:32.0 | And I'm Dan. So we're here this week with our guest host who was a |
| 0:36.6 | guest instructor on the 2023 Writing Excuses Workshop and Retreat Fonda Lee. |
| 0:42.0 | Fonda Lee. |
| 0:43.0 | Fonda is one of my very favorite speculative fiction writers. |
| 0:47.2 | She is the author of the Greenbone Saga, |
| 0:49.5 | starting with Jade City, which is probably my favorite fantasy series of the past decade. |
| 0:55.0 | And so with that tough introduction, I'm going to toss it over to Fonda Lee to talk about herself for a second. |
| 1:01.0 | I don't know if there's anything else to say, |
| 1:03.4 | Dong Wan, thank you very much for that introduction. |
| 1:06.1 | I'm delighted to be back on writing excuses. |
| 1:08.6 | As Dong Wan mentioned, I'm the author of The Greenbone Saga, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.