It's one thing to perfectly pace a scene and get your reader to turn a few pages. It's a whole other beast to grab their attention from the very beginning of the story and carry it all the way to the end. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is 309 pages. 309. How in the world does Rowling get her readers from page 1 to page 309?
It's Like Running a Really Long Marathon
Pacing Part 1 looked at Rowling's short, fast-paced Chapter 3 and analyzed why it worked. Even though that chapter successfully hooked her readers, Rowling didn't just simply set the story's pace on cruise control from there. Why not? Well, imagine trying to run 309 miles in a dead sprint. It's like that.
Some writers think that the best way to keep their reader's attention is to go faster and faster until they smash right into the ending, but having too much suspense for too long is just as bad as not having enough. If there isn't an ebb and flow to a story's intensity, the reader will get exhausted and give up.
Look at how Rowling varies the intensity (e.g. the pace) of her story after Harry finally gets to read his letter.
Take a Breather
The two chapters after "The Letters from No One" are long and have relatively little action but a lot of dialogue. They're basically the exact opposite of Chapter 3. Here's a quick summary:
In Chapter 4, "The Keeper of the Keys," Rowling has Hagrid fill Harry in on a lot of wizarding stuff that he's missed out on in the past 11 years. It's most definitely not action-packed (except for Dudley acquiring a pig's tail - but even then, Rowling only spends 3 paragraphs on it).In Chapter 5, "Diagon Alley," Rowling gives the reader a glimpse of Harry's new world, which involves a lot of description - she has him get a wand, visit Gringotts, meet Malfoy . . . again, it's pretty laid-back.
It seems like Rowling is taking a break in the action here to introduce new characters and set up her fantasy world. That's true to a certain extent, but, if that were all she was doing, her manuscript would've been dumped into the rejection pile. Remember: Without suspense, a book is sunk. It might not look like it (and a good writer knows that it's not supposed to) but Rowling still has suspense on every page in those two chapters. Just like the word "pace" is often misunderstood, so is "suspense."
You Don't Need Tom Cruise
Most people when they hear the word "suspense" think of something akin to Tom Cruise fighting 20 Russian spies while simultaneously disengaging a nuclear missile that's aimed at his face. If that were really the definition, then books like The Help (yes, it was a book first) about black maids in the 1960's working in white homes wouldn't stand a chance of getting published.
Suspense is about having loose ends in the story. It's about creating questions for the reader and making them care about the answers. Having no questions signals to the reader that there's nothing new to learn and that's where they'll shut the book. When Rowling relieves the suspense by letting her readers see what's in Harry's letter, she immediately loads them up with a bunch more questions. Here are just a few:
What's in the secret package that Dumbledore had Hagrid get from Gringotts?What house will Harry be placed in?Will Harry fit in at Hogwarts?Why was Hagrid expelled from Hogwarts?Who exactly is Voldemort? Why is he so bad? And why couldn't he kill Harry?
Rowling sneaked in all of that suspense while she was introducing characters and describing Diagon Alley. That sounds pretty easy, right? Just make sure that the reader always has unanswered questions? But what separates the good books from the great are these two vital components:
1. Where the questions come from2. How the writer presents them
The Random Bar Brawl
First, the where.
After revealing to her readers the contents of Harry's letter, Rowling gives them their newest big question, What will Hogwarts be like and will Harry fit in?
Where does Rowling get this new question from? Does she just pull it out of thin air? No. It stems directly from the answer of her previous question (What's in Harry's letter?). This is what it means to have a seamless plot. The reader isn't consciously aware that she's moving on to a new question because that question answered the previous question (a little twilight zone for you). There are no bumps in the plot to distract the reader from enjoying the story.
Some writers think that if they pull something exciting out of nowhere and plop it on to the page, the reader will want to keep going to figure out how it got there. That's like having a bar brawl break out in the middle of a story about a nun living in a convent. That's not suspense - that's just confusing. Suspense builds from what has already happened.
If Rowling hadn't tied in her big new question to the fact that Harry was going to Hogwarts, she would've jolted her readers out of the story - like how your mind disengages from a show when the television screen goes fuzzy for a second. There shouldn't be any static in the story.
Drivers Ed for Writers
Now the how. How did Rowling present to her readers the latest round of questions?
Whenever a writer dishes out new questions, she also needs to help her reader prioritize them. Because Rowling always has a lot of questions hanging in the air at the same time (all great plots do), she needs to make sure that her readers know which one to focus on at that moment. Without that help, it's like her reader is trying to drive an obstacle course without any depth perception: Everything looks like it's the same distance away so she doesn't know what's coming at her first. It's frustrating and confusing - and it's a fast way to lose your reader. Luckily, the solution is simple.
The more focus you put on a particular question, the sooner your reader will expect that question to either be answered or at least play a major part in the story until it is answered.
What if Rowling had written those 7 suspense-filled scenes prior to Harry finally getting his letter, but then didn't have him actually open it until the middle of the novel? That’s bad news. Similarly, once she has the mystery switch from "What's in the letter?" to "What will Hogwarts be like?" Rowling doesn't just send Harry back home and have him get into a fistfight with Dudley. She's pointed her readers in the direction of Hogwarts and she'd better go there or she'll lose them; hence, she sends Harry to Diagon Alley.
Don't Toss Out the Scraps
Now what about all of the other questions Rowling has thrown out there? Like why Hagrid got expelled from Hogwarts? Even though Hagrid's expulsion adds detail to his character and adds another line of suspense for Rowling to draw on later, she lets her readers know right away that it isn't going to be pursued at the moment. Here's the conversation she writes between Harry and Hagrid:
[Harry] "Why were you expelled?""It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."
Having Hagrid ignore Harry's question signals to the reader that they should do the same for now too. (And notice that Rowling manages to not only tell her readers what's not going to be pursued right now, but also what is - Harry getting ready to go to Hogwarts.)
Why should an author bother having other little questions hanging around if she's not going to pursue them right away? Think of it like dropping cookie crumbs for the reader. When one of the little questions becomes the big question later on in the plot, it will seem much more believable to the reader because they've already been introduced to the idea. Rowling eventually does focus on Hagrid's expulsion in book 2, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and she lets the reader know that it's now one of the big questions by having him thrown into Azkaban for it.
Putting It Into Practice
Now look at your manuscript:
Are you varying the intensity of your story? Is your reader exhausted? Bored?Is there suspense on every page (e.g., does your reader always have questions)?Do your questions make sense - do they complement each other?Are you giving your reader direction in the story or are they just wandering aimlessly?
I always write a good first line, but I have trouble in writing the others.
~Moliere, French Playwright (1622-1673)
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