Thieves’ Gambit, Ep. 9: Overarching Pacing

The pacing of a story determines how a story feels to read, and writers get to control that pacing by placing story elements at certain moments in the book and by how they move from chapter to chapter or scene to scene. In this episode, Anne-Marie and Erin explore how Kayvion Lewis keeps the pace fast and the tension high.

 

Books we talk about:

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Nina Lacour’s books (like We Are Okay and Watch Over Me)

The Davinci Code by Dan Brown

David Gill

Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (our blog post on how Christie keeps tension in the story)

Murder on the Orient Express film (trailer) 

 

Erin’s percentages for overall structure and pacing:

• Hook–1% pg 2 Gambit invite
• Inciting Incident–10% Mom kidnapped
• First Game of Gambit–13%
• Intro to Thieves–14%
• Romantic intro–16% pg 59
• 2nd Game–Museum–21% 
• Character Reveal–27% unwilling to leave injured player even risking gambit loss
• 3rd Game Train–42%
• Plan Heist 3rd Game—50%
• New Info–64% pg 249
• Big Obstacle-70% (pg256) handcuffed to balcony
• Kiss–80%
• Mom’s 1st betrayal–Comes at 88%
• Double Cross the Gambit–89%
• Twist/ Devroe’s betrayal–94%
• Mom’s 2nd betrayal–comes at 98%

Register for our Ask the Author Book Club at kidlitcraft.com/book-club

Register for our FREE March 29 workshop, “Making Emotions Concrete,” taught by Anne-Marie

Register for our April 26 workshop, “Building a Novel with Touchstone Moments,” taught by Lindsay Lackey

 

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