A Novel Journey: Masterclass in Pacing
Rereading Around the World in 80 Days reminded me that great pacing isn’t about speed—it’s about control. Verne moves the story forward with the precision of a railway schedule, each chapter a carefully timed stop. The result is a narrative that never idles, never rushes, and never loses its way.
Pacing a narrative has always challenged me. You must provide enough detail to immerse the reader in the world you’re building—but not so much that the scene overtakes the story. As I work on my novel, I’ve come to appreciate how fine the line is between the immersive and the excessive.
After rereading Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days, I found myself inspired. The novel is a brilliant example of masterful pacing, blending urgency, structure, and variation with literary precision.
My appreciation for Verne’s craft only deepened as I began to analyze why the story’s rhythm feels so satisfying. He employs a number of techniques to maintain a compelling tempo without sacrificing clarity or engagement.
The central conceit—a wager requiring the protagonist to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days—creates a built-in momentum the narrative must obey. This ticking clock forces forward motion and prevents stagnation. Every delay tightens the tension. Every success is a temporary reprieve.
Each chapter or location serves as a self-contained vignette with a compact narrative arc. These episodes are complete enough to feel substantial but brief enough to avoid lingering. Together, they create a steady rhythm that carries the reader effortlessly through the story.
Yet within that rhythm, Verne finds variation. He introduces setbacks at just the right moments, shifts narrative focus between characters, and balances the calm precision of Phileas Fogg with the exuberant energy of Passepartout. The result is a story that feels in constant motion, yet never chaotic.
Verne’s prose itself is remarkably economical. Each sentence delivers just enough detail to spark the imagination—vivid, but never indulgent. He sketches scenes in bold, efficient strokes. In this way, he is as disciplined with language as Fogg is with emotion.
As the journey nears its end, the tempo quickens. Events unfold with increasing urgency, mirroring the dwindling days of the wager. The novel’s final chapters pulse with energy, culminating in a resolution that lands with precision and satisfaction.
Around the World in 80 Days is a masterclass in pacing because every narrative choice serves the larger momentum of the story. It’s a travel novel that never drifts—precise, efficient, and unrelentingly forward-moving. Much like Fogg himself.
A Novel Journey: The Unwritten Story That Found Me
What began as a short story quickly overtook me. It is a story that refuses to be contained – an organic being that is transforming before my eyes.
It began like all the others — with a short story. I had a drawer full of them: a few pages here, a scene there. Little vignettes, like windows cracked open to my subconscious, offering brief glimpses into half-formed worlds.
But this one was different. While the others rested quietly in their drawer — content to remain fragments of possibility — this one refused containment. Its characters whispered to me when I least expected — during walks, in the shower, just before sleep — hinting at histories I hadn’t written but somehow already knew. The world stretched past the page, bleeding into my life, unfolding scenes and conflicts too vast for a few thousand words to contain.
A single thread began to weave itself into something intricate and unruly. Each morning brought fresh connections, unresolved questions, characters who demanded to be known. Each morning I'd wake to find new connections forming, new questions demanding answers. What should have been a week-long affair stretched into months. The story transformed before my eyes — no longer a short piece, but something vast and breathing. My first novel.
I hadn’t planned for this journey. I wasn’t prepared for how it would consume me — how it would upend my assumptions, test my discipline, and quietly redefine who I was as a writer.
This piece is the first installment in A Novel Journey, a series chronicling my experience writing my first novel — the unexpected challenges, small breakthroughs, and all the moments in between. If you’ve ever tried to wrestle a story into being, I hope these reflections resonate with you.
Next up: My characters teach me a life lesson in empathy.