As a general rule: the lower the stakes, the faster the scene should pass. The higher the stakes, the slower the scene should pass. In this way, high stakes give the writer some time to play. Good pacing is also about avoiding habituation, however. Don’t think that just because you have ever-escalating stakes that all of your scenes can be long. Chuck Wendig tells us, “Constant tension can be trouble for a story: a story where pain and fear and conflict are piled endlessly atop one another may wear down the audience. Creating suspense works by contrast: you must relax and release the tension before ratcheting it back up again. Pressure builds, then you vent the steam. Then it builds again, and again you vent. This is pacing: the constant tightness and recoil of conflict into resolution and back into conflict. Think of Jenga: you remove a peace and, if the tower remains standing, everybody breathes a sigh of relief. Tension, release, tension, release.” We must allow for resolution to conflict! If the scenes before a major Climax are long and slow, the big scene in which we want the tension to hold will fall flat. Because we’ve dragged the energies of the audience through sluggish scenes of minor importance, events of great moment are greeted with a shrug. Escalate, but also pace yourself. Give the audience time to breathe.
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