It's frowned upon now

 

People talk of the rhythm of the novel. It may be consistent, going in and out regularly like the tide but occasionally a strong wind comes along and the waves become a menace? Others worry about the rate a reader reads. Sometimes it’s all about the speed at which events occur in the story that excites people. Every readers’ experience of a novel is unique. There were people who found the Da Vinci Code exhausting because it never let up the pace and that was precisely what other people loved about it.

Some readers love description and want more of it. Others find it boring and skip over to get to the next bit of action. I suspect the latter  group are the ones who talk of pacing as being paramount to the success or failure of a novel.

Pacing certainly keeps the story moving forward. (Or it should.) Nowadays there is a tendency to shorter sentences and shorter words and I imagine the brain stutters a bit when trying to switch gear and read any of the old classics. Not that it can’t be done, but the change is real. A fast pace makes the reader feel more emotion, more caught up in the action. Back story and “telling” are now frowned upon in the first few pages of a book and in some cases, the whole story!