Lisa Manterfield: Writing a Page-Turner

Narrative pacing is the key to keeping readers immersed in your story. Whether you’re writing an adrenalin-filled thriller or a “slow burn” literary novel, gauging the right pace can make or break a book. Move too fast and you’ll exhaust your readers; too slow and you risk losing them for good.

In this workshop, my frequent teaching partner Lisa Manterfield, will illuminate the three key ingredients that control your novel’s pacing and keep your story moving forward. You’ll discover pace killers that stop readers cold and gather technical tricks to create the illusion of speed. And, you’ll learn a simple litmus test to spot pacing issues in your own work and ensure your readers make it to “The End.” 

Lisa is the award-winning author of five novels, two works of non-fiction, and five non-fiction eBooks. Her sixth novel, the page-turner INVISIBLE INK, is coming out in 2027 from Thomas & Mercer.

So, I hope you'll join us on Thursday, May 21st, 5:30-7:00pm PT. You can register here to save your seat.

If you missed last week’s/last month’s free writing workshop Raiders of the Lost Arc, with Lauren Kessler, it appears both you and I missed a good one! I had a family emergency, so the lovely aforementioned Lisa Manterfield stepped in to host. You can watch the recording here, as I have. And if you would like to keep benefiting from Lauren’s wisdom, you can subscribe to her Substack here, again as I’ve done!

Meanwhile, if you have some writing life event to celebrate, be sure to share it with us. Send me an email at shirin@shirinyimleos.com.

My writing life event of the month is that my manuscript has been copy edited. The copyeditor told the production editor that the manuscript was stand-out—something that apparently never happens!—so hopefully we’re off to a good start.

If you belong to a book club, or a writers’ club, or a historical society, or any group that would be interested in hearing about my novel, the history behind it, and/or the process and journey that got it there (though we’re not there yet!), please drop me a line with the name of your group, its primary contact, and the number of group members, and I will do my best to arrange a visit!

In the meantime, I hope on May 21st you’ll join me and Lisa Manterfield, and a merry band of writers, to find out how to keep those pages turning.

Until then, happy writing!

Shirin