If you're writing a thriller, mystery, Western or adventure-driven book, you'd better keep things moving rapidly for the reader. Quick pacing is vital in certain genres. It hooks readers, creates tension, deepens the drama, and speeds things along.

Pace, like everything else in writing, involves a trade-off. If you're not offering the reader a lot of action to keep her interested, you must offer something else in its stead. Slow pace is ideal for complex character development, detailed description, and nuances of style.

As a writer, you must know what promise your story or novel makes. Your reader will know.

We're just moving along as quick as possible.

The simpler I keep things, the better I play.

Conflict drives fiction; no one wants to read a four-hundred-page novel in which everything rolls along smoothly.