forum How fast should a chase scene should go?

Started January 18, 2018 by @WhiteSoul

tune

There are two guys, they're friends but they haven't seen each other for years… One of them got in trouble with the police and the other didn't know, so he ended up hiding his friend without knowing any of this. Eventually, the cops break into their apartment and…

How fast and how much information should a chase scene have? Can have some dialogues or just narration?

Well, you want to make it seem fast to the reader (leaving them with a rush of adrenaline) without it being too long. And before you nag at me about that contradictory statement, here's my explanation. 😂
The scene should fill the readers with adrenaline. You know what does not fill readers with adrenaline? Super long, boring, dull scenes. So, yes, make it relatively quick. Remember that you can have really good scenes without a bunch of dialogue or description. It sort of depends on your writing style. Here are a couple things I'd recommend:

• Have a family member/friend reread it. This is personally my LEAST favorite thing to do, but everybody is going to be reading it eventually, so suck it up and offer it to them. They can tell you if they got bored or if there needs to be something else (ask them to be honest) which will help you.
• The narration doesn't always get the point across. Sometimes you have to have interactions between characters in order to peak the reader's interest.
  Maybe watch some police dashcams or police bodycams. These help you get a feel for what the police actually do when they chase a car or enter an apartment. It's not just dainty knock "Will you please open up? It's Mike! Pretty please?" Yeah so do some research on that if that's an issue.
  Back to the scenes… you ALSO don't want to make the scenes to long. The reader keeps reading and reading and then all of a sudden they have to backtrack because they got bored and even though they kept reading they weren't processing. From the character's point of view, it all goes rather quickly, so if they're narrating then write it from how they would percieve the situation (ie hiding in silence, write a lot because it seems like a really long time; running, do it quickly and with minor description of pain, terrain, etc)
  Best of luck with your story! It sounds exciting!

Thanks!
Watching chase scenes in real life seems a good idea. I'm also afraid of those kind of feedback, specially when you devoted so much time and passion into it… but is better than not knowing at all, maybe seems good to you because you already know the whole thing… Second opinions always help.

I'm glad you like it even if it's just this tiny sample, this means I'm in the right direction.
Thanks again