Short Stories: A Comparison of Pace

Comparison of pace

The two short stories I have compared are:

The Girl-Shaped Jar by Camille Alexa

The Perfect Mark by Melodie Campbell

The Girl-Shaped Jar starts slow and a little confusing as to the relevance of the story.  The paragraphs are longer.  Then after three paragraphs the pace increases with a series of short paragraphs, like actions.  Then breaks again to a slower paragraph in which this tone is continuous for the rest of the story.  This is because the main characters thought wander aimlessly and are unstructured.  I don’t feel like there is one section where I was sitting on the edge of my seat, heart beating, hands sweaty, in suspense with the speed of the action.

Where as in The Perfect Mark, starts with bang, bang, bang, short sentences.  The first sentence draws me in immediately.  The first 6 paragraphs are brief and to the point to bring you straight into the action as fast as possible, then the author pauses and slows it down for one longer paragraph which describes the setting.  Then the second half of the story is bang, bang, bang, again.  Suspenseful, mysterious and full of fast paced, short paragraphs.  The story is over before you realise it.