You're fifty pages into your manuscript when you realize something's terribly wrong. The opening dragged on forever, but now you're racing through plot points that deserve more attention. Your protagonist spends three chapters deciding whether to answer a phone call, then defeats the villain in two paragraphs. Sound familiar?

Pacing problems are maddeningly common, but here's the real issue: they're rarely just about pacing. Usually, they're symptoms of two deeper problems working together—inconsistency in your story's internal logic and creative blocks preventing you from seeing solutions. The good news? By combining two specific techniques—The Story Bible for consistency tracking and The Twenty Ideas Technique for creative breakthroughs—you can diagnose and fix pacing issues systematically.

Let me show you how these tools work together to create what I call The Pacing Calibration Method.

Why Pacing Problems Are Really Consistency Problems

Before we dive into the solution, let's understand what's actually happening when your pacing feels off.

That three-chapter phone call decision? It probably happened because you forgot what your character already knows. If your protagonist is suspicious of the caller but you forgot you already established their trusting nature in chapter two, you'll pad the scene with unnecessary internal debate to justify caution that doesn't fit.

That rushed villain confrontation? Chances are you set up five different magical abilities, three character arcs, and two subplots that should all converge in this moment—but you can't remember which elements you've actually developed and which you only intended to develop. So you rush through, hoping readers won't notice.

This is where The Story Bible becomes essential.

The Story Bible: Your Pacing Foundation

The Story Bible is a working document that tracks every significant story element as you write. Unlike general notes or outlines, it's specifically designed to catch inconsistencies before they create pacing problems.

Here's what to include in your Story Bible:

- Character knowledge logs: What each character knows and when they learned it
- Emotional state tracker: Your character's baseline emotional state at the start of each chapter
- Established rules: World-building details, magic systems, technology limits
- Subplot progress: One line per chapter noting what happened in each subplot thread
- Time stamps: How much story time has passed (crucial for pacing)

Update your Story Bible at the end of each writing session. Five minutes now saves hours of revision later.

When the Story Bible Reveals Problems (And You're Stuck)

Here's the scenario: You've been diligently keeping your Story Bible, and it reveals that your climax is rushing through content that deserves three chapters, not three pages. Your Story Bible tells you that:

- Your protagonist needs to use the magical artifact introduced in chapter four
- The best friend subplot needs resolution
- The antagonist's motivation should be revealed
- A romantic confession is overdue

You know you need more content, but every idea you generate feels forced, clichéd, or boring. You write "Maybe she could..." and delete it. Again. And again.

This is where most writers stay stuck, knowing they have a pacing problem but unable to generate good solutions. This is where The Twenty Ideas Technique becomes your breakthrough tool.

The Twenty Ideas Technique: Breaking Through Creative Blocks

The Twenty Ideas Technique, developed by business innovator James Altucher and adapted for fiction writing, requires you to generate exactly twenty ideas to solve a specific problem. Not five. Not ten. Twenty.

Here's why this number matters: Your first five ideas will be obvious (and probably clichéd). Ideas six through ten will feel difficult. Ideas eleven through fifteen will seem stupid or impossible. But ideas sixteen through twenty? That's where creative breakthroughs happen, because you've exhausted your brain's usual patterns and started making unexpected connections.

The Pacing Calibration Method: Putting It Together

Now let's combine these tools into a systematic approach for fixing pacing problems.

Step 1: Diagnose with Your Story Bible

Read through the problem section while checking your Story Bible. Identify specifically what's being rushed or dragged out. Write this as a question: "How can I expand the climax to properly resolve the artifact plot, best friend subplot, antagonist revelation, and romantic confession?"

Step 2: Apply The Twenty Ideas Technique

Set a timer for 20 minutes and generate twenty different ways to expand (or trim) the problem section. Force yourself to write all twenty, even when it feels impossible.

Let's see this in action with our example:

1. Add a scene where the artifact doesn't work as expected
2. Have the best friend arrive to help but is injured immediately
3. Split the confrontation into two locations
4. The protagonist tries to use the artifact but realizes she needs the antagonist's help
5. Add a flashback revealing shared history between protagonist and antagonist
6. The romantic interest shows up at the wrong moment and misunderstands what's happening
7. The artifact requires a sacrifice the protagonist isn't willing to make
8. The best friend reveals they've been working with the antagonist (wait, this could work...)
9. The climax happens during a public event, adding bystander complications
10. Weather becomes a factor—storm, fog, something that adds tactical challenges

(Continue through twenty...)

Notice what's happening? By idea eight, we've stumbled onto something genuinely interesting that creates natural story complications. The best friend's betrayal would add tension, require emotional resolution, and justify extending the climax organically.

Step 3: Cross-Reference Solutions with Your Story Bible

This is crucial: check your Story Bible to see which ideas could be supported by elements you've already established.

Could the best friend's betrayal work? Check your Bible's character knowledge logs and subplot tracker. Have you planted any seeds of doubt? Any unexplained absences or suspicious behavior? If yes, this solution will feel like a satisfying revelation rather than a random twist.

Step 4: Update Your Story Bible as You Revise

As you implement your solution, update your Story Bible with new information. This prevents creating new pacing problems while fixing the old ones.

A Real Example: Maria's Thriller Manuscript

Maria was writing a political thriller where her protagonist spent eight chapters investigating corruption, then solved the mystery in a single chapter after finding one email. Her Story Bible revealed the problem: she'd established six suspects, three red herrings, and multiple layers of conspiracy—but collapsed everything at once.

Using The Twenty Ideas Technique, she generated twenty ways to extend the resolution. Idea seventeen was the breakthrough: What if the email is legitimate, but solving that mystery reveals a deeper conspiracy? This allowed her to resolve the first mystery at the appropriate pace while organically launching into the true climax.

Because she'd tracked everything in her Story Bible, she could verify she'd planted enough hints about the deeper conspiracy without explicitly revealing it. The solution felt earned, not invented at the last minute.

Your Next Steps

Pacing problems can feel overwhelming because they seem to require rewriting huge portions of your manuscript. The Pacing Calibration Method makes the process systematic:

1. Build your Story Bible from page one of your next project (or retrofit your current one)
2. When you hit a pacing problem, diagnose it specifically using your Bible
3. Apply The Twenty Ideas Technique to that specific problem
4. Cross-reference solutions against what you've already established
5. Update your Story Bible as you revise

The magic happens when these tools work together. Your Story Bible gives you objective data about your story's reality. The Twenty Ideas Technique forces creative breakthroughs when you're stuck. Combined, they transform pacing revision from guesswork into a repeatable process.

Try it on your current project's biggest pacing problem. Generate those twenty ideas—yes, all twenty—and see what breakthrough awaits you at idea sixteen.