You've written thirty pages, and somehow your story feels like it's moving at two speeds simultaneously—glacial when readers need momentum, breakneck when they need a moment to breathe. You know something's off, but the usual pacing advice (vary sentence length! cut unnecessary scenes!) hasn't solved it. The problem isn't what you're writing—it's how you're managing reader expectations about conflict.

Here's what most pacing guides won't tell you: pacing problems often stem from a mismatch between how you're delivering conflict and how you're structuring reader anticipation. When Robert McKee's Oblique Approach to conflict collides with Brandon Sanderson's "Promises, Progress, Payoff" framework, something interesting emerges—a technique I call The Expectation Calibration Method. It's specifically designed to eliminate those jarring speed shifts that make readers skim or disengage.

Understanding the Core Disconnect

McKee's Oblique Approach teaches that the most powerful conflicts arrive indirectly. Your protagonist wants one thing, pursues it, but the real dramatic tension comes from unexpected complications—the conflict hits from an angle they (and readers) didn't anticipate.

Sanderson's PPP framework, meanwhile, establishes that readers stay engaged when you make promises (setting up questions), show progress (incremental answers), and deliver payoff (satisfying resolutions).

The problem? These two approaches seem contradictory. Oblique conflict means surprising readers. Promises mean telegraphing what's coming. Surprise and anticipation appear to cancel each other out.

But they don't. And that's where pacing issues often hide.

What The Expectation Calibration Method Actually Does

The Expectation Calibration Method synchronizes oblique conflict with reader promises by distinguishing between surface expectations and structural expectations. You keep promises at the structural level while delivering oblique surprises at the scene level.

Here's how it works in three concrete steps:

Step 1: Make structural promises explicit

In your outline or draft, identify what narrative question each chapter/section promises to address. Write it down literally: "Will Sarah confront her sister?" or "Can Marcus escape the compound?"

These are your contracts with readers. They create forward momentum because readers keep turning pages to find answers.

Step 2: Deliver oblique conflict for each promise

Now, here's the calibration: Answer each structural promise, but never through direct confrontation. The conflict that resolves (or complicates) the promise must come from an unexpected angle.

Sarah does confront her sister—but the real conflict emerges when her sister reveals their mother has been listening the whole time. Marcus does escape the compound—but his freedom comes through accidentally starting a fire while trying to pick a lock, creating a crisis that opens his way out but endangers others.

Step 3: Create new promises from oblique complications

Each oblique complication must generate a new structural promise. When Marcus's escape fire endangers others, you've now promised readers: "Will Marcus help them or save himself?"

This creates a chain: Promise → Oblique Progress → New Promise → Oblique Payoff → New Promise.

The Technique in Action: A Concrete Example

Let's trace this through an actual story scenario:

Original pacing problem: Your detective story drags in the middle. Detective Jamie investigates a corrupt official, interviews witnesses, gathers evidence. Readers skim because they know what's coming—a confrontation.

Applying Expectation Calibration:

Chapter 8 Promise (Explicit): "Will Jamie find evidence of the official's corruption?"

Chapter 8 Delivery (Oblique): Jamie doesn't find corruption evidence. Instead, while searching the official's office, Jamie discovers the official is being blackmailed—making the official both criminal and victim. The conflict isn't "good detective vs. bad official" anymore; it's morally complicated.

New Promise Generated: "Will Jamie expose the official or help them escape their blackmailer?"

Chapter 10 Promise (Explicit): "Will Jamie expose or help the official?"

Chapter 10 Delivery (Oblique): Jamie chooses to help, but when confronting the blackmailer, discovers it's Jamie's own former partner—someone Jamie believed had died years ago. The confrontation isn't about corruption anymore; it's about betrayal, grief, and impossible choices.

New Promise Generated: "Can Jamie stop their former partner without destroying themselves?"

Notice what happened: You kept every structural promise (readers got answers), but each answer came through oblique conflict that deepened the story. The pacing works because readers always know roughly what question the narrative is addressing, but never how it will be complicated. They can't skim because they need the specific details. They can't get impatient because progress keeps happening.

How to Implement This in Your Draft

Start with your problematic section. List every scene and ask:

1. What structural promise does this scene address? If you can't identify one clearly, that's your pacing problem—readers don't know what they're waiting for.

2. Does the conflict resolve this promise directly or obliquely? If your detective questioning a suspect yields straightforward answers, you've got direct conflict—efficient but dramatically flat.

3. Does the oblique complication create a new promise? If your plot twist is surprising but doesn't generate a new question, it's random chaos, not oblique conflict.

Revise each scene to ensure all three elements align. You're not adding or cutting—you're recalibrating.

Why This Works When Other Pacing Fixes Don't

Most pacing advice treats symptoms: sentences too long, scenes too slow, not enough happening. The Expectation Calibration Method addresses the cause: misalignment between what readers are tracking (structural promises) and how you're delivering drama (conflict approach).

When these align, pacing self-corrects. Readers know what questions to follow but can't predict the answers. They experience momentum (promises) and surprise (oblique delivery) simultaneously, which is exactly how engagement works.

Your story doesn't need to be faster or slower. It needs to calibrate reader expectations with narrative delivery. Once that synchronization happens, the pacing issues you've been wrestling with often simply dissolve—because they were never really about speed at all.