The upshot of this entire piece is, clearly, that your understanding of maintaining pace during a story amazes me, especially since I write horror short stories; there's a fine balance in getting the timing just so, to make nudging towards a thrill or delivering a major fright feel spot-on. One clearly can envision how crucial it is to get that balance right. I've realized that saying my stories out loud is a good way to catch where the pace might trip up without me even seeing it first. Keeping my writing clear of any extra fluff is something you mentioned that I really take to heart because it helps hold onto that exciting feeling. Now, I'm extremely eager to put all those hints to work and make my upcoming piece much scarier!