What Time is It?

One of the fundamental building blocks of any story – right up there with Characterisation and Plot and Theme – is the passing of Time. And In particular the reader’s knowledge and understanding of that passing. 

Because time is what proves things. 

Anything can be said about anything, but it’s only through our observations over a certain length of time do we come to accept an opinion as true. There’s no prescribed length of time - this depends on what we’re being asked to believe. But Time holds us steady as readers, underpins the credibility of character’s emotions. And a writer’s management of Time also controls our perceptions, signalling to us what is important and what is not.

In this light I thought I’d use this post to write down some specifically Time-related tips. 

(Many of these ideas I first came upon in the excellent book, Story Writing, by Edith Ronald Mirrielees. This book, originally published in 1939 and then revised and enlarged in 1947, is an excellent guide to story shape, and in particular Miss Mirrielees’ chapter entitled Time is a real game-changer once you absorb her excellent observations and treatises on the management of time in a story.)

So here we go:

• Don’t be mysterious about the passage of time. 

Be brief. Set it up from the start of the story and each new scene. 

And don’t be afraid of keeping it clear as you go along, by mentioning exact time periods. Plain, simple statements (‘a few minutes after noon’, ‘by the end of the summer’, ‘later that week’) are the least obtrusive. And you don’t need to be fancy when completing this task. Just let the reader know what the interval is between one thing that happens and the next. Because it makes a difference in terms of Story. 

• Why now?

As writers we are used to being asked why something happens. (And asking ourselves, hopefully.) But a less often considered question is why does it happen then? At this point in the story.

The answer to the first question involves the general cause. For instance, a man might end his life because he is depressed. Presumably we have started out the story with him depressed but still alive, which means there is a second question readers need answered when they reach the tragic action: Why now? 

And the answer to this question involves what Mirrielees calls the inciting cause, the spur that triggers a specific event at a specific moment. In unsuccessful stories, it is often this second cause which has been neglected by the writer or left unexplained. Furthermore, the general cause and the inciting cause need to be in balance. A man who is very depressed (general cause) may be tipped into suicide by something very small - someone speaking harshly to him in the street (inciting cause). But if a character is essentially happy and secure in their life, it will take a much stronger inciting cause to trigger a new, unforeseen action and render it credible. 

• Time is the reconciling element for any vital change within a character. 

  In real life it is true that there are human chameleons who seem to alter themselves without reason, and also that unforeseen events sometimes render abrupt change, happy or tragic, through pure accident. But fiction isn’t true life. And in stories we need to believe in the credibility of the things that happen.  

  Make sure that any real change in a character has been given the time it needs to seem authentic. Inciting events press upon a particular sore point, and emphasise the strengths or weaknesses which both general causes AND the length of tIme involved have made seem possible.

• How much time a writer gives something tells a reader how important it is. 

The use of detail in a crucial moment forces the the reader to slow down and experience it blow by blow. along with the character. They are not allowed to skim this section of time in the character’s life, because of what it will help them to understand. 

Equally, a summarising of time can be used to signal that this part of the character’s day is not something to which we need to pay close attention. 

Or you can be very clever and conceal a moment of importance by summarising it – if you want to mislead the reader. 

And conversely, a second-by-second treatment of an event can lend a false importance to these moments, thereby distracting the reader’s attention from something more important ahead and building suspense. 

Confused, yet? 

The important thing to remember is that your manipulation of time controls my experience of it. So slow me down when you really want me to absorb a moment in time. But equally, don’t make me linger over extraneous, irrelevant information. Writing that is boring to read often feels so because the writer is never varying the speed of time passing, and think how boring our lives would be if that were the case, if we were constantly equally aware of every minute as it passed. 

TIME LINES

One of the most powerful tools you can use when creating a unified Story is a Timeline. 

And you can do this early, too! As a kind of story-ideas generator. Don’t feel you have to commit to anything at this point, but just decide – okay, I think this story is going to take place over six months, in the course of one afternoon, or an hour, or from the year the character was born to the day he dies. 

Once you’ve made a choice (which you can always change), start putting any of the events you already know about along the timeline. Notice things you might not have noticed before, like the seasons, the year in history, the time of day, things which might add details to your scenes that you hadn’t considered.

Separate the chosen time of your specific story from the more general time in which it is embedded, and make this clear.

Choose the moments in your characters’ lives from outside your particular story’s timeline that are relevant, and start making some notes about when in the timeline you might want to include these scenic flashbacks. And make your job easier by choosing an opening for your story that is as close to the beginning of the story you want to tell, yet doesn’t leave too much earlier important life material to be shoe-horned in…

The key to all of this work is to never lose sense of the time that runs through your story, the time that is its heartbeat. And if you keep that clear in your mind, so will your readers. And they will thank you for it.