Time is a slippery thing. And because of that, it poses an intriguing challenge for fiction writers.
We need to control the pacing in our stories, and one great way to do that is to manipulate time.
There are various techniques writers use to do this when it comes to “speed.” We can create beats or pauses by having action come to a halt and our characters noticing normally ignored things around them: a shift in the weather, a ticking clock, a bird circling.
We infuse beats when we want our character and our reader to process something. (This is all part of the action-reaction cycle that is so crucial to understand). Scene and chapter breaks also gives readers opportunity to take a breath and process.
In a movie there are all kinds of techniques the director and film editor can use to speed time up and slow time down. But I want to talk not just about the speed at which time can move but also the quality of time.
If that seems like an esoteric concept, it is. But I bet you can think of instances or moments when time has felt different. Not just when it slows way down (like when you’ve had an accident or when you’re waiting for a doctor to come into the exam room with your test results ) or speeds up (getting old, in general) but when it feels different. Do you have any idea of what I’m referring to? Continue Reading…
