Writers tend to get into a
lot of trouble with time. There's making time to write, managing deadlines, and
the vagaries of market timing.
One issue with time, however,
is entirely within the author's control. And that's the timeline of the story.
I never paid a whole lot of
critical attention to time when I read. Sure, I was conscious that some
passages in stories could be languid and slow-moving like a drippy faucet.
Others were exhaustingly rushed. I never was quite able to put my finger on
why.
And then, when my first book
was accepted for publication, I discovered the answer: books can grow timeline issues. They're very
subtle, but can really cause problems with the reader's perception of a work.
A timeline problem occurs
when characters have too many events crammed into a period of time - or not
enough. A succession of tasks emerges that would require the bending of the
rules of the space-time continuum or superhuman abilities to accomplish. It
occurs when your main character hasn't slept for days. It happens when she
travels an impossible distance in an hour. It can take place when your main
character hasn't worked regular hours at her day job without explanation. This
goes for crazy amounts of overtime, or not working at all. It happens when your
character is doing "cop stuff" for seven days in a row without a day
off or at least a pro forma request for overtime. It's easy for an author to lose track of what
day it is, and a character can get trapped in a month-long weekend or a year of
Wednesdays.
Mundane concerns? Maybe. But
they catch an editor's eye and seep into the subconscious of the reader. And
sometimes, we've gotta pay attention to the rules of the real world - like time
- in order to allow the reader to suspend disbelief for the really magical
things we want to do with the story.
My editor asked me to turn a
timeline in with my book. Something simple, listing the day, night, and all the
scenes that happened in each. By reviewing my manuscript in this way, I could
see where I crammed too many activities into the heroine's day - or (eep!) not enough. When I finish a
draft, I read through it and start constructing my timeline.
I also create a second list
that's not strictly a timeline. It's one that notes where chapters begin and
end, how many scenes are included in the chapter, and how many pages each
chapter is. Sticking a ten-page chapter next to a twenty-five page chapter
creates unevenness, and keeping a note helps me be more aware of it. It also
shows me where I have a bunch of stubby two-page scenes strung together. This
causes me to question whether I'm head-hopping or whether I really need to find
a way to collapse those scenes into less choppy ones. It helps me analyze flow.
It also shows me whether I'm doing a good job of ending chapters in the middle
of the action, causing the reader to want to turn the page to the next.
By doing this kind of
post-hoc analysis, and correcting the results, I found that pacing issues
automatically ironed themselves out.
I've turned a timeline in for
every book since, whether or not I was asked. And it's really reduced the
amount of time I spend fixing structural issues in revisions. Now, I tend to
work with that timeline in my head, and it keeps me honest. It keeps my very
human characters from turning into Wonder Women and Supermen.
Not only do I have to manage
time, but my characters do, too. Maintaining a timeline is a front-line editing
fix I suggest that every writer keep in her toolbox.
Laura Bickle
(also writing as Alayna Williams) writes urban and young adult fantasy.
She’s written four novels for Pocket Books: EMBERS, SPARKS, DARK
ORACLE, and ROGUE ORACLE. Both DARK ORACLE and ROGUE ORACLE are National
Novel Writing Month books. She has two upcoming YA novels with Houghton
Mifflin’s Graphia line in 2012 and 2013, beginning with THE HALLOWED
ONES in fall. She lives in the Midwestern U.S. with her chief muse,
where they are owned by five semi-reformed feral cats. More information
on her work is here: www.laurabickle.com.
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