Updated July 5, 2021
Have you ever been reading a story and suddenly found yourself saying, “Wait a minute, in that last chapter spring was just beginning and now suddenly it’s wintertime?”
I know I have. And it’s like a train crashing through the middle of the story.
Sometimes it’s not that stark, but I notice when things are out of sync even by mere hours. Yes, that can be drawback in my pleasure reading, but in editing, this ability to track the story’s time line is an asset.
Not all stories are this linear, but most are. And whether you are aware of it, you track the story time line as you read. Even movies give us clues as to the passing of time—usually through a night scene that transitions to a day time scene.
Every story begins and ends somewhere in time.
Thus it’s important your scenes track correctly. You want to build clues into your story that will help your reader follow the passing of time.
Many books that cover large spreads in time will often put the date at the beginning of the chapter. Think of those TV shows that begin with “7 years ago” with the opening scene and then “present day” after the opening theme song and credits.
Remember a scene happens in the now. It is minute-by-minute action. Usually, not all your story happens in scenes. You might have sequels as well, and sequels are not constrained to now. Sequels create a bridge between scenes.
Tracking the time line as you write becomes essential the more your story is dependent on time. If your entire story spans only 12 hours, you want to know what hour/minute each scene happens.
If you are writing a story that jumps back and forth in time, be certain that when you jump from past to present that you jump to the correct time and day.
Keeping track of your story time isn’t hard. It might mean an extra step as you write, but better an extra step than to discover on your fifth revision that the action in chapter 5 happened after the events in chapter 6.
Here are some choices.
If you work in MS Word, you can label each scene with a simple parenthetical note at the beginning of the scene (scene 1, May 24, 1941, morning). You could make note of this on a separate document, but having it in your story keeps you aware of it as you revise. Highlight it so you can quickly find and delete it once you’ve completed your story.
If you work in Scrivener, put this info in either the document notes or on the index card.
Use a calendar, online or hard copy. I’m currently using a hard copy calendar with the series I’m writing. I mark each scene in Scrivener, but I also like having a calendar I can grab and look at so I can see the whole picture at once.
If you plot with hard copy index cards or sticky notes, simply note the time/date on those cards.
No matter how you choose to do it, track your story time to ensure it all flows correctly. Then you won’t have an editor (or a reader) telling you that in chapter 2 you were celebrating July 4, and now in chapter 5 you’re celebrating Memorial Day.
If Time Isn’t That Critical
If your story isn’t hour-by-hour or day-by-day, you still need to give your readers a sense of passing time. This can be done with a few simple words:
- Three days passed before…
- Several weeks later…
- As summer collided with fall…
Hopefully, you get the idea. The next novel you pick up take note of how that author handles time. Does it work for you as a reader? Does it work for the story?
How do you keep track of your story time line? Put your comments below.
I cannot say that I’m systematic about it although I am extremely sensitive to this issue as my angelic narrative tracks along in parallel to real universe, solar system and geophysical history. I have two story threads, one of which is tied to physical time in the universe; the other thread I take pains to advance in parallel.
Chris, that sounds complicated. I write in scenes and not necessarily from the beginning of the story to the end. So tracking the time for scenes becomes very important as they get moved around a lot! As long as you have a system that works for you, that’s what counts. Especially since you’ve got parallel worlds going on.