Writers and readers are limited by the writing craft when the passage involves time.
- The rope tightened around the beam. Brady turned his cap backward and hit the accelerator. As the shed fell a ghost of dust and roof debris lingered in the air for just long enough to register to an observer’s eye.
- A phone rang inside Mrs. Landrey’s house. She rocked forward in her chair and when the effort seemed ridiculous, she settled back and let it ring.
- Joline adjusted her backpack. In a single smooth and thoughtless moment she raised the kickstand and pedaled onto the road. A half a tick later the sky seemed to trade places with her feet. She didn’t hear it happening.
These three events happened at the same time. Because of the nature of reading it is impossible to present them at the same time.
A writer has to rely upon both the art and the craft.
She may opt to begin and end the narrative with actual clock time and maybe a calendar date as a header and footer.
3:07 PM October 16th 2018 Chicago’s east side. Or Take it Nationwide or Worldwide.. Everything leads up to or away from this moment and for decades people will remember where they were when this event happened.
In choosing the order of presentation the writer might consider what is most important to the plot at the moment.
Maybe, the bicycle accident is going to be more important.
Because we cannot present things on a page simultaneously we must take a lot of things into consideration.
I’d probably put each scene on an index card and arrange and rearrange them on a cork-board.
When we are certain a reader is going to accept these thing coinciding at one moment in time, we can take the reader to the next page.
Of course, we can complicate time by telling the story leading up to the first event, then away from the second event involving the missed phone call.
Join us on Wednesday night at 8PM EDT at the Writers Chatroom and we can talk about time.
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3:07 PM October 16th 2018 Chicago’s east side.
The rope tightened around the beam. Brady turned his cap backward and hit the accelerator. As the shed fell a ghost of dust and roof debris lingered in the air for just long enough to register to an observer’s eye.
A phone rang inside Mrs. Landrey’s house. She rocked forward in her chair and when the effort seemed ridiculous, she settled back and let it ring.
Joline adjusted her backpack. In a single smooth and thoughtless moment she raised the kickstand and pedaled onto the road. A half a tick later the sky seemed to trade places with her feet. She didn’t hear it happening.
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