Time Is A Character: Using Chronology Creatively In Your Writing
Most stories use a linear style of time, progressing from point A to point B with the use of a few well-placed flashbacks. What does it look like when writers play around more with time in their stories? You can expect some strange activity like time loops, parallel timelines, non-linear timelines, and fragmented storytelling. These elements and techniques can give the story an otherworldly feel and create a more compelling storyline.
Why Time Matters
Time creates a structure within your story and impacts the pacing, tension, and mood.
A fast pace suggests action and high stakes while a slow pace could create tension, and shift the mood like in a slow-burn romance. In an action story that involves a slow-burn romance subplot, you can see how different aspects of a story have different timelines. The action keeps moving and in some places pushes the characters closer together, but overall the characters set the pace of their romance.
Creative Ways To Use Time In Your Writing
Nonlinear Storytelling
Jump between past, present, and future scenes to reveal backstory, key details, and build suspense. Flashbacks and flash-forwards can be used to strategically deepen the emotional impact. Imagine we experience an event through a character’s eyes without prior details. We’re slightly confused by definitely intrigued and when we jump back in time to a key event we understand “Oh that’s why they hate each other now!”
Parallel Timelines
When writing a story with parallel timelines both timelines are “running” at the same time and what happens in one affects the other. Examples of this can be seen in Dark (Netflix), Bioshock Infinite, and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.
Time as a Character
Treat time as a tangible person or item like a clock or a deity. As the item or person is affected, like the clock breaking, it affects your character's world, in this case, time stops. In Star Vs the Forces of Evil (animated series) Father Time is a man running on a wheel for eternity. When a time-freeze spell knocks him off the wheel, time stops and doesn’t resume until they power the wheel again.
Reverse Chronology
Start from the ending and work backwards slowly revealing events and details that readers can piece together. With this method, events that have been experienced by the reader gain new weight as motives and actions are revealed and the reader's initial assumptions are challenged.
Time loops
Time loops are surprisingly versatile. The famous movie Groundhog Day isn’t the only way to do time loops. It seems every fantasy or sci-fi TV show needs to do a Groundhog Day style timeloop, in which a character is aware that the same day is repeating over and over until they’re able to stop it. Another option is your character is intentionally traveling to the same point in time to try to stop an event. This is a great place to create a time paradox.
Time paradox
A time paradox happens when time travel creates contradictions. It’s easy for a paradox to become confusing. Grandfather, bootstrap, and predestination are all types of paradoxes you can use in your story. Make sure you are plotting things carefully as it’s easy for the threads to get tangled.
Planning and clarity
When planning your story be sure to create an outline. Depending on the type of timeline you choose, your beginning, middle, and end, might take place in wildly different timeframes. Use a storyboard to visualize when flashbacks and flash-forwards take place.
In the case of non-linear stories, paradoxes, and reverse chronology, mark where characters first enter the story for your reader and if you’re other characters already know the “new” character. This is important in order to correctly write scenes with the right kind of character energy and scene atmosphere.
Time isn’t just a passive participant in your story. It can be a key driving force, character, or theme within your narrative. How will you experiment with time in your next story? Tell us all about it and share your work on StoryForge!
