How do writers of novels handle the passage of time out there? Does anyone have any tips? I've been told that the way the writer treats time must be consistent and that there shouldn't be any big jumps. Is this true? What's the convention?

Hi "Traveller,"

I'm not too experienced myself, but the way I see it is this...
You're telling the story from the viewpoint of one (or more) characters. How would the character perceive his/her sense of time?

(Please note I'm only writing "he"/"him" etc as I'm writing from my own experiences, and I'm a bloke. It could easily be a she.)

If, for example, you're writing a scene in which the character is at work, you will have two approaches. The first is if he hates his job: Time will pass remarkably slowly, he'll notice every action, every moment around him because he's focusing on everything but his job.

If he loves his job, chances are he'll be so engrossed in his work, time is merely a subconscious thought, and unless he's part of the action, he won't necessarily see everything around him.

The same thing could apply to action. If there's lots of action, lots of happenings, time almost crawls, because you have to show absolutely everything that's happening.
However, if your character/s are simply thinking about other things, time is flexible, and it's how you choose to play it. In my novel, the first two chapters are completely different. For the whole of the first chapter, the time scale is about 5 minutes because I have to focus on everything that's been said.
Yet in the next chapter, the same amount of pages count for a day.

When I started my novel, I too focused on conventions, and rules, but I found i started to cloud my imagination, and my enjoyment. Instead I forgot everything, and just wrote. Maybe it's not startling, but it says what I want it to.

Sorry for babbling on, but my point is if it works, and makes sense, do it. If not, don't.

Hope I helped you, mate.

Andy

Hi Traveller,
Popping up again behind you. Conventions about time in novel writing? I don't think so. The whole point about a novel is that it can play with time in a way not easy for shorts writers. You can switch here and there and any old place, I'd have thought. Any other thoughts on it would be welcome, as I'm coming in here from a position of ignorance.
Becca.

Becca I doth agree. Although I'm a mighty inexperienced writer I am toying with time all over the place in my novel. From present day to flashbacks back to present day from all different character's angles, and even with whole yearly gaps and projections into the future.

It's obviously a bit dangerous when tackling the time subject as you can befuddle the reader (and yourself) if it's not done well, and you have to be a lot more adroit when tackling the continuity issue. It may be a minefield but it's interesting.

It may not work in a book as well as it does in a film or so, but why not try it. And as for convention, I know you have to follow certain guidelines but use your own conviction - invent your own convention.

Dave

I seem to remember Maggie O'Farrell's 'After you'd gone' jumps about all over the place and it works. I tend to be very linear - it's just easier for me.
Elspeth

I posted a review on ‘After You’d Gone’ but it seems to have been lost in the revamp. I still think this is one of the best novels I’ve read in years. She writes the main character in both first person and third person POV, chucks in a few other POV3s, flits across time… it’s as if she’s written the novel, chopped it into pieces, thrown them in the air and then gathered them up again in no particular order – and it works brilliantly. I can’t recommend it highly enough but I think it’s not typical of the majority of novels.

I would say that handling time in a novel is specific to each novel – and reliant on the skills of the author. You need to separate the time-shifts by chapters or, at the least, white spaces, and be sure to place the reader in the correct time in the first sentence or two.

Dee

I've sometimes tried to make time leaps in dialogue, that is, one character talking to another in memory and then with no indication of a change, talking to a different character in the present settting of the story. I'm not sure that what I've just written makes any more sense then when I try to do it! Anyway, I think it probably hasn't worked well enough yet, although I still like the idea of it.
I wonder, Traveller, if you were to reconfigure it in a linear fashion and then see where you could switch it about later, would that be an idea?
Becca.