SWRT 240 | Time

February 10, 2022

person typing on MacBook Pro on brown wooden table during daytime photo

This week, Alida, Robert, and Kathryn talk time. It’s about more than the passage of time in your story. Break out of the rut of chronological storytelling and use time to your advantage by structuring your narrative in nonlinear ways. Being creative in your use of time will enhance your suspense and reveals, no matter the genre you’re writing in.

There is still time to enroll in the 10-week creative writing workshop, Memory Emotion Body. This special session brought to you by Story Works & the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop is all about accessing your innate writer’s toolkit. This workshop is limited to a handful of students. Sign up today.

VIDEO

AUDIO

SHOW NOTES

What we talked about:

Why are we talking about time? (2:28)

Our narrative super powers – stretching and condensing time. (3:50)

Time does not need to be linear or chronological in your story. (6:20)

Keeping track of your time. (9:15)

How do you manage your time within your story? (10:45)

Experimental time? (12:30)

Playing with time as structure. (15:35)

How do you deal with a long passage of time? (19:25)

How do you keep the reader through big jumps in time? (22:45)

Use your time devices to keep your time invisible but effective. (28:00)

LINKS

Get Alida’s Writing Tips here.

Things we mentioned:

The Expanse
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
100 Year of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Have thoughts, questions, other examples? Join the conversation at the Story Works Writers Facebook group.

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About Your Hosts

Alida Winternheimer is an award-winning author with an MFA in writing from Hamline University. She pursues her fervor for all things story as a writing coach, developmental editor, and teacher. Three times nominated for the Pushcart Prize, she is also a notable in Best American Essays and winner of the Page Turner Award. Author of The Story Works Guide to Writing Fiction Series, Alida lives and writes in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She camps, bikes, and kayaks in her free time. Unless it’s winter, in which case she drinks chai by the fire. You can find more at www.alidawinternheimer.com.

Kathryn Arnold writes fantasy and anything else that sparks her creativity from her home in Kingston, Washington. She currently earns her living as an insurance underwriting assistant, where she also creates marketing and web copy. When not writing, she plays (and teaches) piano and keyboard in a band (or two), and is working on starting a ministry team with her husband. You can find Kathryn at www.skyfirewords.com.

Robert Scanlon was born in Australia, but whisked off to England when only a baby. After many years complaining about the weather, he did the sensible thing and moved back to Australia. Despite a career in the music industry, followed by decades teaching public speaking, Robert is an introvert who adores reading. Robert grew up on a diet of sci-fi masters, eventually discovering he had read the library’s entire science fiction section. Now he has to write his own. Robert is the author of Constellation, book one of the Blood Empire space opera series. Find out more at www.RobertScanlon.com