Reader Time vs. Writer Time
Years ago, my husband and I went on a whirlwind tour of Australia. One night, we arrived in Brisbane and noticed the clock in the hotel was wrong. We shrugged. The next morning we were surprised at the quiet streets and closed restaurants. Even the animal park we planned to visit had their hours all wrong. Frustrated, we drove to the airport where the clerk pointed out we’d arrived three hours early. Three hours? Not two?
It turns out we’d been living a whole day apart from everyone else in time. We hadn’t realized we’d crossed into a new time zone.
Like that day, time can play pranks on us as writers, too. We feel like our story is dragging, or our character has been underwater for hours, or the duel between the hero and villain is glacially slow. Then we get frustrated and that snowballs into despair.
But we forget that it only seems like your character is underwater forever or the shootout is in slo-mo because it takes us a long time to write it. You may have started the climactic battle weeks earlier and when you go back to it, you’re still there? But a reader’s time is different. They blow through your battle in no time because they’re on the much faster reader time.
So don’t despair! Wait until it’s all on the page before you judge it. You’ll be surprised at how time flies when you’re having fun reading your own brilliant story. 🙂