Sometimes I’d like to be my protagonist. Time moves at a much slower pace for them than it does for the rest of us.
Margot Kinberg had a thought-provoking post on her Confessions of a Mystery Novelist blog the other day about the passage of time in series writing. In one interesting example, Margot points out that Agatha Christie had Tommy and Tuppence age in real time in one series while Miss Marple really doesn’t seem to age at all in her series. Christie wrote Miss Marple books for almost 40 years and Miss Marple would have had to have been well over 100 if she aged at the rate that you and I do.
I write two series with protagonists in their 60s. I also write Myrtle Clover, who is an octogenarian. I’ve decided that, while time passes (the murders in the series are not happening back to back in real time from book to book), its passage is a lot slower than ours.
This suits me fine because I like to cultivate a slower-paced, cozier feel anyway. My characters grow—but in talent and character…not in terms of age.
I’m being vague about the passage of time in my books, primarily because of my characters’ more advanced ages. But there are plenty of writers with young protagonists who stop time…Nancy Drew has stayed 18 for the past 80 years or so (well, she was 16, briefly, at the very start of the series.) Clearly, having Nancy age was going to put her in the category of ‘grownup’ to many of her elementary-school age readers.
Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone still lives in the 1980s. Grafton’s first book of the series, A is for Alibi, was written and set in 1982. Her last book, U is for Undertow, which released in 2009, is set in 1988. Time does pass…but very slowly.
Then there are writers who have let their characters age over the course of a series—which sometimes results in the end of a series. The Little Colonel books come to mind (she married and that was it), and the Little House on the Prairie books where Laura grows up and marries (resulting in the end of the series.) Because really, how far do young readers want to stretch from the familiar? Reading about married life when you’re ten years old can be something of a bummer.
So here are the possibilities, as I see them, for passage of time and character age:
Follow real time fairly exactly (so, if you put out a novel a year, then your character will age each year in real time)
Freeze time completely.
Slow down time in a vague way (my current approach)
Slow down time…dramatically (à la Sue Grafton.)
Speed time forward temporarily. Maybe you’ve frozen time for a couple of books or more and now your next book is set five years out from when your last one ended.
Any other thoughts on how to wrangle space and time in a series? Which approach do you take when you write…or which do you like reading?
I enjoy reading a series if the author is vague about the age of the protagonist. They can give you a rough idea with references like mid 30s or have them remember something from childhood that would give a time frame. When the author is vague it allows me to pick an age for the sleuth. I can have them in their early 40s while another reader may think they’re in their late 40s and it works for both of us.
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
I like your approach in slowing down time in a vague way. I would make my characters age over the time frame of the books, not how long it takes me to write them.
Writing for kids makes this especially important, you don’t want the character to grow too fast, but you don’t want your market to out grow the character too quickly either.
Elizabeth – Thanks so much for mentioning my blog :-). I think you’ve captured very well the choices there are as far as what to do about the passage of time. As for me, I’m doing the same kind of thing you are. Time does pass, but it’s going slowly and I’m not particularly specific about ages and so on. That may or may not change, but for right now, I think vagueness about age and passage of time is working for me.
I haven’t decided how my characters will age in the series that just started with Open Season. I am finishing the second book and had that story start about six months after the last story ended. I may do that for the whole series, but that isn’t cast in stone. Since this is my first series, it is the first time I’ve had to think about this, and I appreciate the suggestions you have made.
I wish I could bounce around in time. But I do try to keep things moving forward when I’m with my series characters. With Finding Sarah/Hidden Fire, the sequel picked up 3 months later, so there weren’t any serious problems.
Michael Connelly said he made the conscious decision to use real time in his Harry Bosch books, and he didn’t realize that it would come back to bite him, as his protagonist is technically too old to be a detective. He said he’s considering writing ‘prequels’
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
I agree, Elizabeth; Margot’s post was great!
This is one of the bugaboos about placing a plot against real historical events – the characters have to age. My only tripping point was figuring out how old they were in the first book – after that the whole matter takes care of itself.
I really like Sue Grafton’s novels because of the era — I grew up in the 80’s so it’s nice to go back to it.
My characters do not age. My series (4 books) all revolve around the same two year period.
So far I’m using real time, although since my first book barely stretches past a year, there’s not a lot of aging. However, the sequel jumps ahead twenty years and the main character definitely ages.
I expect book characters to age much more slowly than real life. Some series authors put out a book a year, some more slowly. I think I once heard that a good measurement is to age your character a month for each year that passes – if you want to keep them pretty close to the age they were when the series started.
My books are all about personal and emotional growth, so the characters do age over the course of the series. It gave me a chance to show what happened to earlier main characters.
I am plotting my Cozies on a pseudo real-time path because the MC is early 30s and at sort of that cross-roads time… I have a BABY (not for her–for another character), potentially a marriage… My first book takes place in spring, my second in summer, so though my deadlines are 9 months apart, I am plotting them about 3 months apart.
I think there are just certain ages you really can’t ignore some realities unless you want them to be sort of static in time, but i think you’re right–for the older characters, there is no reason to get so specific (though Lulu has those granddaughters who eventually have to age)
I am very strict about time. I like knowing what might have been on the radio when one of my characters was driving, or whether Twitter had been invented. I want them to age, because in this romantic-but-not-exactly-romance novel series, my characters learn to love each other more deeply. They also reproduce. I’ve been slipping birth announcements into the first chapters as a calendar of sorts for readers.
Charmaine–Very interesting point! Yes, there’s a really delicate balance there for YA and children’s literature.
Mason–I’m glad that, as a reader, that’s something that’s appealing to you. That’s why I sketch character descriptions so lightly, too–hoping the readers will fill in the blanks with their own imaginations.
Margot–I think it’s working for me, too. Not to say that I won’t change it at some point, though.
Anne–Me too! Reminds me of high school all over again.
Alex–Wow, a 20 year jump! That would be cool to write, though. Almost like writing a new character when the protagonist has aged that much!
Helen–That sounds like a good formula, to me. I’m thinking about release schedules and how erratic they can be. I have 2 books coming out this year in the same series and I think that in real time, that would be a little much.
Maryann–The nice thing is that you don’t have to have a set formula to it. And you can be fairly vague about the passage of time from book to book.
Terry=A prequel sounds like a good solution to the problem. :)
Diane–And your books are set in a great time to do that–young adults, I think?
Elspeth–I didn’t think about that! Yes historicals would definitely mean bringing in a timeline. I know exactly how old my protagonists are, but they asked me not to share. :)
Hart–I think that’s a nice progression and sounds like some great plot developments, too!
I think the granddaughters are going to be lucky enough to age slowly, too. :)
I am very strict about time. I like knowing what might have been on the radio when one of my characters was driving, or whether Twitter had been invented. I want them to age, because in this romantic-but-not-exactly-romance novel series, my characters learn to love each other more deeply. They also reproduce. I’ve been slipping birth announcements into the first chapters as a calendar of sorts for readers.
I never thought about that much, I guess because I don’t read that many series. But I did really like watching the cast of Harry Potter grow and mature over time. I also see how writers who want to further prolong the story would have to slow time down. That happens with a lot of my favorite TV shows. It dies out because it has to when they grow up and leave high school.
Great topic!
Shannon–Birth announcements sound great! That’s a nice way of showing the passage of time.
Mallory–Exactly! Loved the fact that the Harry Potter series did it and got away with it. And we saw a maturity in theme as well as character age as the series progressed.
The manga (later anime) series DETECTIVE CONAN is one of the most brazen offenders of timeline. It’s been running for 18 years, 900 or more episodic chapters! and takes place so far all within a span of months. Meanwhile, the protagonists (most of whom are in school) are doing schoolwork, taking vacations, celebrating holidays, etc. A research project to determine exactly how many holidays they’ve taken off school would be fascinating.
Still, its fans love it!