In the third of her three-part series on Writer’s Digest, Sharon Short explores how time away from an event can affect how a character reacts and responds to it. “How we tell our stories changes depending on when we tell them, relative to how long ago we had those experiences,” she says. “As time passes, we might imbue an experience with more, or different, meaning than it had in the moment. Deeper wisdom, fresh perspectives, or new information might become important to the story.”
This temporal and emotional distance also matters to your characters, and Short says your work will be stronger if you take time to reflect on how much time has passed between the events of your story and the time the story is being told. This will be particularly important if you write in first person. If your protagonist is reflecting on past events, how much time has passed? How much wisdom have they acquired since the events of your story? How has their perspective changed with the years? A 20-year old reflecting on their high school years will have a vastly different perspective than a 40-year old about to send their oldest to the same school.
This choice depends on your story goals. If you’re working on a thriller, your narration will occur in real time. If you’re aiming for something more pensive, you might choose a future character looking backwards.
