Now on to the post:
One of my pet peeves when I'm reading is when a character thinks something along the lines of, "Was that only three days ago? It feels like years." Um, no. That feels unauthentic to me. Just because for the author it was, in fact, years in between those three days does not mean that's how it feels to the character. It certainly doesn't feel that way to me as the reader. My perception of time is usually quite the opposite. (It's September already? What happened to August?) I suppose this stems from a desire to illustrate the great changes in the characters life during the course of the story. I'm not sure using time is the most effective way to do that, however. My most recent unexpected and life-changing event was the birth of my last child, over a month early and while on vacation in Vegas. I do remember thinking, "Gee, our other boy's birthday party was less than a week before the baby was born." I didn't feel like the party had been years before, but I was surprised at how fast everything had changed.
Anyway, it's got me thinking. How do the characters perceive the passage of time? I know children see time differently than adults. Young children have no concept of time at all. My five year old still has trouble with "today" and "tomorrow." She usually refers to tomorrow as "next day." For me, time is always flying by way too fast, but then there are other times, like the two weeks that my preemie baby spent in the hospital, that drag on and on. Is it worth thinking about how the characters feel about time? I don't know if I ever consciously have, except to avoid the temptation above. I think the passage of time, or the perception of it, is worth considering. Not that it needs to be deliberately included, but it seems to me one more way to add depth and realism to the story. Any thoughts?
