If you've never seen or heard this song from the musical The Fiddler On The Roof, you've been missing out.
This video is from the film version, and the entire movie is easily comparable to any stage performance of this same story that I've ever seen. In fact, The Fiddler On The Roof is one of best performed musicals on film ever IMHO. Okay, stage performances have their own type of intensity, but this film is one that I regard just as highly.
If you listen to the words of this particular song however, you'll understand how I'm feeling lately. No, I don't have any adult children getting married, but I do feel like the days, weeks, months, and years are flying by. This is further emphasized by the fact that it's been a week since my last post and I hadn't even realized I'd let the time slip past.
I was thinking about this concept of time flowing past quickly, and I realized it would be great if I could continually capture that idea in my writing. I don't mean that stories need to rush the reader along, but I think we can all agree that stalling the movement of a story is bad. And since our lives generally keep moving along (whether we notice the passage of time or not), our stories should probably do the same thing. This is not to say that there aren't moments in our writing where the pace should slow for a bit to savor a scene, but on the whole we need to keep things moving.
It's funny that we often try to create these worlds that are completely different from our own (especially those of us writing fantasy or sci-fi) and yet it's absolutely necessary that we include the same basic framework from our own realities. I guess there actually are some universal truths, one of them being the unstoppable passage of time.
On that note, I'm going to get back to working on things. But when was the last time you noticed the passage of time (either in your own life or your writing)? And how do you deal with it?
8 comments:
I love the Sunrise, Sunset comparison to writing. You've really go me thinking about how I do it in my WIP. Hmmm. Time to go back and read to see if time slips by. Thanks.
Leisha - Thanks. I hope this post helps you then.
My wife loves Fiddler. Me? Not so much.
Oh, yes. My daughter started kindergarten this year, and it made me stop and wonder where the last 5 1/2 years went. Blink, and they're gone.
I notice it every day, although I try to ignore the passage of time around my birthday. I think it really does speed up as one grows older.
Travis - Heh heh. Oh well, I won't hold it against ya.
Elana - Just wait until she is a Junior in High School. Yeah, I'm there already.
Alex - You got that right. Every birthday reminds me how quickly time is flying by.
Love this post...I am down to 22 days until my book launch and I keep saying, what the heck...where did the time go. Even worse...My oldest will be driving in 2 years...ONLY 2 YEARS...AAHHHHHHHHHHHH (IamnotreadyIamnotready)
Time is such a crucial part of stories. WIthout time advancing forward progress stops and that kind of makes it hard to move the plot along. More importantly, time can be such a great device for building tension.
What a great post and thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic.
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