A To Z - Out Of Time

Yikes, time just seems to escape away from me these days.  I look up and five days have passed by without me realizing it.  Time is an important concept for a writer though.  In our personal lives, we never seem to have enough of it (at least I don't).  The hours and days fly by as we scurry about with our busy activities, whether it's family things or just our own interests.  Every once in a while, we get a moment to stand there and just breathe in and out, but those moments are rare.

It's ironic then, that we want time to hurry along in our writing.  Or rather, we don't want too many moments in our stories where things are just calm and relaxing like a unhurried stream.  The stories have to move along a bit quicker, carrying the reader in a leaky boat towards the rocky waterfall ahead without concern (with a grin on their mug, no less).  If we slow down the pace too much, the reader becomes bored and puts the book down - something we definitely do NOT want to happen.

Thinking about this idea, I wonder why we crave a lull in our own lives while expecting an exciting busy adventure in our reading?  Maybe what we really crave is a break from the monotonous busy work that is our lives, not really a truly slower pace.  I don't know about you, but even when I take a break from life, I don't sit around for too long without doing something.  Inactivity is not something I can really enjoy, which is probably why I don't watch a lot of television.  My best days at work are when I look up and it's quitting time already;  I've been so busy that I didn't even notice the passage of time.

What would be really useful is the invention of time travel, coupled with immortality of course.  That way we could bounce around to any time or place we wanted to without the worry of running out of time (due to aging).  It is almost a curse being interested in so many things in life, since there's not enough time to really explore them all.  I suppose if we have limitless time however, maybe we wouldn't be as careful with how we use the time we have.  Maybe the real answer is to have time based on how many real interests a person has.  Ooh, that's a great story idea, heh heh.  Okay, nobody gets to grab that one.  I'm claiming it right now.

Do you find yourself struggling for time to get everything done?  And how do you manage your time?