progression of time

I age them if there's a difference. If one novel's set in so and so year, and the next one is set, say... ten years later, than I do a quick briefing on the aging. That's just me, though.

Actually, it would bug me if the characters never aged. Unless they have same anti-aging something or another. It just makes them less human, I think.

Well... Now I'm caught in my own opinion, because I love comic books, and those characters NEVER age. I mean, Peter Parker is out of high school, but I'm pretty sure he's too old to still be Spider-man.

I just realized that I'm not being too much help. Heh. Sorry! Hrm... Do whatever works. If you hand it out to a few beta readers, and they're bugged by it, I'd change it. If nobody gives it a second thought, don't worry about it. I'd most certainly take the advice of a few faithful betas.

(Sorry for the rambling post.)

I absolutely adore novels with a distinct sense of time flowing. Series in particular. I loved Canticle for Leibowitz because we jump generations. I love The Cobra Series by Timothy Zahn, because we watch this man get older and the world change. Likewise why I read Star Wars novels but not Star Trek when I was younger. Likewise why I liked the Star TRek movies that focused so heavily on aging and fading.

I don't know why, but I can look at quite a lot fo the stuff I enjoy reading and the passage of time is marked, and definitely present. So I'm very strongly for it.

Well... Now I'm caught in my own opinion, because I love comic books, and those characters NEVER age. I mean, Peter Parker is out of high school, but I'm pretty sure he's too old to still be Spider-man.

Click to expand...

Well, that depends on the issue, actually. There's a Spiderverse out there somewhere with retired Peter Parker and his beer belly.

I've read a couple of the Plum novels, and her age has honestly never occurred to me, or lack thereof. As a reader of any other series I don't think I'd notice, either, unless it were brought to my attention.

I'd probably only mention it if a scene from one of the books required the MC's birthday or something, like a wedding anniversary or death of a friend....

Do you know if you'll have any specific time markers?

I encountered a problem with this when I decided I wanted to keep going with these same characters for at least two more trilogies after my current WIP. I didn't want my characters to ever look less than perfect because of age. It never even occurred to me to not have them age (that just wouldn't make any sense at all). But I write fantasy so I eventually have them end up with a race of magical goddess-like people who's city magically restores everyone who enters it to their prime.

I think mystery is one of the few genres not having time pass would actually work in, so long as you made sure to not make any mention of it at all. Or just start your MC out young and you should have plenty of time to work with. To me, that would seem to be the easiest thing to do, just in case you do want to mention time occasionally.

Time

I think you write and sell the first novel, and then worry about the passage of time when you begin writing the second.

Passage of time can give some powerful pathos to a story as it makes us aware of not only the mortality of a character we may have come to love, but of our own. Series that flow over successive generations, I think, are sometimes the most poignant I've read. The fact that the characters are aging need not be featured, but the way they react to the events of the story around them as they mature and then perhaps even decline can release a lot of emotional power.

Color me sentimental...

I progress time, but the nature of my stories demands that my characters mature and age and go through the accompanying changes. I'm heavily character-driven.

For the mystery genre, that isn't necessarily true -- mysteries in general hold up well to having no passage of time because they tend to be plot-driven.

But different things work for different people. Do what seems to make sense for your situation.

Jamesaritchie said:

I think you write and sell the first novel, and then worry about the passage of time when you begin writing the second.

Click to expand...

Well sure. That's why I talked about books I've read which I found that in. In ten years, I'll look back and go "Oh. I've got time passing in my novels."

In Terry Brook's Word/Void Series, he follows the main character Nest Freemark from her pre-teen days into adulthood, and each book in the trilogy is set at different points in her life. So too with the supporting characters, John Ross and a few others who inhabit the town Nest Lives in.

I don't ever recall if series like the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew ever aged. Perhaps they didn't; in any case, age them if its appropriate, if not, then keep them as is.

bea914 said:

I'm trying to map out a series of books and I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to do the progress of time...

Click to expand...

Although I think I'm failing to properly understand your question. Here's a couple links that might be helpful in terms of mapping the flow of time: an Edward Tufte thread, he's the master of visual display of data/information/&c., and swim lane charting.

Of course, you're mapping the flow of time in a series of novels, but these links might help with the visualization.

In the first Hardy Boys mystery, Frank was 17 and Joe was 16. In the second Hardy Boys mystery, Frank was 18 and Joe was 17. I think Franklin W. Dixon realized he couldn't continue to age the boys and appeal to his target audience. So on all future HB books (40 something), Frank was 17 and Joe was 16. They solved a lot of mysteries at that age!

NDG