How quickly do you lose track of time?

[CountVanBadger]

When you're writing a story that takes place over an extended length of time, how long does it take you to completely lose track of how much time has gone by? For me, I can only keep things straight for two or three days unless I'm deliberately trying to work within a specific timeframe. The part I'm working on in XNPC happens less than a week after the beginning of the book, of that I'm sure. Mostly. How many days has it actually been? Uhhhh...1924?

What about you guys? Do you have trouble keeping track of how much time has passed in your story?

 

[Eldoria]

What about you guys? Do you have trouble keeping track of how much time has passed in your story

Use timelines of the series:

Spoiler: Example my series:

Marry El Rose, the Time Survivor of Two Periods — The World had Forgotten Its Sins, but She Remembers All

The following is a chronology of the series based on chronological order, along with volume and chapter references. The period is divided into 2 periods, including:

• Dawn Memory Ages (DMA) = the period after the fall of global memory, after the destruction of the 'Memory' artefact.
• Rose Ages (RA) = the heyday of the rose kingdom before the amnesiac world.

Sequence of events by time:

---

1050 years of RA: The First Meeting of Detective Clara Between Blood Rose Princess and Black Mist Princess vs. Knight Princess (Vol. 1 ch. 12: Clara's memory, Vol. 3 — coming soon).
↓
1051 years of RA: The Doll Castle (vol. 2, ch. 24, 33: Flashback through Reema's memory and Marry's bedtime story).
↓
1052 years of RA: Bloody Dust (vol. 2, ch. 40 — 47, 54: Flashback through Feroux's dream and Marry's bedtime story).
↓
1053 years of RA: The World Memory Apocalyptic

1. Battle of Black Mist vs. Blood Rose at the Palace of the Silver Rose (vol. 1 ch. 22: Elvyn's dream, vol. 2 ch. 1, 32: Flashback through Black Mist's confession, Marry's dream).
2. The Great Rose War: The destruction of the 'Memory' artefact (vol.1, ch. 1: Flashback through Marry's memory).

↓

---

0001 - 0006 years of DMA: World Building After Memory World Apocalyptic (Vol. 0 — planned)

1. World chaos after the fall of global memory.
2. The birth of Caelan El Rose.
3. The establishment of a peaceful life for Marry and her little daughter in the Valley of Roses.

↓
March 0007 years of DMA: Peaceful Life in Rose Valley (vol. 1, ch. 1 — 24)

1. Marry and little Caelan's routine in the Rose Valley.
2. Detective Clara's reunion with Marry.

↓
April -? 0007 years of DMA: Return of Black Mist Princess (vol 2 — ongoing)

1. Shadowmist Invasion in Nelmara Village and its surroundings — the border of the Rose Kingdom and the Wealth Kingdom (vol. 2, ch. 1, 3, 7, 8).
2. Clara and Elan Noir's investigation of Shadowmist in the forest of dead mists — north of the Rose Valley and bordering the Western Rose Garrison City (Vol. 2, ch. 15 —19).
3. The return of Black Mist and the Shadowmist's invasion of the city of Western Rose Garrison (vol. 2, ch. 24 — ongoing).

 

[KinaSkynight]

Not really, I will just go back to where I know time have passed then counting how much time has passed so that I won't lose track just in case I needed to reference how much time have passed in the future lol.

 

[Ral_062]

Personally, i just review the previous chapter, then decide how much time could pass between two scenes could be,.
Either an hour, a day, a week.
When i choose, i strictly stick onto it, keeping the timeline concise and accurate as per my vision.

For me, timelines weren't really a problem but keeping many time skips are...

 

[Jerynboe]

I actually use date and timestamps in my story as glorified scene transitions, which really helps. Its probably not that important beyond knowing when a night happens because that’s when my MCs powers reset, but it’s there.

 

[Alski]

I only keep track of time 4 days of the week.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

It depends on the story.
But then, say, Digital Cowboy Dane takes place in a virtual world - days and months have happened for the MC where only weeks passed in the real world. I could figure out how many days it's been for Dane (though there was that week he spent in space where he was missing for three days, so maybe not...) but it would not really be how many days actually passed...
I also have had some time wonkiness in Between Earth and Pyrroth because there's a lot of mundane stuff going on in the background, and pregnancies run a little faster (7 months instead of nine) for humans on Pyrroth.
But Jack Diamond's first story, Diamond in the Rough, takes place over three days. His second is a bit longer and I've only covered the first three (in ten chapters).
True Blue is, aside from the narrator segments, all stories that took place in the past - the first is about twenty five years ago, and takes place over two or maybe three days. The second story should take place over five if I ever finish it, and is set about a week after the first (it's on the first day still).
Strange Awakening ... well... I would have to go back and count, but I could. Given the MC can fly from Boston to Florida in about five hours on her own power, they do get around quite a bit though...