Time in the Reign of the North Forest Series

I took two main approaches on how to manage time in the Reign of the North Forest series.

The society in this series consists primarily of Antisenents, children whose minds age while their bodies do not. These individuals don't have the typical milestones that children do. Because of this, I felt it was important to treat the story's timeline linearly. It would be clean and easy for the reader, especially with such massive worldbuilding. The reader can focus on the story and not get caught in the added complexity of an irregular timeline. Timestamps help with this.

The second approach I took was to use realistic timelines. The first book in the series, Imperious Realm, takes place over 29 years. As the series progresses, the timeline for each book shortens. Reign of the North Forest is a political story and the changes I wanted to highlight—the systemic oppression and the deterioration of quality of life—tend to occur slowly. It wouldn’t be realistic to see these changes enacted in a few days or even a few short years.

In last month’s blog, I talked about my reading preferences: Time in Stories. My reading preferences mirror my writing preferences, I think, but I would like to continue to challenge myself in future writing projects. This might call for alternate time approaches, but this which will largely depend on the story I am writing.