The Variable Speed of Time

Narrative Pacing

One of the most overlooked tools in a writer’s kit is the ability to control time. This morning, I realized I had summarized a character’s entire childhood in two sentences, but spent three pages on a single, tense conversation at a train station.

This is exactly how time feels in reality: some years disappear in a blur, while certain seconds expand until they feel like hours. Our prose should reflect this elasticity. If a moment is significant, slow it down. Describe the dust motes in the air, the sound of a breath, the texture of a sleeve. Make the reader live in that second with you.

The Monroe Minute
Take a five-second action—like dropping a glass or opening a letter—and expand it into a full, sensory paragraph.

Until the next page,
Sloane S. Monroe

Sloane Shay Monroe

I don’t write to idealize love, but to explore it honestly, with emotional precision and depth.