The second edit is to do with time. Does the time scale work in the piece? It can be particularly hard to get this right in a novel as your plot dips and dives and sprouts branches. I actually pre-empt it a little by planning the time at which the action takes place with each chapter. I also determine the length of time which passes within each chapter.

However, there are still other dangers. I need to check whether the time is consistent with anything that characters have mentioned earlier. For example, if a character says that they are going to another planet in six months time near the beginning of the book, when they eventually go I need to check that that amount of time has passed and that it was indeed enough time for them to achieve everything that they have achieved.

We mustn’t forget, either, that  our readers may need to know the time, especially if timing is important – if someone has done something very quickly or incredibly slowly for instance. We can do that simply be mentioning the time, the day or the month. Or we can show that time by revealing the season to the reader.

For example, in my novel for 14+ Nick’s Gallery, I write:

“Barney stared through the plate glass window. Steam was rising off the outdoor pool. A dusting of snow was covering the handful of crocuses which were poking their heads through the grass.

‘We always have one more lot of snow after the crocuses have come up,’ his mother had said that morning.

Funny how everything carries on as normal, he thought, even though somebody dies.”

Barney’s friend Nick had died just before Christmas. The conversation about the crocuses served to show the reader that he was still grieving three months later.

Yes, time is important: we don’t want any two year pregnancies and we don’t want our character to starve or be deprived of sleep.