Continuum & Iona
Iona
I was just thinking about how authors play with time in their stories. Do you think time in a narrative is more a tool for developing characters or a way to explore bigger themes?
Continuum
Time in a story is like a mirror—sometimes it shows a single character’s growth, sometimes it reflects the whole cosmos. The trick is in how the author chooses to bend it. If you slow the clock to watch a person learn patience, you’re exploring character. If you jump ahead to see what humanity did in centuries, you’re hunting themes. Usually it’s both, and the best tales find that the same shift in seconds can rewrite a life and a world at once.
Iona
That’s a tidy way to put it—time as both a lens and a backdrop. I tend to think of it like a page in a book: the moment you read it closely, it’s the character’s inner world; turn the page and you see the wider setting. The trick, as you say, is how the author decides to flip the page.
Continuum
Exactly, each page is a microcosm that can either be a tight portrait or a sweeping panorama, depending on the author’s eye. It’s like choosing which side of a coin to look at first—both sides belong to the same coin, just presented at different angles.
Iona
I love that coin image—it reminds me of how a single detail can feel like the whole story if you focus hard enough. Authors who master that balance are the ones who keep readers turning pages.