Whether you're writing a mystery novel, literary, or an adventure story, time matters. The sun rises, the sun sets, and humans for as long as we've known that, have measured the time between.
The same care you give time in your daily life has to be given to the time in your story. Your characters must wake, get to work on time (or not), make their scheduled appointments (or not), and do this for weeks, months, or years.
But, being writers, we can manipulate time.
Go on, you know you've always wanted to....
That murder in your mystery novel? What was the time of death? Where were the suspects during that time?
Your literary story. Is the main event or character constrained to a timeline? How about the project he's managing? Is it still on track? Or perhaps there's too much free time in his life and he gets into trouble before anything productive can be accomplished.
And your fantasy or adventure story? How much time should pass between the inciting incident and charter 3? Is it minutes - expanded with fight scenes and description and exposition - or years due to an incredible foot journey?
Manipulate time to your advantage. Give your protagonists a limited amount of time in which to complete their task. Give them consequences if they're unable to accomplish it. Ratchet up the tension as the minutes slip past.
If you can control every aspect of it, why not play that to your advantage? Why not harness time and make it slave for you?
Go on, you know you've always wanted to...
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