Mastering the Ticking Clock: How Urgency Drives Scene Momentum
One of the most powerful tools a writer has in his pocket is urgency. When you think about the last great book or movie you read or saw, the one you couldn’t seem to move fast enough through because it was so incredible and you had to rush forward to find out what happened, chances are the author, screenwriter, or director used the technique of the ticking clock to push you warp speed through the story.
The ticking clock isn’t always literal. It doesn’t have to be a bus out of control, a bomb about to explode, a meteor hitting the earth, or a plane about to crash. It can be subtle. A deadline. Stopping someone before they leave. A secret revealed before someone gets hurt. A character racing against time to stop a mistake from being committed.
Today’s Success Point is this. Look at the last scene you wrote. My hope for your writing habit is that this scene is from yesterday (because you write every day). Is there a ticking clock, something that, if something isn’t done soon, something bad will happen either with the world or with a character's happiness? If not, is there a way to introduce one? The answer is, of course, there is. Maybe you look ahead and throw in something time-sensitive as a foreshadowing. Perhaps a phone call must be made before the truth comes out. Maybe it is stopping someone from leaving. Possibly, it’s a deadline that, if missed, will change a character’s life forever.
Almost anything can be made into a ticking clock. It can be physical, environmental, relational, emotional, or psychological. Writing this Success Point essay right now is a ticking clock. I need to finish it before I take my daughter to school because I have appointments afterward. You won't read it this afternoon if I don’t get it written this morning. The dogs need to go out. I need to get this written, but if I don’t take the dogs out for their morning walk, my situation will be worse. I just checked Maps, and I see I only have a limited amount of time before I leave to get my daughter to school through traffic. It all starts adding up. It creates urgency. It affects my writing, my daughter, my peace of mind, and even the dogs. It creates conflict. This can be done in any situation. Put a ticking clock into whatever action is taking place. It makes things urgent.
Don’t just give a ticking clock to the main character. Give all the characters a ticking clock. In real life, we’re all time-stretched. No matter how minor the characters are, they are under some time-centered gun. Bring this into the scene. Someone under pressure may seem frenetic. Another may be short-tempered. All of this affects the dynamics of the scene. You do more than add tension by giving your characters a time limit. You give them a reason to act, and it is this action that keeps the story moving forward at that fast clip. You force decisions. You amplify stakes. You make readers lean forward, heart pounding, brain racing, needing to know what will happen next or how this situation can turn out for the good.
For today’s Success Point, ask yourself several questions as you write. What is the urgency of this scene? (Hint: if there isn’t one, one must be added, or the scene must be removed. No scene is there for atmosphere. It must serve a purpose. The spine of any purpose is urgency.) What will happen if time runs out? (Hint: The bigger and more damaging the consequences, the more powerful the scene.) How can you make the clock tick louder? (Hint: Put more pressure and conflict on each character in the scene. Make them all stress, suffer, and panic.)
Your challenge today is to take ten minutes. That’s all I’m asking. Identify one moment in your work from yesterday and see where urgency is lacking. Add a ticking clock. Look deeper. Add more. Add one for each character. Put everyone into conflict. Then, after doing this, watch how your characters and your readers react.
Don’t get confused. Urgency isn’t about adding chaos for the sake of chaos. It’s about forcing your characters to make fast choices arising from their own organic base. These can be physical, relational, or internal; it doesn’t matter. Just put them under your thumb and press down. Watch what happens. These pressures produce the choices that follow, which is where the real drama lies. Using this technique, readers and viewers will be rushing through your work, unable to put it down or turn away, until they find out what finally happens.
Mastering the ticking clock is the ultimate action. It’s the use of that forward propulsion that will make lifelong fans for you.
