For the narrative you are studying, you should draw two time lines. In the first of these you should identify the duration of time each event would have taken in chronological time (i.e. story time). In the second, you should identify the relative amount of space in paragraphs or pages – or actual viewing time if you are watching a play or a film – those events take up in the narrative itself. Next, you should compare these two time lines and seek to a) identify the main differences between them (i.e. how the narrative has changed the relative duration or pace of the events it describes); and b) explain the effects of its particular manipulation of these events and the duration of time they are awarded.
