This week in writers workshop, everyone knew about the Liz Truss vs. the Lettuce contest. And we were all dumbfounded to see the lettuce had won.
The head of lettuce was a clock, measuring out the time until the story would reach crisis. This is how easy it is to reinvent the clock in a story.
As Maggie Smith once said, “I’m so old I don’t even buy green bananas anymore!”
Anything can be a clock in your story.
Was literally explaining this concept to my daughter while watching Pet Cemetery (1991) when Gabe Runs into the street the first time and is saved by the neighbor. The clock is set for Gabe in that moment.
I still come back to the Building a Clock course from litreactor. Always good to keep in mind.