points of view

[marycatelli]

One thing that fairy tales do not worry about is time. Since they follow a single character -- and switch when another is taken out of the plot -- and the rare exceptions often do not meet again, and seldom are depending on the exact timing, it is rarely important. If the hero's wife had to have given birth while he's gone -- well, tramping over thrice nine kingdoms does take a minute or two.

Though there are tales that bungle it. A man goes out to work, and by the time he gets back, his son is a grown man even though he had not known his wife was pregnant. . . .

Still, in a novel, more is needed. Especially if the characters have interlocking fairy tales and go on their separate ways before they meet up again at crucial times.

A lot can be juggled by travel times. But in a novel, unlike a fairy tale, the readers expect to have some notion of time passing.