SCREENPLAY: The Ticking Clock

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 Apart from sounding like an obscure Edwardian ghost story, ‘The Ticking Clock’ is a phrase used in screenwriting to denote the device used when the hero of the piece is given a deadline. This usually is given at the end of the first act, to give the next act a sense of tension, as the audience have been given clear rules as to what will happen if the hero doesn’t make his deadline.

The deadline set can be a literal ticking clock – the countdown on a time bomb that must be defused; the deadline of a particularly fastidious serial killer (‘For every hour that passes, I will take one more innocent life’) or a type of egg timer like the bus running out of fuel in Speed. It needn’t be so melodramatic: The Before Sunrise/Before Sunset/Before Midnight trilogy centre on a chatting couple and their self-imposed romantic deadline. It could be the race to reach a wedding before the bride says ‘I do’ to the wrong guy.

Whatever the device used, it is there to drive the story forward and give tension. The clock can be stopped, usually at the end of act two, but the hero won’t get away so lightly. The antagonist will be waiting in act three to come back and complete his plan.

The deadline may be imposed later, of course. Once the hero has made it through act two, they will have a fight to make it to the crisis at the end of act three. The ‘clock’ can be set ticking at the beginning of act three, such as the self-destruct sequence set running at the end of Alien.

You can use the ticking clock in your novel as well, to put a rocket under your hero as they make their way along the narrative. However you use it, try to make sure the deadline is constantly re-asserted so the audience is well aware of the stakes and the trails the hero will have to go through.

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SCREENPLAY is a series of posts looking at the art and craft of writing for film and television.