People who buy advertising have the same problem with this concept that many people do, including even some storytellers. They have difficulty saying what they want to say in the time they agreed to use, so they just decide to ignore the clock and hope they can get away with going over time.
For voice actors this creates challenges. It's normal to get a script for a 30-second spot with 35 to 40 seconds of copy in it. When the talent has to speed it up to put all the copy in to the time, it sounds a little rushed. Some clients are fine with this but many send the spot back for a revision, either blaming the talent for sounding rushed or taking responsibility for time and shaving a few words off the copy. This process is pretty infuriating for voice talent and producers, but most of us have to do it on a regular basis.
For storytellers, going over time steals time from another teller. It's a very subtle form of f*** you. It's like flipping the bird with velvet gloves on, and then pretending you didn't.
The other people in the circle or at the performance are also desperate to tell their story, so it's common for the most needy to go over time until the few people left at the end of the line politely clap and then go home.
In a supportive artistic setting, no one person grabs time from others. It's not tolerated in theater and certainly not in broadcasting or voice overs. You'll just get fired for it.
I don't think most people plan to steal time. I think it's just lack of practice.
Doing anything well takes practice, discipline, devotion, and (your own) time.
Rather than pontificating on what other people should do, I decided to make the use of units of time as a regular disciplined practice.
I start with the bones of the story. Some stories have bigger, more complex bones than others.
So far I can fit the bones of a 5-minute story into one minute and the bones of a 30-minute story into 5 minutes. Practicing with the hour glasses helps me to focus without watching a timer or a watch, which is much more distracting.
I'm not as good at it as I was hoping I would be.
Twenty years ago when I worked at Clear Channel and was the third most used voice in the commercial system, I would voice up to 20 spots a day. Because of all the practice I got so good at timing I could cut a 30-second spot in one take. Then if the producer asked me to do in 29 and 1/2 seconds, I could re-cut the spot right afterwards with all the same inflections and shave off a half a second. It was one of those stupid human tricks. So I mistakenly thought that meant that I had an everlasting great sense of time!
What I've learned is that a sense of time for me requires a consistent, rigorous practice. It takes at least a half hour a day.
But I figure by putting my own time in to practice, I'm less likely to steal it from others.
