tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post1611697794777488851..comments2024-03-28T05:59:52.454-07:00Comments on TalkToYoUniverse: TTYU Retro: Dealing with Chronological Breaks in Your StoryJuliette Wadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-77135790025364419222013-03-19T21:57:35.958-07:002013-03-19T21:57:35.958-07:00Nice.
"...but enough to get people on their ...Nice.<br /><br />"...but enough to get people on their way, so the Hub's mostly empty by the time..."<br /><br />Good way to eat a chunk of (boring) time with a little transition in the middle of a scene.<br /><br />Unless you're running a timeline (most readers don't), the time skipped isn't even noticed. And we get on to the good stuff.<br /><br />Oddly enough, though it must be a regular - if not a common - problem, none of the 30-40 books on writing I have mentioned it; I figured out how to handle mine last year. <br /><br />But then 'novel time management' isn't discussed, either.<br /><br />To keep the first two chapters of my WIP straight, I had a timeline correct to the minute, as two of the main characters were being interviewed on a talk show in NYC (EST), while the third was coming home from dinner in LA (PST). It was WORK - but I liked the feeling of simultaneity that I got. Though I may be the only person who ever notices, if you run the parallel timelines, every minute is accounted for.<br /><br />Thanks for an interesting discussion of the topic - and good examples.<br />ABEAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-63449623126132905372013-03-19T16:10:16.609-07:002013-03-19T16:10:16.609-07:00You're welcome, and thanks for the comment! I ...You're welcome, and thanks for the comment! I think that chapter headings can definitely help, but they aren't enough without the kinds of cues you describe, to ground the reader in the setting. Very good point.Juliette Wadehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-25709877596601641812013-03-19T16:02:26.114-07:002013-03-19T16:02:26.114-07:00Thanks for theses ideas, Juliette. This is exactly...Thanks for theses ideas, Juliette. This is exactly what I've been dealing with! Only I'm working on a saga and some of my scenes are years apart. Although I date my chapters headings, I give the reader clues to help make the mental jump, like "Thomas ran down the stairs, his three-year-old sister tagging along behind" - when Thomas was a baby in the last scene. Elizabeth Saundershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01616212913975457786noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-90537269933133877312013-03-19T15:44:55.070-07:002013-03-19T15:44:55.070-07:00Riorlynë, thanks for your comment. Yes, that's...Riorlynë, thanks for your comment. Yes, that's another possible way that time passage can cause trouble. I generally approach those times by giving a bit of text to the change in the protagonist's state of mind. In general, more words suggest more time, and fewer words less, so I understand why that's an issue.Juliette Wadehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-30900296671783884262013-03-19T15:25:50.848-07:002013-03-19T15:25:50.848-07:00I write in sections, and when a section's fini...I write in sections, and when a section's finished I write the next from another character's point of view. I keep detailed timelines too, but they doesn't really show up in my stories. (I don't specifically write "Two days later" or phrases like that, though I think I might have the sentence "It took them three days to travel to place X" in one of my WIPs.) My stories tend to be dealt out in sections rather than in a continuous flow from one character.<br /><br />What I struggle with is trying to make it seem like a long (usually boring, tedious or anxious) time has passed for my character without writing a long passage on it.<br /><br />RiorlynëAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-12616634376244365322013-03-19T13:38:18.303-07:002013-03-19T13:38:18.303-07:00Thanks for your thoughts, ABE. I have a tendency t...Thanks for your thoughts, ABE. I have a tendency to want to keep away from scene breaks, so I do end up with the problem you mention. Waiting around is not exciting to narrate about. I typically like to find a psychological solution, relying on the expectations of the character. "We were in the middle of X when..." isn't a bad approach. Here's an example of me doing a time-jump in my most recent story:<br /><br />I put hands on my hips. "She's coming."<br />That gets a reaction. Nobody round here likes checkerbobbies — plenty get pissed, but others don't wanna leave now that they've been disconnected. Turban-Daddy, Sugarboss and the Tangletown Maestra quick-sketch out a news-passing plan, messy but enough to get people on their way, so the Hub's mostly empty by the time Checkers Nayyar stoops in with two officers behind her. <br /><br />It's the reaction to the announcement of the police officer coming that causes the action that she can then describe and assess and give its result to link to the new time period and the action to come.Juliette Wadehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-27328701549379750462013-03-19T09:50:00.815-07:002013-03-19T09:50:00.815-07:00I have two kinds of time breaks I've had to le...I have two kinds of time breaks I've had to learn to deal with:<br /><br />1) The kind of gap you are talking about, where the next scene occurs at a later time and you have to account for the 'feeling' the reader has, a sort of temporal disorientation.<br /><br />My solution is different from yours. When the next scene is NOT contiguous in time, I use a time/date/time of day header for the next scene - and trust people will figure it out. I keep a meticulous calendar (which also shows me when gaps in time are too large, and something needs to happen in between).<br /><br />But I'm relying on a sense of time - day/hour/month/year - that you can't assume in your readers, because you probably don't have a 24 hour day and a Gregorian calendar.<br /><br />I like that you carefully guide the reader to the next place/time.<br /><br />2) Lost time IN a scene. Such as when a character is doing something story-important, then spends time in-scene doing something I am not going to detail (writing, napping, singing...), after which the scene content becomes important again.<br /><br />Since I don't want/need to change the pov character or the setting (my usual indicators that time may have passed), I have learned to make short transition paragraphs to orient the reader.<br /><br />I find that since I work in beats - so many beats to a scene, each almost a mini-story with a beginning, middle, and end - the transitions naturally occur in the spaces between the beats.<br /><br />Do you have the same problem, needing to lose time without changing scene? If you do, how do you handle the breaks?<br />ABEAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com