Time span of love story/romance

[MsK]

I'm guessing many here are familiar with the story Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas.
The story begins with the MC as a young girl (15ish) and follows her as she grows into a young woman in her early 20's.
At a very young age, the MC meets a boy who becomes 'the one she really wanted and never quite got over' and this feeling stays with her through the entire book.

My WIP has some similar characteristics: My MC's teenage years are an important part of who she has become and why she made the choices she did. She meets 'the one she really wanted and never quite got over' during her teenage years and the foundation of their relationship was formed during this time.
Later in their lives, they re-connect and their interactions have more to do with the relationship they built many years earlier than the current relationship. (You know they never fell out of love;))
Right now, I have the story starting just before they reconnect and all of the backstory is told in flashbacks.

I hope this makes sense...

My question is:
Would it make more sense to tell this story in a linear format? (From their teen years, glossing through the 15 years they were apart, and picking up again right before they reconnect)
I like the idea of this, but I'm concerned about starting my story with two teenagers and their interactions- that it may confuse the reader who wants to read a love story between two adults.

Any thoughts?

[sunandshadow]

I would say no, it makes the most sense the way you already have it, unless the teenage part has a complete plot and was the first book of a duology. But even then, the first book would not be a romance so the second would have to be mainly whatever genre the first one was and only secondarily a romance, because shifting genre in the middle of a series is generally bad.

[Lainey Bancroft]

I'd keep it the way you have it.

Linear, particularly in romance, is a matter of days, weeks, months at most. If you begin at the...beginning, it'll be read as mostly backstory. Which will not encourage an agent/editor to read further.

[Gary]

My WIP has some similar characteristics: My MC's teenage years are an important part of who she has become and why she made the choices she did. She meets 'the one she really wanted and never quite got over' during her teenage years and the foundation of their relationship was formed during this time.
Later in their lives, they re-connect and their interactions have more to do with the relationship they built many years earlier than the current relationship. (You know they never fell out of love;))
Right now, I have the story starting just before they reconnect and all of the backstory is told in flashbacks.


I wrote a story with a similar plot. The plot begins with the characters in their teens, and takes up when they are in their sixties. I first wrote it in the present day, and used several flashbacks to explain their relationship when they were young, and to set up scenes in the present.

My beta readers didn't like the numerous interruptions, so I rewrote it with a single flashback that sequenced over much of the main character's lifetime. I first fought their suggestions, but after making the changes, I had to agree it was a huge improvement.

I'm not qualified to give advice to anyone, but thanks to my beta readers, it worked for me.

[MsK]

Funny how these things work.

I'd picked up a book the other day, knowing I liked the author, but not knowing anything about the story.

Well, I'm a pretty fast reader anyway, but if a book has too many jumps back and forth in time, I tend to read the one time period I find most interesting and skim through the other time period. (Same thing with too many POV's)

And thats what I did with this book of just over 400 pages that I read last night.

Turns out the story starts with the MC and the hero in present time, but has a large element of the MC's teenage years with the hero, and that part is told in flashbacks slipped in as two to three chapters at a time and consuming several chapters of this book (A good 40% of the book)

I love this author- still love her- but I only read 50% of her story. I started reading the present story, and after the second jump into the back story, lost interest in the present story, began skimming through the present moments when they came up, and reading the rest of the back story when it came up. Oh... and I read the ending. HEA.

The jumps back and forth in time are what caused me to lose interest in the present story. (Probably what happened to your beta readers, Gary)

But...

Had this story been told in linear format, I may have put the book aside thinking, "I don't want to read some coming-of-age story about a couple teenagers."

Where do you like to see the back story? Does it work for you in the way I described this book I just read? Or, do you prefer it to come up as a couple paragraphs here and there in the present day characters thoughts? Or, maybe the way Gary described it, "a single flashback that sequenced over much of the main character's lifetime?"

I know there isn't just one way to do things, and what works in some stories won't work in all stories, but I'd be interested in hearing many more opinions on this.

[sunandshadow]

I personally like to see the backstory in small chunks as memories of the main characters; the idea being that they are in the present day, remembering a particular past day or event, and the memory is colored by their current situation and concerns. After all, the past doesn't really exist (unless time travel is involved) you can't touch it, you can't remember every detail, you already survived it, it's only important in that it shapes your present philosophy, fears, and desires.

[lkp]

I'm like MsK. I find flashbacks and jumps in time annoying and I am usually more interested in the contemporary story that is going on than what led up to it. I think that is because the "past' story is already over from the perspective of the MC and I get bored trying to catch up with her. It can work, but you have to work very hard to make the "past" story as urgent as your "present' story. I repeat, it can be made to work.

This question concerns me because I am writing a novel right now that uses lots of storytelling about the past intermingled with the present.