Threading timelines

Andrhia · Jan 3, 2008

Does anyone have a suggestion for quietly indicating big jumps in POV/timeline/thread to a reader?

It's like this: The first 20% or so of my book is contemporary. The second 20% happens a few hundred years ago (and sheds a light of light on the contemporary bits). The characters and setting are entirely different. I think it would work better if I chop these sections up and splice them in between one another, like shuffling a deck of cards. This would mitigate the feeling that, a quarter of the way through, the reader is suddenly falling into some completely different book than he began.

I'm trying to work out a way to transition between these sections. I'd be jumping only from chapter to chapter, and not WITHIN a chapter, of course.

I don't need to reinvent the wheel. I know this has been done by greater writers than I. So how has it been done? (Possibly relevant info: It's, er, a contemporary mythic fantasy novel. No, really.)

katiemac · Jan 3, 2008

You could simply alternate the chapters like you plan. If the scenery and language is obvious that a change has occurred, you may not need transition any more than you already do. Readers will pick up on the every-other pattern very quickly.

kuwisdelu · Jan 3, 2008

I agree with Katie. The fact that it's a new chapter IS your transition. As long as you make sure it's not possible to read a page or two and still think you're in the other time, then you're good. Writers do this all the time, so as long as you don't make it confusing, you're okay.

GerriB · Jan 3, 2008

Another quick trick is to label each chapter with the year it takes place. That'll make it quite obvious between, say 1789 and 2008.

ORION · Jan 4, 2008

In The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox there are no chapters and all the changes between past and present and POV changes are just extra spaces lines (several returns)- I suggest you take a look at other books that do this - it's done a lot.

Danthia · Jan 4, 2008

I just finished "Skin Hunger" which does this. Alterating chapters between two plotlines spaced a few centuries apart. It's a while untl you see how they're connected, but then it's quite cool. Great book. Might give you some ideas, as the "past" plotline is a bit of a "how the present got to that point" thing.

Garpy · Jan 4, 2008

A new chapter with a time stamp is more than sufficient;

Chapter 1

New York, 1857

blablahblahb;ah

Chapter 2

London, the present

blahblahblahblah

She_wulf · Jan 4, 2008

kuwisdelu said:
I agree with Katie. The fact that it's a new chapter IS your transition. As long as you make sure it's not possible to read a page or two and still think you're in the other time, then you're good. Writers do this all the time, so as long as you don't make it confusing, you're okay.

Peter David's The Darkness and the Light jumped MC's. It was extremely disconcerting as a reader when the first jump happened because there was no warning. It actually felt like a completely different novel at that point. Then he did it again, and again, until all the characters were introduced. As he did it, you were woven into the world and got glimpses from the outside looking in on the other characters. It was very Pulp Fiction-y but made for a good read when done. Except for the end. That was just weird. Good weird, but weird.
Amy

FennelGiraffe · Jan 4, 2008

Garpy said:
A new chapter with a time stamp is more than sufficient;

Chapter 1

New York, 1857

blablahblahb;ah

Chapter 2

London, the present

blahblahblahblah

Yes,but...

You still want to anchor the new POV right away in the first paragraph. You don't ever want to leave the reader disoriented, and a chapter heading doesn't substitute for actual text.

If you're only switching between two times (not more), then after the first couple of changes the reader will pick up on the pattern and you only need one detail to be that anchor. The first few changes will need several details to establish the pattern, though

a_sharp · Jan 4, 2008

FennelGiraffe said:
If you're only switching between two times (not more), then after the first couple of changes the reader will pick up on the pattern and you only need one detail to be that anchor. The first few changes will need several details to establish the pattern, though

...and then there's the way Tom Clancy assembles a story. But let's not go there.

windyrdg · Jan 4, 2008

If you have to different sets of characters, the reader will figure out pretty quickly who's who and where they are. If you firmly "date-stamp" both sets through dress, customs, etc., there shouldn't be any confusion.

Threading timelines

Andrhia

katiemac

Five by Five

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

GerriB

Dazed and Confuzzled

ORION

Sailed away years ago

Danthia

Garpy

keyboard monkey

She_wulf

that's me

FennelGiraffe

It's green they say

a_sharp

Somebody give me an A

windyrdg

New kid, be gentle!