Ok, I'm writing a thriller novel where my prologue tells of a dramatic scene and the chapter one starts off with six months earlier than the prologue. How do I express that in the story? Should I just write: six months earlier - indented under chapter one?
-
Basic Writing questions is not a crit forum. All crits belong in Share Your Work
How do I write a time skip backward in my novel manuscript?
- Thread starter colorado_rockies
- Start date
That's one way. I guess you mean a flashback.
But why give me a thrilling scene, and then expect me to go back six months knowing where I'm going to end up after having read x00 pages of what happened in the intervening six months?
Any reason the story can't start six months earlier and thrill me all the way as it grows to its thrilling finale?
Just askin'.
And Welcome
But why give me a thrilling scene, and then expect me to go back six months knowing where I'm going to end up after having read x00 pages of what happened in the intervening six months?
Any reason the story can't start six months earlier and thrill me all the way as it grows to its thrilling finale?
Just askin'.
And Welcome
Last edited:
Hi, thanks and lol...Well I just thought it would be better to start the novel off with a dramatic, thrilling bang you know?
It can certainly work - it's just important that it does more than just pull the reader in. You need to have a real reason to do it - which will probably mean that the reader's understanding of that event will have changed and deepened so they receive it differently when they see it again.
You'll get pushback, because it's so often done as a lazy way of 'hooking' a reader - and then dumping them in a morass of unexciting stuff till they get back to it. Done well and for the right reasons, it can be very effective - but it can't really be effective if the only reason it's done is because what follows might not be sufficiently engaging to grab the reader.
Good idea, but it sounds as if it's not starting the novel moving forward - are you using it as a device to create false initial excitement, before whisking me away back six months, when I want to know what happens next?
Any chance of starting with a dramatic thrilling bang/incident that creates chaos in your main character's humdrum life and sets the story moving forward?
You did say you were writing a thriller.
Last edited:
Yeah, I guess I'll just start off with the beginning and then lead the novel up to the exciting big bang events at the end. So, I guess tomorrow, I'll get my cocoa and get to writing then, lol. Thanks for the answers you two.
Good luck. 
If you can, open with something that forces your main character off whatever is 'normal' for him/her and onto a path from which there is no turning back.
Mind you, if he's an investigator it all depends what sort of a case he becomes involved in. Happy writing. Enjoy.
If you can, open with something that forces your main character off whatever is 'normal' for him/her and onto a path from which there is no turning back.
Mind you, if he's an investigator it all depends what sort of a case he becomes involved in. Happy writing. Enjoy.
One of the books I like that does flashbacks well is Prince of Thorns. It flops between present/4 years in the past (past chapters are offset with "four years ago," and present chapters as left as-is). The flashbacks deepen the reader's emotional understanding of the protag, which changes the context of the story, and it all ties together with a plot twist at the end.
The important thing to note here is that the flashbacks aren't an infodump - they're creating an emotional hologram that influences the perception of the present, instead of keeping things in a black and white simplicity.
This is really important because a lot of readers HATE IT when you kill the action and drop off into the past.
The important thing to note here is that the flashbacks aren't an infodump - they're creating an emotional hologram that influences the perception of the present, instead of keeping things in a black and white simplicity.
This is really important because a lot of readers HATE IT when you kill the action and drop off into the past.
Octavia Butler's Kindred starts off with the end and she does is superbly. Her opening is a killer though, really exceptional. The protagonist's arm is gone, she's in the ED with her husband trying to convince the police her husband didn't do it, but she also can't explain exactly how it happened.
Cue the beginning of the story...
Cue the beginning of the story...