Excellent post with some pragmatic suggestions. I am wrestling with something similar with my WIP. For those of you who like to experiment with structure, I recommend Joan Silber's craft book, "The Art of Time in Fiction." There's a good section on what she calls switchback time--moving back and forth between timelines in fiction.
I can relate! My current WIP (second attempt at a novel) started as a single timeline. Then I took a scene from near the end and put it at the beginning as a hook/prologue. Then I expanded the last approx. 20% to become its own timeline (because that hook/prologue actually made a pretty good inciting incident and there was a lot of potential). Then I realized that my earlier timeline (the initial 80%) did not have a good structure. 😭 (That realization you mentioned that BOTH timelines need to have all the ingredients of a good story.) So then I decided to cut a LOT from the earlier timeline and just have interspersed chapters from the past, which are not ordered chronologically. (That stage when you realize that one of your timelines is really 'just' backstory.) Does it work, though? My alpha readers largely seemed to think so. I hope they're right and an agent and editor one day agree... 😬
Thanks! I learned a lot during this process. And one of them is that I'm definitely a planner and NEXT time, I'll have some idea of how MUCH I need to plan and think about and evaluate before I start drafting! Waaaaaay more than I thought.
I'm a huge fan of spreadsheets. I've used several for my WiP (only a single timeline) and I think I've finally found the one that will help me reach the querying stage - and something I can use in later projects. Because it's a spreadsheet, I let it do the math for the 10% (catalyzing incident), 25% (1st turning point), 75% (2nd turning point) marks and so on. I just plug in the number of words for each chapter. For each chapter, I'm documenting each beat so that I know when I introduced a clue, or a character and other important points.
I’ve done something similar with my memoir. There’s only one timeline, but I was really struggling to get the A story and B story to come together. I used Save the Cat and ended up flipping the two stories, making the B story the A story…something I’d wanted to do but couldn’t see until I plotted the beats. It’s like magic, but also just really hard work and diligence.
Oooh so interesting. Thank you for sharing. I lovet hat you have a proper B story for your memoir. It's not something I've thought about, but you're right... even memoirs need a B plot! It really is hard work.
This was so interesting to read! My novel coming out in November has a different sort of 2 timelines: it switches back and forth, chapter by chapter, between a 12-year-old girl in 14th-century England, and a 35-year-old woman in twenty-first-century upstate NY. But I, too, struggled with pacing not only across the whole book, but within each distinct timeline. Yeah, I don't think I'll ever do it again either...
Love this. I'm working on my first novel and it has a dual timeline. Sometimes I wonder why I did this to myself! But then I see the stories fit, separate arcs and all, and I know that it's the only way I can tell this story.
I love this. It’s so hard but when it works it’s so compelling. As you write, are you alternating timelines? I think that makes it so much more difficult!!!!
I’m about halfway and so far I have alternated. Until now, it has flowed but I’m enough into each story where it’s becoming a lot of mental work to switch back and forth, so I have questioned this bit of the process. It’s the first book I’ve written so I have nothing to compare it to 😬😳
It's hard! If you already know both plots, maybe try writing them separately for a while (in two documents) and see if it makes it easier. I was able to see the story so much clearer when I did that!
Love this! I think my second novel will have a dual time line like this so reading your process feels so helpful even in this way too early stage haha but its good for my daydreaming!
This was very helpful, and a little intimidating, since I am envisioning a dual timeline structure for my next novel. And the B story (a group of high school kids in my case) sounds somewhat similar. Thanks!
Excellent post with some pragmatic suggestions. I am wrestling with something similar with my WIP. For those of you who like to experiment with structure, I recommend Joan Silber's craft book, "The Art of Time in Fiction." There's a good section on what she calls switchback time--moving back and forth between timelines in fiction.
Thank you for the rec! I will check it out for sure.
This process insight is so helpful. Again, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for reading!
I can relate! My current WIP (second attempt at a novel) started as a single timeline. Then I took a scene from near the end and put it at the beginning as a hook/prologue. Then I expanded the last approx. 20% to become its own timeline (because that hook/prologue actually made a pretty good inciting incident and there was a lot of potential). Then I realized that my earlier timeline (the initial 80%) did not have a good structure. 😭 (That realization you mentioned that BOTH timelines need to have all the ingredients of a good story.) So then I decided to cut a LOT from the earlier timeline and just have interspersed chapters from the past, which are not ordered chronologically. (That stage when you realize that one of your timelines is really 'just' backstory.) Does it work, though? My alpha readers largely seemed to think so. I hope they're right and an agent and editor one day agree... 😬
oh yeah this is very familiar! the trial and error method... totally legitimate and SO SO difficult. Good luck querying!!
Thanks! I learned a lot during this process. And one of them is that I'm definitely a planner and NEXT time, I'll have some idea of how MUCH I need to plan and think about and evaluate before I start drafting! Waaaaaay more than I thought.
I'm a huge fan of spreadsheets. I've used several for my WiP (only a single timeline) and I think I've finally found the one that will help me reach the querying stage - and something I can use in later projects. Because it's a spreadsheet, I let it do the math for the 10% (catalyzing incident), 25% (1st turning point), 75% (2nd turning point) marks and so on. I just plug in the number of words for each chapter. For each chapter, I'm documenting each beat so that I know when I introduced a clue, or a character and other important points.
Yes, I love this! good call letting the spreadsheet do the math for you! haha
I’ve done something similar with my memoir. There’s only one timeline, but I was really struggling to get the A story and B story to come together. I used Save the Cat and ended up flipping the two stories, making the B story the A story…something I’d wanted to do but couldn’t see until I plotted the beats. It’s like magic, but also just really hard work and diligence.
Oooh so interesting. Thank you for sharing. I lovet hat you have a proper B story for your memoir. It's not something I've thought about, but you're right... even memoirs need a B plot! It really is hard work.
Glad to hear I'm not the only one who despises "book math"!
hahahah!
Super helpful! Im definitely going to use this method for my novel (I don’t know why I tortured myself by writing a dual timeline for my debut!)
I KNOW. It does feel like torture sometimes. So much of the process is trial and error, but I hope reading about my errors will help!
This was so interesting to read! My novel coming out in November has a different sort of 2 timelines: it switches back and forth, chapter by chapter, between a 12-year-old girl in 14th-century England, and a 35-year-old woman in twenty-first-century upstate NY. But I, too, struggled with pacing not only across the whole book, but within each distinct timeline. Yeah, I don't think I'll ever do it again either...
That sounds amazing, and so so difficult! Congratulations 😃😃😃
Love this. I'm working on my first novel and it has a dual timeline. Sometimes I wonder why I did this to myself! But then I see the stories fit, separate arcs and all, and I know that it's the only way I can tell this story.
I love this. It’s so hard but when it works it’s so compelling. As you write, are you alternating timelines? I think that makes it so much more difficult!!!!
I’m about halfway and so far I have alternated. Until now, it has flowed but I’m enough into each story where it’s becoming a lot of mental work to switch back and forth, so I have questioned this bit of the process. It’s the first book I’ve written so I have nothing to compare it to 😬😳
It's hard! If you already know both plots, maybe try writing them separately for a while (in two documents) and see if it makes it easier. I was able to see the story so much clearer when I did that!
Great advice. Thank you!
Please keep me updated!
Love this! I think my second novel will have a dual time line like this so reading your process feels so helpful even in this way too early stage haha but its good for my daydreaming!
Yessss! I can’t wait to hear how it goes
This was very helpful, and a little intimidating, since I am envisioning a dual timeline structure for my next novel. And the B story (a group of high school kids in my case) sounds somewhat similar. Thanks!
Super similar. My advice is to draft each timeline separately. And if you can’t do that, definitely pull them
Into separate docs when you revise,
so you get a sense of each story!!
Thank you for this insight. It sounds like something that would do my head in! So now I’m worried… 😂🙏🙈 well done on figuring it out .
It almost did my head in! It also took MANY YEARS and MANY DRAFTS!!
Thanks for sharing your process. It’s good to be reminded of things that can slip through the cracks
Thank you!
I *love* reading about the nitty-gritty of process like this--the excel sheets, the timeline mapping!
Fascinating to learn your process. I am so excited to read this book!
Thank you!!