4 LINKING TWO TIME FRAMES

POST NO. 4

LINKING THE TWO TIME PERIODS

Each of us has a different path in life, yet we are all actors in life’s story.  How we choose to play our role is what makes the difference.

My two protagonists, Ellie & Emmaline must take control of their lives or others will control their destiny.

Once I had established the theme I used it to guide my story line. However, I have learned the hard way that starting out with a theme is not enough. A well thought out structural plan saves endless hours of re-hashing.

Initially I wrote scenes which I incorporated into chapters. These were mostly written as they came to me so were not necessarily in any order.

The historical portion of the novel was a stand-alone story. However, the contemporary part, featuring Ellie, had to be linked in. The first obstacle I had to overcome lay in deciding when & how I would interweave the two stories. To achieve this I virtually separated out all the chapters and then linked them together again, rather like a literary jigsaw. These transitional links had to be achieved in such a way, that ultimately, the fabric of the story would appear to be seamless.

On many occasions the reader was whisked from one century to the other at a crucial phase. In doing this I utilized Sol Stein’s tactic of never taking the reader where the reader wants to go. It's always good writing practice to end a chapter with a hook. The tricky bit is to achieve this without allowing the transition to appear contrived.