Photo Credit: LiseyKina, Dreamstime.com
Previously, I thought I had a way to portray dual timelines–vignettes. Now I know that they will work for some cases, but not for all. I have to use the best technique for story advancement. It may be a flashback. It may be one or more scenes. It could be a chapter. It could even be a vignette. I have to trust that the story will tell me which to use and where to use it.
Once again, I am calling upon my courage. I must break the rules–pledge my allegiance to the story instead of to writing convention. According to the Kirkus Review, breaking the rules worked for Sparks. Maybe I can do it a second time. Maybe I can do it even better this time. Or…maybe I’ll fall flat on my face. The only way to know is to try.
Both timelines in my new novel are strong stories. At first I thought to tell the full earlier story and make the suspense in the later story depend entirely upon the timing of the revelations of the events of the earlier story. Now I see that the novel will be much stronger if I tell the stories in parallel, with the climax of the first story driving directly into the climax of the later one. Visualizing it and putting it on paper are two separate things. I can see it. Now I have to write it. Aiming for another “TV ready” novel. 🙂
