In particular, I'm torn as to where I draw the line between good character history that the author should know, but not necessarily mention. In my case, the MC is by far the most interesting and unique person in the book, but he is rarely a POV character - he's something of a spy, and all of my test readers have enjoyed being surprised by him most of the time, but in on the deceptions in key instances. His struggles and successes in childhood, though are such key parts of who he is that I want the reader to experience them. A few of my test readers have really enjoyed the childhood scenes, so I'd like to keep them in somehow.
How do you piece together background in a firsthand fasion in a way that keeps a reader happy? When is it info-dumping, and when does it enhance the story that is in the "present" of the book - which I'm sure has to be the more interesting of the two timelines, mainly to prevent the feeling of the present timeline being just a "and here's where the characters eneded up" at the end of a movie.
I figure a good way would be to work out the full biography of the POV character, from ancestry and birth up to the last time you lay eyes on him in the story...then figure out which stretches go into the story you're writing and where. (I say "a good way," though I've never been able to do it myself.)
In my example, some scenes I wrote show how he realized he wanted to become a spy of sorts, and how he met some of the characters he interacts with in the present, but the actions aren't part of the main plotline in the present day of the book. The have influences on the present, but I would hesitate to call them part of the story.
micmcd - maybe you could tie in what he is doing as a child into his actions as a spy - I don't recall any story taking that approach and it sounds like it would be a fun concept.
You can probably find some events in the child's life that tie in to the later story, even if they merely explain a skill, behavior or flaw of the character.
I think it's workable. I suppose I was more wondering if there are some easy gotchas that people know of from others who have tried and failed to incorporate child/adult past/present storylines. I've only read a few examples in published works, and those went quite well, but it's the kind of storytelling device that I could easily see being misused.
As a contrast, I know the silly pitfalls of bad description and classic examples of tell vs show. "Bob was scared of the ghost and was too afraid to run." vs "Bob fell back into the corner, his eyes fixated on the pulsating wisp floating like the breath of a tomb. He wanted nothing in the world but to flee, but he couldn't force himself to move."
Does anyone know of a few cardinal sins of parallel timelines, particularly when used with the protagonist as a child and then as an adult?
Pat
mute - 1. not speaking; silent--adj 2. unable to speak--n 1. a deaf mute 2. a device that softens the sound of a musical instrument
I know it's not science fiction or fantasy, but the best example of parallel timelines that I've ever read was Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud. The author was a master of intertwining the two from going from present day back to over 1000 years into the past. She knew her history, did all the research, and wrote the book. Although it is more a mystery than anything else, it's well worth the read.
[This message has been edited by Crystal Stevens (edited November 08, 2008).]
Nicola Griffiths' Nebula-award-winning book, SLOW RIVER, has three timelines, and she did a masterful job of making the timeline changes absolutely clear.
A child suffering from mutism often is perfectly capable of speaking, and furthermore often does so at home, but usually not in a public setting. It does not correspond with a lack of confidence. In fact, such a child is often very much in command in a setting where they refuse to speak (though are often expected to do so), such as at school.
http://neurology.health-cares.net/mutism.php
"Mutism is the inability or unwillingness to speak"
"The child has the ability to converse normally, and does so, for example, in the home, but consistently fails to speak in specific situations such as at school or with strangers. It is estimated that one in every 1,000 school-age children
are affected."
I am indeed worried about the cardinal sin of confusing the reader about what is past and what is present. I'm hoping that making it obvious that in one setting/timeline, the characters are children, and in the other they are adults, this is made pretty clear. I was hoping to avoid the bluntness of printing a date at the beginning of each chapter, and I think I'll be able to do so.
Out of curiosity, has anyone ever read a book where timelines were done in a confusing manner, or the child/adult parallel storylines failed? Sometimes a negative example can be even more powerful than a positive one... we always want to write like a good published author, but I have have several occasions myself where I saw something dreadful and realized I had a few of the same mistakes in my own writing.
The author may have felt it wasn't necessary, or even edited the ages out under the idea that they were boring, but I was a little frustrated by it because the chapters were not inserted in a consistent order, and I wanted to know which incidents/scenes happened in what order.
The book was WHEN CRICKET CRY by Charles Martin, and it was very good in spite of the above frustration.
The gist of the post was that although Holes has a rotten premise, it very well-written. It's a YA story, and I think it's well worth looking at if you want a simple story with multiple timelines.
Melanie
[This message has been edited by Unwritten (edited November 10, 2008).]
Another thing to think about is whether the character is experiencing the time jumps with you, in the form of flashbacks. He sees a person or an object that reminds him of something, the scene ends there, and begins the next scene in the earlier time, for instance.
I'm currently reading a story that doesn't have exactly the dual time line idea you're referring to, but is a similar idea with a little more blurred boundary. It's Duma Key by Stephen King. The first 100 pages or so were a little confusing to me (but still good), because the character is telling the whole thing in first person after years and years of events, and they're not totally in order. This makes sense, given the story, he has brain damage and the character's memory is very associative, jumping from topic to seemingly unrelated topic and not necessarily in chronological order. Later on the storytelling becomes much more linear.
The point of the earlier chapters is to get into the head of the MC a little and understand how he became the way he is. It also gives a little bit more time for the story to be focused exclusively on him.
Is that a danger though? I didn't particularly plan to go through the lives of the other major characters - few of them are as interesting as the MC and many of them have more "standard" childhoods. This isn't the story of a childhood group of friends who grow up to work together, (like King's IT). Some of the characters knew each other as children, and that childhood background plays a small part in how they know each other as adults, but it isn't a focus of the plot.
My idea in keeping it focused on the main character (shameless plug** whom you can interview in the Character interviews board on Hatrack) was to give that storyline almost a feel of its own, rather than using glimpses of the past to explain a mystery in the future.
Will readers then expect to see a glimpse from the childhood of all the main characters? Will they expect to see the villain at this time frame? The MC has no interaction with the villain as a child, and the villain is 1 generation older than the "heroes" anyhow.
Hmm... interesting.
That being said, doing that would be difficult. You'd have to be very careful how you did it. I don't think I could pull it off at this point in my career..
And I don't think showing the childhood of one character implies that you need to go through the childhood of others. The fact that you're doing only the one might imply to a reader that this character is the most important to the story. As opposed to King's IT, where each of the six adults was equally important, so you want to get details about each of their childhoods.