posted
You know the movie "Groundhog Day?" It starred Bill Murray and had him going through the day over and over and over and over again.
In a story, how would one write that WITH another storyline that's happening? Like...what if Groundhog Day's story were to be told as Bill Murray's family struggle to find out what to do with him?
I guess, to put it simply...how does one write a story where one plot is looping with time and the other passes normally in time? Is there a precedence to this that I could look at?
posted
I would use chapter switches. All the odd chapters are Bill Murray and all the even ones are the "outside world." And leave it at that, if you write it with a convention in mind it won't take a reader long to figure out what is going on, based on the virtue of the story itself.
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posted
I don't see the purpose of this time-switching plot device you've explained here. Each loop through the day Bill Murray takes changes him subtly, as he explores the limits of the situation he is in. He is changing, the day is not. If his family were struggling what to do with him, does that mean, what to do with him after each cycle? Or, are we assuming that his family was getting him after each loop was finished, and they deal with the "Bill Murray" character as he is after that loop? Then he goes and does another loop and they try to adjust to the changes he just experienced going through another loop? That's a bit of a paradox, frankly.
How can they react to the changes in normal non-looping time, when he never truly emerges from looping time until the end of the movie? Or are we to assume that the family scenes all take place in separate planes of existence, where after each loop one copy goes off and lives his life, and another copy loops again?
I'm getting dizzy, and this sounds like a too complicated idea to pull off.
posted
Haha excellent point. I assume, though, that bill murray's story is simply analogous to something he's trying to do that would be a monumental effort to explain in thoroughd etail here.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume you have your reasons for wanting to write what you are trying to write.
posted
I had something that was similar. I had two characters who were to meet at a certain place at about mid-story . . . two journeys. One journey took a week or two and the other, two years. I did alternating viewpoints; one journey with sweeping chapters and the other, more nitty gritty. Along the way, there were hints that the meeting was to take place, even though the reason was unknown to either character. There were tricky bits (including adhering to my own rule of strict alternation of viewpoints). However, it was enjoyable.
I chose first person since the characters interacted for half the story; having two characters in first person POV gave the advantage of complete access to both characters while avoiding the omni "feel." This might not be a consideration for your story, since it seems your characters will not directly interact except, perhaps, at the end.
posted
This book would be the fourth in my series of five books called "Light in the Dark."
Well, yeah, it really doesn't have much to do with Groundhog Day. The main character of the looping story finds himself in an underground world that mimics famous events (ex: World War II, French Revolution), mythological events (ex: pulling out the Sword in the Stone, fighting Medusa) and biblical events (parting of the red sea) using clones of the population in the real world. He is given the task to keep every single person in this world from dying. Every time he fails, he must escape through this tear in time to return back to the beginning.
The looping part of the story is an adventure with a mystery as the main character tries to figure out what's going on. The other story that happens at the same time is what's happening to another character who is also investigating a number of odd happenings.
Sorry if this post didn't clarify what I was trying to do...its the best way I can think of to summarize it>.>
posted
Kurt Vonnegut wrote a lovely little story called Slaughterhouse 5 that starts with the line that MC got unstuck in time...interesting exploration of a similar concept, perhaps.
Not sure it's any help, but it's what I thought of. Good luck!
I never would have thought of Slaughterhouse Five, nice one, Kayti! If that's not what you're looking for, what about the concept of Elvish time (I'm thinking Irish here, not Tolkien). Where a human being that wanders into their home experiences a few hours and comes back out and years have passed?
posted
I can only think of a few examples of a character living an endless short time loop---"Groundhog Day," a TV movie called "12:01" that came out about the same time, and a "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode. (I can recall a couple of things with people reliving larger periods, or their whole lives, but that kinda falls outside of the basic situation.)
Seems to me there is no outside beyond the character who perceives (or multiple characters who also perceive) the time loop and its effects. Bill Murray et. al. live their lives in a linear fashion---everybody else is looped, and, to them, there is only the problem in relating to someone who knows what will happen in the period Bill Murray and company are stuck in.
("Groundhog Day" is an old favorite. I might've missed it altogether if it hadn't come free for buying a laserdisc player back in the early nineties before DVDs. I liked its philosophic---rather than scientific / techinical---exploration of what it might actually be like to live one day over and over again, going from frightening (as he realizes it's happening) to intriguing (as he realizes the possibilities) to boring (as he realizes the limitations) and even to tragic (as he grapples with both possibilities and limitations.))
posted
I've used it in groups - its a humorous look at what happens when we do the same things over and over again expecting different results. When he begins changing himself, instead of trying to find ways to change other people, everything falls into place.
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posted
2 recent movies come to mind - Deja Vu and Next, but the characters outside our "looper" never really know that the past is being changed. There was also a short tv show on abc last year during the holiday gap in Lost(can anyone remember the name?), where the main character kept going back trying to fix the day, but the other characters were only reacting to what he was doing at the time, and were not aware of the changes.
Is the 2nd character who is investigating the odd occurences (detective?) doing this at the end of each loop, and unaware of the loops and changes, or is he just at the end of the last loop, when the MC has finally succeeded, and the detective is sorting through the odd things that occured in the final reality? The latter would be best for me. At the end of each loop, have the detective puzzling over some effect of the FINAL loop, but when you write it, do it in such a way that the part he is examining was part of the most recent loop. In this way, the detective could give hints of what is to come. (Hope I made sense...)
posted
There was an episode of the X-Files like this. A woman kept going through the same day and couldn't communicate this to anyone. I think the end result for her was that she kept getting murdered. Agent Mulder was always a part of it, but he didn't know the day was repeating, so he had to try to help this lady that, to his point of view, was probably crazy.
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SG-1 also did this but with a quick reference. SG-1 and Earth was looping through the same 18 hour or so interval. The "outside" world was trying to reach them. There is a one line reference at the end of the episode to the Tokra trying to reach Earth for 3 months. So "real" time passed for those outside the loop.
It could work if you treat all time as the same. So a minute in the "loop" world is the same as one out of it. I suspect each "world" needs to be a seprate chapter and somehow you are going to have to convey the time pass.
something like - loop world - 48 hours or second iteration of the day. Nonloop - 2 days later.
posted
Groundhog Day is one of my all time favorite movies, which is saying something since I can't stand Andie McDowell.
There was a novel a few years back, I remember reading the dust jacket, but I don't remember if I read it or not.
The premise was that there was a catastrophic cosmic event that basically reset time by some 10 years, maybe 20, and now EVERYONE was reliving that same period and at the same time they were aware of the previous timeline on some level.
I don't recall whether they were reliving the same events and unable to change them or whether they were reliving the period, able to make changes and then having to reconcile two radically different memories of events as the previous timeline and the current one diverged.
posted
Someone above said "this sounds like a too complicated idea to pull off."
I'll step up onto my soapbox long enough to say that in writing, as in life, there are (lots) of "can't do" people, and (very few) "can do" people. The can't do people never do; the can do people sometimes make it work. Solution-oriented thinking can solve just about any problem--and that's experience talking, not just rhetoric. The groundhog-day-from-a-different perspective sounds really entertaining--I'll volunteer in advance to crit you if you want or need it.
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