The protag has a memory problem (for reasons I can't say) and I have three choices on how to tell the story:

a) Tell the modern story and have the past interspersed as flashbacks as his memory returns(The past is a BIG story so flashbacks will need to be short chapters in length).
b)Tell the modern story and past story as two seperate threads that join at the end.
c)Tell the story from start (past) to finish as it happened...but this ruins the memory problem (which he will still have). It gives the reader too much info and takes away from the unfolding of story and the reveal.

My question really is it alright to have chapter length flash backs/dreams? They would represent about one to two fifths of the book (yes...a novel) Do you end one chapter with... and then write the dream chapter in italics?

Thoughts?

Another option is the one Roger Zelazny chose for his first Amber book, "Nine Princes in Amber." The protag in the story has a memory problem, and his memory isn't recovered until almost halfway through an 80K novel. But... he then recovers his memory, and he is able to remember the disconnect of the 400 years that he spent on earth before returning to Amber and shadow.

Either way, it will probably be a challenge, but likely worthwhile.

How do I then indicate the flashback/dream chapters. I htought of just putting them in like another timeline and have the MC refer to them, (to clue the reader in shortly after the first one) that he dreamed these strange events...

The dream timeline isn't as convienient as Berlin 1944...I wish it was.

Hmm. Well, there must be some differences between the timelines that would be obvious to the reader - from futuristic spacestation, jump back to paleolithic men in a cave, leap back to the space station, then back again to feudal Europe, lather rinse repeat.Specific characters that only exist in one timeline or another would be a good way to go - your readers would know that when your MC is talking to Jefferson, he's in the past, but when he's speaking to Dr. Himmelfarb, he's in the future.

Go out on a limb and trust your readers to be able to tell the difference between 4 million years ago and today. If there aren't enough differences between 4 million years ago and today that a reader couldn't tell, then why the jumping through time?

She was telling the story of the childhood and adulthood of the same character, who had a different name as an adult. I think, if I remember correctly, that the two timelines dealt with a parallel conflict, so there was a clever structure to the whole thing.

The thing that was irritating was that the adult character knew how the childhood timeline turned out, but never thought about it even though we were in his point of view--which I consider cheating on the part of the author.

Anyway, if your two timelines are so very different in setting, it will be clearer to the reader and you won't have that particular problem. You might want to get Rusch's book to see how she did it (and how well I have recalled it, for that matter--I read it several years ago).

Let's go back to the problem with how far back the flashback / dreams go. You say you don't want to tell the reader:

quote:

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4.2 million years ago; 4.1999 million years ago; 4.001 million years ago

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But chances are that your dream / flashback sequences are going to be sequential. You may not want the reader to know exactly what you're doing until the end, but you also don't want the reader confused about the sequence of the events (i.e., coming to the next dream chapter and being confused about when it falls in relation to the others).

Also, is it important for your reader to notice that 100 years go by, then 198,900 years? This suggests either time travel, immortality, or totally unrelated events.

I know that doesn't quite apply since your character can't remember. Something else Bell said is, don't write a flashback all in ... hmm, I forget what tense it is... Here's a (terrible) example:

Carl had been running toward the castle. He picked up a spear and threw it at the goblin. (Continue in past tense for the rest of the scene. Then write the last sentence with HAD BEEN again.) It had been the worst day of the war.

The time line is as follows (and the gaps are important--and the reader needs to know some gaps are only a thousand years and others are a few million))

6million years ago--first event.
A thousand years after--second event.
A year after--third event
A million years later--fourth event.
4 million years--fifth event.
(Yes-the events are sequential)

Then it moves to the present.(The majority of the story)

I wanted to intersperse the modern day chapter's between the earlier events.

My main problem is how to represent the time changes without spinning the readers head and confusing them.

e.g.

6 million years ago
Modern
5999000 years ago
Modern
5998999 years ago
modern

etc, etc...

I am 25k into a novel with a similar structure(problem?)

My novel starts with a new conflict arising in the present for a character who has a storied past. The first chapter introduces the characters, the present situation, and the coming conflict.

Chapter two (and every second chapter) goes (way) back to the beginning to explain how the main character got to the present situation. The backstory will play out in parallel to the frontstory until they meet near the end of the book.(I know parallels don't meet but you get me).

I have been writing the novel in a back and forth manner, with alternating chapters of Frontstory/backstory/Frontstory/etc. ...

My question is, will this structure be sustainable or should I package the past in bursts of memory, dreams, conversations and the like. MrsBrown suggested bracketing a memory with a strong visual trigger, which I did for the first infodump of expository backstory, but I abandoned that for now wanting to finish writing the novel.

My inclination right now is to plow ahead and finish the story in its present form and revise it as needed. This has worked alright so far as each chapter resonates with the others because they were conceived and born around the same time, but if a better idea comes up I can change course in mid story.

What are other people's thoughts on this? Are you annoyed following two stories at once or can they both be sustained and still satisfy?

Cheyne said, "MrsBrown suggested bracketing a memory with a strong visual trigger, which I did for the first infodump of expository backstory"

Bell presented the sensory trigger so the backstory can be written as an action scene. I assume that is your approach, but thought it worth mentioning. (I'm the new student reveling in new knowledge.)

Skadder, 6 million vs 4 million vs 1 million don't seem like important distinctions--anything could happen in a million years, right? Could your character really keep track of time on that kind of scale? Never mind, I know you don't want to say. Good luck!

My goal was to start "Five Years Ago" and then eventually merge the character's timeline with the MC's timeline (they would meet).

Here are some ideas I had - may or may not work, so take them for what they're worth.

One idea I had was to do identify the chapters two different ways - one in Arabic numerals (present) and the other in Roman (past). Not sure how distracting that would be. I guess that's the same simply naming the chapters. I scratched the idea and am now trying to incorporate the flashbacks into the story.

Another idea was to begin all of the flashback chapters with a quote or italicized passage (sentence or two) - something that identifies it to the reader, but is also interesting. I never quite figured out exactly how to do it, but I may explore it later.

I also have an unfinished time travel story where I simply put the dates in. It spans only about 20 years, so it probably works better for me than for you since your story takes place over millions of years. I also put a sort-of chapter title along with the date to help the reader follow. Not sure how it's going to work out.