Questions 3: When Events Happen at the Same Time

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I was going to make this a long post about the topic, but I think I’m going to open the floor to other authors.

Similar to jumping timelines, a story can have events going on at the same time, but in different locations. This always has the challenge of timing, especially if they are going to influence each other. For example, you can’t have a character blow up a dam at night and the other one deal with the immediate flood in the afternoon. Much of this can be fixed in editing by changing the setting, but you still have to remember information from one event to carry over to the next. Even a conversation between characters explaining what they did can be tricky.

I did this in Tribe of the Snow Tiger where most of the heroes were handling the main adventure in one area and the other three were on a small adventure somewhere else. My tactic was to give a few chapters to the focal story and then give one to the other one at a point where you could step away. This seems like a common method and it works as long as one story is more essential than the other. Can’t see two equally important stories doing this without one coming up short. You can’t swap every chapter either because that would just be choppy. Maybe for that, you would have to create separate books/short stories and simply match up the timelines. Seems safer to do that than risk destroying both ideas.

So, let’s open the floor:

How do you handle simultaneous events?
What is the best handling of the situation that you have read/seen?
What aspect of writing do you think should be focused on with this? (setting, timeline, character development, etc.)

About Charles Yallowitz

Charles E. Yallowitz was born, raised, and educated in New York. Then he spent a few years in Florida, realized his fear of alligators, and moved back to the Empire State. When he isn't working hard on his epic fantasy stories, Charles can be found cooking or going on whatever adventure his son has planned for the day. 'Legends of Windemere' is his first series, but it certainly won't be his last.

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10 Responses to Questions 3: When Events Happen at the Same Time

L. Marie says:

September 13, 2024 at 10:37 am
1. In one book, I have three protagonists. To keep the events of their lives straight, I used a calendar to keep track of their days.
2. If by the situation you mean handling multiple characters and events, Star Trek: Prodigy (Netflix) handled everything beautifully. Seasons 1 and 2 juggle multiple characters across more than one timeline.
3. I think authors (not all of them; just some) sometimes concentrate on plot points without fully thinking about the logistics of them. An author needs to know the setting, the timeline, especially how long it takes for the characters to move about. Sadly, I’ve edited books where it was obvious that the author didn’t keep track of the timeframe of the story. He or she used phrases like “a week later,” “two days later,” “a month later,” etc. but didn’t check the accuracy of those statements. As their editor, I had to write down all of the story events and then determine, based on the story’s start date, whether everything added up. When they didn’t, that meant a rewrite. Another issue is when people write historical fiction about real people, but don’t check the internet for the actual days. Don’t tell me that on Friday, August 15, 1863, such and such happened. I can search on Google to find that August 15, 1863 was a Saturday.
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- Charles Yallowitz says:
  
  September 13, 2024 at 11:23 am
  
  I’ve done that mistake with timing. Learned to do an editing run based around progression of time. That way I clean up the timeline. Having the 4 moons of Windemere be connected to seasons helps with time and weather too.
  
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  - L. Marie says:
    
    September 13, 2024 at 11:32 am
    
    That’s helpful! 😊
    
    I also messed up the timeline! That’s why I caution people to check the days. It’s less embarrasing for the author to check than for the editor or a reader to do it!
    
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L. Marie says:

September 13, 2024 at 10:38 am

Sorry about the length of that comment!

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V.M.Sang says:

September 14, 2024 at 5:42 am
1. I had this problem. I used a pen and paper to jot down the timeline of one storyline, then jotted down the timeline of the second and made sure they matched.
2. I can’t think of any off the top of my head, except for Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. Whenever a group splits, there will be this problem. If it doesn’t jar with the reader, then it works. Robert Jordan devoted several chapters to each group, if I remember correctly.
3. Timeline is the most important, I think. Setting might be in different parts of the world, so be very different. In one of my own series, I had to get the moon phases right, though. That was tricky!
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- Charles Yallowitz says:
  
  September 14, 2024 at 7:23 am
  
  I had to do this on a smaller level with a few of my books. The end of ‘Legends of Windemere’ had this too because Book 14 events occurred at the same time was 13 and 15. They had to all come together in time for 15’s final act too. Never made a full timeline though, but I had notes in my outlines to create a temporal markers to keep things flowing.
  
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DebyFredericks says:

September 14, 2024 at 10:57 am

This makes me think of my novel Too Many Princes. In the first draft, the main character Brastigan went on a quest and things happened while he was gone. When he returned, he was blind-sided. To me this was really bad story telling.

I ended up having his sister Therula who stayed behind witness those things. I also had his brother Lottres tell parts of the POV because they split forces along the way and readers also needed to know what was happening with Lottres.

This would seem like it made the story too complicated, but it created more tension because the reader knew what Brastigan was walking into and they knew why Lottres was almost too late to the war.

It really comes down to the scope of the tale. If important things are happening, there has to be a POV to witness it for the reader. Hearing gossip or a news report later would just not be as good.

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- Charles Yallowitz says:
  
  September 14, 2024 at 12:36 pm
  
  I’m reminded of The Odyssey, which somebody mentioned on another post. That story may be a great guideline for this kind of thing.
  
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coldhandboyack says:

September 15, 2024 at 7:58 am

I alway struggle with bits of this. When I wrote The Playground, I headed each chapter with the character name so readers could keep up. It wound up being three stories that came together for the final chapters. Those who gave it a chance liked it.

I struggle with some of this in almost every story. I want a couple of points of view for the same event. I even considered splitting the page one time and having each side relay the same event until it was over. I could probably do that in The Hat Series, because that’s where I do all the crazy things.

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- Charles Yallowitz says:
  
  September 15, 2024 at 8:37 am
  
  Splitting the page sounds tricky. Not sure I’m brave enough to attempt that.
  
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