First, I will say that I know what day it is. Last year, I did a regular post and got a few private messages asking if I forgot what today is. I live in New York, grew up in New York, went to college in New York, and remember EXACTLY where I was and what I was doing when 9/11 happened. I talk to the friend I was with every year about it since we walked to the same anthropology class that day only to find it was canceled. As faded as the images are in my head, I still remember the facts and emotions. Now, let’s get to some tips about writing a story with two eras.
Decide on which one is going to be the centerpiece. As important as it is to give each time period enough time, one is going to be seen as the present. The other will be either the past or future. Normally, it’s the present with scenes of the past showing how events unfolded. This is easier because people mind’s work this way with foreshadowing, but it can be done the other way if you want.
While the characters don’t have to act the same in both time periods, there has to be some consistency. If they are entirely different from each other then readers will have trouble connecting them. At the very least, you need to give hints that a big event happens to change them completely. Even so, trauma doesn’t always erase a person’s personality completely. There could be some flickers of their old self that comes through to forge the connection.
While time doesn’t have to be equally divided between eras, you can’t spend too much on one if you want them both to tell a story. Otherwise, the past will be nothing more than brief flashbacks instead of solid stories. If you focus more on the past, the present will be flashforwards that simply tell the readers who survives and how the focused events will unfold. For example, already knowing the world is going to end means any actions taken to stop it in the past are doomed to fail or cause it to happen.
Remember that locations change over time too. If you’re having a large span of time between eras, you need to make sure places that appear in both look different. Even slight changes are important. Think about where you live and consider how many stores have appeared and gone out of business. The weather pattern might have changed or even the general demographic. This is normal without the effect of cataclysmic events.
Obvious tip: Foreshadowing is important and NEEDS payoff.
The two time periods don’t need identical plots. The one the chronologically comes first can be different with hints that it is leading into whatever is the next stage of the adventure. This is similar to a story having a sequel or prequel, but you’re telling both at the same time. Again, a difficult balancing act, but one that is possible if you make sure to retain continuity even if it’s just with editing. An example of this could be the past story is about a quest while the present story is about survival.
Here’s part of one of my favorite battles in Quest of the Brokenhearted. Coming up with fun and unique fights for Kira Grasdon was a challenge. Thankfully, monsters have a lot of versatility if you don’t stick to the traditionals.
A few months back, I watched a show on Amazon called ‘Fallout’ It was about characters in a post-apocalyptic landscape with the three protagonists having their own stories, which converge. There were also scenes about the past events leading up to the nuclear explosions, which focused on the guy above. He survived the events to become ‘The Ghoul’, so he’s a big POV character. Through him, we get to see the story of the past run alongside the story of the present. Not an easy feat to pull off.
I’m also reminded of the Netflix ‘Resident Evil’ show from last year, which a friend and I watched. We went in with hope and left with . . . ugh. It attempted the same thing with the past being shown to explain the present through one character. Unfortunately, the character wasn’t portrayed as relatable as one would want. There were inconsistencies in behavior and more interesting characters surrounding her as a kid. As an adult, she seemed to make one mistake after another to get the plot moving, which undid the whole ‘smart child’ part we were watching. It really didn’t help that we spent most of the series in the past with blips of the present until near the end when it switched without much warning.
So, you now have an example of it working and not working. What was different?
In my opinion, it had a lot to do with continuity and time:
With ‘Fallout’, the scenes from the past explained the future and didn’t create any inconsistencies. You only see one main character (Cooper/Ghoul) in both time periods and the past shows how him became the darker version. He might not be the same in terms of mentality, but you can see how he got there. In ‘Resident Evil’, it doesn’t feel like the character you see as a child was anything like the adult version. Perhaps both of them making mistakes and ‘dues ex machina’-ing their way out of dying is something, but it felt like two character in two unrelated stories. Sudden personality changes seemed to happen as well, which wasn’t the case with ‘Fallout’. Continuity was maintained in one, but not the other.
By time, I mean the amount of attention given to each time period. ‘Fallout’ spent enough time in the past in most episodes to set up the bulk of the action within the present. There was maybe one episode that was predominantly past to clear up a lot of mysteries, but it worked. The reason is because it answered questions the audience already had thanks to foreshadowing. You didn’t feel like you were abruptly yanked from one time period to another as well . . . That’s kind of what ‘Resident Evil’ did. In fact, my friend and I agreed that it felt like the present, more action-oriented story interrupted the more dramatic past story. They didn’t mesh and were almost at war with each other for importance. It was almost like the creators feared not getting a second season, so they combined two seasons into one and made a mess.
It was nice to see that the ‘two eras at one time’ story could work. I was afraid after ‘RE’ that it was something that simply couldn’t be done. All it requires is patience, balance, and continuity. I’ll touch more on it Wednesday with a tip post. For now, what do you think about this type of story? Do you like getting two eras at the same time or would you rather one be a prequel/first story?
I know I’ve been doing a lot of holidays, but good ones keep coming up. Also, school started and things are busy. Today, I’m bringing a really important holiday to you, which I think more people need to be aware of.
Literacy is very important to future success. As you can see from the infograph I found with a Google Image Search, most of those who can’t read end up in jail or at least on welfare. So, how can one help an adult who has this problem?
I found a list on Readingpatch that can answer this, but here is the quick list:
Build a rapport with the person. Similar to children, there is a confidence issue, so you need to make a connection first. This creates trust and understanding from both parties. A rapport can also reveal an undiagnosed reading disorder like dyslexia.
Contrary to what fiction says, do NOT start an adult with children’s books. They may be easier and seem safer, but there is a humiliation factor.
Connected to the previous entries is that you need to build their confidence. Praise as much as possible.
Reading aloud like we do with children can be another source of humiliation. Use reading programs, which can create some privacy.
So, what do you think can be done to help with the literacy rates across the globe? Do we teach reading incorrectly in some countries?
The title pretty much sums it all up. Students at my school started on Tuesday and my son started on Wednesday. I got a little time with him Tuesday night after 10 days of not seeing him, but I get real time with him this weekend. Think that absence weighed on me a lot and added to the stress.
Thankfully, the students had a good week and only a few blips, but nothing major. My biggest challenge is having lunch at 1:30 PM since I have breakfast at 6 AM. Snacking between resulted in the vending machine, so I need to get better snacks to stash in the classroom. Stuff that the kids and a few coworkers won’t eat, which is why I’m going with apples. I’m trying to do mostly zero sugar protein drinks for lunch as well in the hopes of losing some weight. Not every day, but maybe 3 of them. Probably a good thing that lunch is my biggest challenge for now, which means our students are taking to the new schedule and classroom really well.
School starting later and ending later has thrown me off. I end up having an hour and 15 minutes between dropping my son off and needing to start. No point in going home, so I went in thinking I could rest in the faculty lounge with a notebook. Seems a lot of people show up their old time anyway, which means I can’t find a place to write or read. Might go into the classroom next week. Another thing I started doing was Pokemon Go in the park on the days I didn’t have to bring my son into school. I leave at 6:30 instead of sitting around the house and get exercise in. 20-30 minutes is a pretty good time to get a few things done in the game, but this will have to stop once it gets cold or the weather isn’t agreeable. Malls don’t open until 10 AM, which means winter is going to pose a problem.
Honestly, I really tired and appointments being added on top of the start of school/work didn’t help. Getting twitchy since I can’t get to my notebooks or Darwin & the Demon Game. That book has been printed out and sitting on a table since June, but time has not been on my side. Determined to start it next weekend at least since I’ll have the house to myself for a while. We’ll see how that goes since cooking, mowing the lawn, and various errands will have to get done first. The new school hours combined with the appointments don’t give me much time in the afternoon/evening. If I can get most of the food shopping done this weekend then I should be in a good place for writing. That should be the overall goal this month.
I was about to say that I made no progress this week, but I almost forgot that last weekend wasn’t about writing. Knowing that time would be limited, I put a lot of time and money into making my son’s Halloween costume. Only the gloves remain to be put together while the wig and belt are on the way. The shirt was the hardest part because it was first and I’m not good at sewing. So, I had to keep failing and trying again. By the time I reached the jacket, I had a better idea of what I was doing. Thankful for that since that required turning it from a long sleeve into a short sleeve, which was daunting. The fur collar was an unexpected creation to counter the original plan’s removable collar. Here are some pictures of the character and finished products:
Rimuru Tempest
At least I got some creative outlet. This school year is going to make writing difficult, so it might take me the entire year to finish editing Darwin & the Demon Game and Darwin & the Beast Collector. My hope is to get the first one edited before holiday break and I can type it in during that time. Then, I’ll get the second one edited before spring break and type it in then. This would me I tackle Darwin & the Joy Path by next summer. Not ideal or anything close to great, but it looks like my author time is going to get less and less. Feel like I’m in a position where it’s time to either give up for a few years or continue suffering. The blog is getting harder to maintain as well, which means this is going to be a dangerous year in terms of my creative outlets. Really hope I can utilize the mornings at some point to at least get notebook and editing done. I might set up blog posts while my son does homework too.
That’s pretty much it. Next week is a full one of school and living. What are the goals?
Spend time with son.
Errands to make sure we have food for dinners.
Cook dinners.
Start editing Darwin & the Demon Game.
Tinker with ‘Phi Beta Files’ if possible.
Set up more November blog posts.
Maintain 7+ hours of sleep a night.
Play Pokemon Go to get some exercise every day.
Hydrate! Didn’t do this well and my guts were killing me by Friday.
