Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Okay, that was exhausting

In 'Brake Fluid', I use the spectacularly common triple-star to indicate a scene break

***

Which also indicates a swap between timelines.

The present timeline takes place in present tense, the party six months previously takes place in past tense.

...and so does the night Jackson died.

Most chapters swap between one and three times, and usually just between the two main timelines.

I've mostly been working on chapters 9 & 10 today. They are at a highly stressful point in the present timeline.

Chapter 9 (2,125 words) swaps eight times... almost all those switches are on the last page (out of 4 1/2 single spaced pages). This chapter is also the first time there's a *real* mention of the night Jackson died.

In Chapter 10, (currently at 1,270 words), how many times did I swap?

...fourteen times...

And since most of my chapters are in the 2,200-2,500 range...

...what does that tell you?



Ouch. I think I just hurt my brain...



Okay, never, never again do I write a story with multiple timelines...

2 comments:

  1. yeah I used them also in 1900 since i have scenes but not chapters

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, I've got scenes and chapters, but I figured they'd make a clear way of dividing up the timelines to make this... well, LESS mind-boggling... for me, and for future potential readers.

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Type me out a line of Shakespeare or a line of nonsense. Dumb-blonde-jokes & Irish jokes will make me laugh myself silly :)