Question about writing when the story takes place over a long time

[kaitie]

Long title, sorry about that. Okay, I'm not sure if this is the right place for this or not, but I also am not sure what genre this book would be.

Anyway, let's see if I can explain. Basically, I've had an idea for ages for a book. I've written bits and pieces of it, did a scene from it as a short story for a class once and even managed to win a contest with it. That can be seen here if you are interested:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4095595#post4095595

Without going into too much detail, the story is about a man who becomes a murderer in his late teens and ends up on the run. He is essentially a serial killer, and half of the story is from his point of view and the other half is from the man who is trying to catch him. The thing is, there are often many years between the murders, and the story itself takes place at the shortest over about 10 years, and at the longest, more like 20.

This is where said short story comes in. I wouldn't use it in that exact form in the novel, btw, but I would like to have certain scenes in Daniel's life (the murderer) shown because they are incredibly important. For instance, this scene where his father almost kills his mother leads directly to his first murder. That murder itself is also a scene that I would be interested in having in the novel. I also want to approach the early years of his living on the run and his relationship with his wife.

The main reason I haven't written this yet is because I have yet to figure out a good way to tell a story that covers such a long period. I had an idea yesterday for a really good way to start it and a way of putting a time jump in between two parts that would seem pretty natural (and nothing much happens in that time period). I'm pretty happy with this new idea, but essentially what it's doing is cutting down the story and only showing a couple of years. Which means I basically lose all of the motivation scenes and a few of the scenes with the most impact.

I'm trying to work out a way to do this with flashbacks, and even considering telling the story out of chronological order through time skips, and I'm wondering what people think of that sort of thing. Would it bother you if each chapter took place at a different time, with a few coming back to present? Have you read any books that do a good job of jumping time or inserting flashbacks that you could recommend? Or should I just consider leaving out all of this stuff in general?

Sorry for the long post. This has bugged me off and on for years, and I've tried to write the story out five or six times and never gotten very far because I could never sort out this problem. Any suggestions would be incredibly helpful. Thanks in advance. :)

[Cliff Face]

Hmm... I personally don't like the idea of every chapter being a different time (non-chronologically) - that is to say, I think it could work if you had a present-day narration and jumped back in time to tell the pre-story bits (which you definitely should keep in there somehow) but the jump-backs in themselves should follow chronologically, IMO.

I wouldn't mind reading something where there's either no or little action over significant periods of time. In fact, if it were my story I'd do it this way and not the Present Narrative With Flashbacks way.

If you had, say, the first year all told, and then just one scene for the next 2 year space, and then a full year again, etc. etc. then it'd read fine in my eyes, but I would expect that over the significant gaps the characters would grow and move to different places in their lives.

For instance, the cop who's chasing whatshisname, wouldn't spend ALL of his time on the one case, especially with year-long gaps etc. unless he was perhaps discharged from service and seeking a citizen's arrest to get back in the good books with his precinct. All things to take into consideration - personally I'd keep him as a cop, but over the long breaks have him doing other cases until there's word or a sighting of the killer in the area, at which point the cop goes back on the unsolved case of your story.

Hope that helps.

Oh, and one last thing. If you have, say, 3 years where nothing much happens except a couple of scenes that are important to you, then I'd time-stamp those scenes and include them where they are instead of just referring back to them in narrative at a later date. Just my preference.

:)

[ChristineR]

Actually, it would be hard to pull off, but I see no problem with telling a story out of sequence. I'd probably put the date at the start of each chapter, though, and try to keep the divisions as clean as possible--no flashbacks or exposition to confuse people.

If I were trying to do this, I'd probably get a bunch of index cards (or a spreadsheet) and map out every plot point chronologically and also in the order I wish to present it to my readers. For every point, I'd have a "requires" column (or write these on the cards), which would be each plot point that must be outlined in the story before this plot point is introduced. That way I'd be able to arrange the story both by chronology and by plot.

This would take some doing for a full length novel, but I think it could work very well.

[Cliff Face]

Ah ChristineR: "For every point, I'd have a "requires" column (or write these on the cards), which would be each plot point that must be outlined in the story before this plot point is introduced." - I've had a similar experience trying to get an idea onto paper.

It was a science book, but not just "We know this and this," rather "This makes sense and these rules follow on..." - it's kind of like contorting Physics to be a jigsaw puzzle - you find the missing piece, and it affects the whole puzzle, hence the book idea.

So I made a bunch of notes to try and figure out the order of putting the puzzle together. The difference here is that it's not a novel that has a timeline you're cutting up (which I'm personally against, not that it should matter to anyone else...) but rather it's just a series of factual theories that need each other to make sense.

This physics book gave me a big headache, and I've all but given up on it. It's because too many pieces rely on each other, and I can't find the exact right order... it's like describing a supercomputer using only your thumbs and a torch!

[erin_michelle]

I think ChristineR said it best: get index cards and sort the plot out chronologically and then by your plot. Also, I think if you try and coincide the murderer's past with how it applies to his present, it won't be as confusing to the reader. (Like, backing up his witnessing of his mother's near death to his first kill.)

I had the same problem you have about a story that takes place over many years (24 years in my case). I haven't worked on it in a while, but I did come to conclusion I would have split the book up into separate novels. Three was the number I came up with, making it kind of like a one novel trilogy. I chose the splits to occur as so: childhood/teen years, young adult (college days), and adult (the last four years of his life).

If all else fails, I suggest you just write the story. You aren't going to know how long a story it's really going to be until it's written down. Good luck!

[kaitie]

Yeah, I already have the whole plot in sequential order, it's just the actual order it goes into the work that's giving me problems. The index card idea is a really good one, actually. I know not everything needs to be told, but I also don't want to lose something potentially important.

I'm also considering having flashbacks mid-scene. For instance, if he murders someone, having sentences interspersed in italics or something that go back to his first murder, or something along those lines. So basically the story is being told as is, but whenever he remembers something that's shown as well. That doesn't solve all the problems, however. For instance, the first murder takes place after a baseball game. That's incredibly important because in his mind it wouldn't have happened without the game. Well, important to me in terms of how I view the character. Basically he's not a bad guy, he just a very different set of morality that he follows. I don't want to excuse what he does, but he's much more sympathetic when his motivations and everything are understood.

[Judg]

My first story took place over three decades and change, not counting the prologue, which is centuries earlier. I really tormented myself with your kinds of questions. It didn't help that I was writing from multiple viewpoints on top of it all. I eventually decided that too much complication is not a good thing and wrote it in strictly chronological order. Each chapter starts with a heading, indicating the place and the year. There is sometimes a jump of several years between chapters, and then I took great care to ground the reader in the new time frame.

I'm not claiming this was the only or even the best way to handle it, or that it's the answer for you. But I hope it helps a bit anyway.

[cscarlet]

I read a book once a long time ago..... I can't for the life of me remember what it was. Anyway, it was also a crime/drama and the FBI investigator provided "mini" scenes between large skips in time (and it was not chronological).

Let me see if I can explain:

Chapter 1: Murder
Chapter 2: Mini blurb from FBI investigator on how said murder caught his attention
Chapter 3: Childhood
Chapter 4: Mini blurb on how said childhood events helped target develop into a murderer.
Chapter 5: Murder
Chapter 6: Mini blurb on how this murder had escalated his tendencies to make him more "dangerous" to society.

And so on.

The end of the book was the man "completing" his recount (it turned out it was an interview, and they were all flashbacks for him, it just so happened that the flashbacks of the murderer were from the murderer's point of view).

The "blurbs" were not long at all (a few paragraphs, maybe 2 pages), but it kept me as a reader aware of what was happening in the present, and also gave enough of a pattern that huge leaps back in time weren't jarring in the least (actually, they were expected).

(Does that make ANY sense at all? If so, I hope it helps at least give you some ideas!)

[Telstar]

I prefer chronological order, but a well handled series of flashbacks can work better in your case. You have two strong POV characters that have to match.

[kaitie]

That's a great point, Telstar. I definitely want to have a balance between the two main characters. They're really on opposing ends in some ways, and I think it's definitely better to match the two of them. If I do too much with non-chronological order it's going to put more focus on Daniel. That's actually a great point. I think it would probably be better to try to stick to some random flashbacks in some of the harder scenes, and I can also have the FBI agent tracking him share information about his background as well.

Okay, that just gave me a brilliant idea. I'm not sure if I could pull it off, but I would love to have the FBI agent make a conclusion (because he's always wrong) about something, and then change scenes and show the "reality" of what is going on with Daniel. For instance, someone psychoanalyzing his wife, or speculating on how she could stay with him and stating that she's probably a very weak and dependent person who has no control in the relationship, and then skip to his family life. Wow...that actually seems like it'd be a much better/easier idea. Also keeps from ending up with a five thousand page novel. ;) Thanks guys!

[Danthia]

Stories that take place over a long period of time can be challenging because you don't have that ticking clock to keep the stakes high. But if you're able to keep the narrative drive and tension high, keep the story moving, and make the reader want to know what happens next, you can pretty much do whatever you want.

If the jumps in time all help move the story or reveal something important that deepens the story, you can probably make it work. Odds are it'll be tougher to write than the typical novel, but if you know that going in, it probably won't be as bad.

If you're excited about the story, do it and see what happens. Worst case it doesn't work. Best case it rocks. Won't know until you try :)

[kaitie]

I totally agree, Danthia. For me, part of what holds some tension over it is the concept of who is the good guy and who is the bad guy, because it's really turned on its head. The "good" guy is the cop, and he truly believes he's doing what's right, but he screws up more than once and some innocent people end up paying for it. At the same time, the main character is a murderer who knows what he's doing is wrong, but has justification for it. That might actually turn some people off, I suppose, but it's just basically turned it around so the good and bad guys are kind of backwards. There are quite a few really harsh scenes in it, but it's not really meant to be moved by typical suspense. It actually feels more like a tragedy to me, oddly enough.

Anyway, I'll definitely write it out. I've got at least one more in the queue before it, but I just started getting some good ideas the other day and wanted to figure it out if I could. Hopefully when I try it rocks. ;)