Chronicling a Non-Chronological Story: Writing a Dual Timeline Novel
By Julie Carrick Dalton | January 13, 2018 |
Julie Carrick Dalton has published more than a thousand articles in The Boston Globe, BusinessWeek, Inc. Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, and other publications. She is a graduate of GrubStreet’s Novel Incubator, a year-long, MFA-level novel intensive, and she holds Master’s in Creative Writing from Harvard University Extension School. She has published short stories in the Charles River Review, The MacGuffin, and the anthology Turning Points: Stories of Choice and Change. Her dual timeline novel won the 2017 William Faulkner Literary Competition and the Writers League of Texas contest for general and literary fiction. Julie is a regular contributor to DeadDarlings.com and GrubStreet’s writer’s blogs. She also owns and operates a 100-acre organic farm in rural New Hampshire. She is represented by Stacy Testa at Writers House. You can follow her on Twitter @juliecardalt or visit her website to learn more about her.
Chronicling a Non-Chronological Story: Writing a Dual Timeline Novel
When I conjure up an image of the word “time,” I visualize a long snake that winds and crosses over itself in random places. It’s a loopy mess. Completely illogical. I think that’s why I had so much trouble with time in my first novel. Time did not seem linear, so how could I tell a linear story?
I started out with a chronological story that began in the eighties and continued into the present. My main character covered up a murder as a child. Thirty years later, the crime comes back to threaten her career, her relationships, her life, and the lives of people she loves.
I quickly realized that I had written two stories – one that took place in the eighties, the other in the present. Nothing that happened in-between mattered, so I cut the middle and was left with two distinct narratives, each its own arc, conflicts, climax, and consequences.
But the two stories were inextricably linked. Neither carried the intended weight if told separately. To make things more complicated, in the present-day storyline, my MC’s understanding of her past keeps changing. In essence, the timing of how I reveal the past story effects the way the present-day story unfolds.
I found myself tripping over that fractious Time Snake in my mind. I needed to tame it. I tried to straighten it, smooth it, stretch it out. But as soon as I let go, time bounced back and coiled itself up again.
Even in a chronological story, characters don’t move through time in a straight line. Every action is based on the character’s previous life experience and accumulated knowledge. Foreshadowing teases us to imagine the future and makes us wary of guns sitting on mantels. Fear of the dark yanks us back into our protagonist’s childhood when she got locked in a closet. In order to activate the desired emotions in the story, these leaps in time must happen at precisely the right moment, whether they are flashbacks or shifts from one timeline to another.
The past must be at work in the present. The present must be looming in the past.
I started over.
In my second draft I let the two stories come out in a tangled mess of loops and swirls, like that Time Snake in my mind. I alternated chapters between the past and the present. I liked the overall effect, but many of the transitions between timelines felt random and disjointed.
I studied other books with two dual timeline structures, looking for the magic that made the time shifts work. I examined the places where the storylines interacted with each other, where the timelines seemed to breathe life into each other.
My big Ah-ha! moment came when I read a Q&A on Fiction Writer’s Review with author Celeste Ng. When discussing her dual timeline novel Everything I Never Told You, Ng said, “At each ‘handoff’ there’s a reason for switching from past to present.” She pointed to a chapter that ends with a mother reading her daughter’s diary. The subsequent chapter starts in the past when the daughter first got that same diary as a little girl. The diary is the handoff.
Ng’s handoff idea conjured the image of runners in a relay. Even if each athlete runs a brilliant leg of a race, as a team, they need seamless handoffs or they will lose the race. This image helped me to reimagine my chapter transitions. Each storyline and chapter needs to be solid on its own. Just as importantly, the moments at which I transition between them must act to move my overall narrative forward.
I needed to figure out where I already had handoffs in place and where I needed them. I reorganized my chapters and carefully considered where and why I transitioned between timelines.
The handoff can be a memory, a smell, an object, or a flutter of attraction. It can be a pebble or the smell of bacon. The sting of unrequited love or a fear of heights. It can be subtle and artful, or it can be loud and concrete. But it must take the reader by the hand and move them between the past and present without jarring them out of the dream state of the novel.
I’m a visual person, so I graphed an early draft of my two timelines. On the X axis, I labeled each chapter. On the Y axis I charted the tension level on a scale of 1-10. I color coded each timeline, as well as different themes and motifs so I could see where they intersected. The graph allowed me to visualize the suspense in each timeline and see the handoffs – or lack thereof.
I now think of that unwieldy Time Snake differently. I see the places where it crosses itself—those places I used to think of as tangles—as intersections. Intersections of time. I will never straighten time out into a perfect line, because, at least in my mind, time is a loopy, beautiful mess. But as long as I find meaningful places where my timelines intersect, as long as I create handoffs that guide the reader, I can allow my two timelines to unfurl into one satisfying, twisty story.
Things to consider when writing a dual or multiple timeline novel:
- Structure. Does each timeline have its own distinctive arc, desires, conflicts, and consequences? If not, why are you telling more than one story?
- Grounding the reader. Is it obvious which timeline you are in? Sometimes voice is enough to clue the reader in. If not, an easy solution is to label each chapter with the date, location, or the POV character’s name so the reader understands where and when they are, and who the POV character is. Don’t make the reader work to figure it out.
- Pacing. Does the suspense in one timeline add to the tension in the other? They don’t need to climax at the same moment—it’s probably better if they don’t—but the action in one timeline needs to generate suspense in the other.
- The Handoff. Look at each transition between timelines. Can you find a handoff? Is it a smell, a memory, a fear, lust? It can be subtle, but find something that hands the story off to the next timeline in a way that makes the reader understand why you are shifting between timelines at precisely this moment.
- Visualizations. Consider graphing your novel. Sharpen your colored pencils and color-code each timeline, recurring theme, and motif. Graph the level of tension in each chapter and notice how the two timelines interact with each other.
What tricks have you discovered while reading or writing dual or multiple timeline novels? Which authors do think handle it well?
Julie Carrick Dalton is the author of THE LAST BEEKEEPER, longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award, and WAITING FOR THE NIGHT SONG, a Most Anticipated book by CNN, Newsweek, USA Today, Parade, and Buzzfeed, and an Amazon Editor’s Pick for Best Books of the Month. As a journalist, Julie has published more than a thousand articles in publications including The Boston Globe, BusinessWeek, The Hollywood Reporter, and the Chicago Review of Books. A Tin House and Bread Loaf alum, and graduate of GrubStreet’s Novel Incubator, Julie holds a Master’s in Creative Writing and is currently on the teaching faculty of Drexel University’s MFA program. She also teaches Climate Fiction to undergrads at Tufts University. Julie is a frequent speaker and workshop leader on the topic of Fiction in the Age of Climate Crisis at universities, libraries, museums, and conferences nationally and internationally. Mom to four kids and two dogs, Julie is an avid skier, kayaker, open-water swimmer, gardener, and wannabe herbalist. Her third novel, THE FOREST BECOMES HER, is forthcoming from St. Martin’s Press. You can connect with her on Instagram @juliecdalton, or at juliecarrickdalton.com.
This is incredibly perfect timing. (No pun intended.) I love dual time story lines and any story in which time plays a critical role — yet I’ve been trying to work out a new time related idea that I can’t quite figure out. This post gave me some new ideas of how to think about the problems I’m running up against; I particularly love the handoff and visualization suggestions, so thank you! Great post!
I’m so glad you found this helpful, Julia. Good luck with your book.
I like your graph :) . I also have a dual timeline story that I don’t know how to make work. The books I’ve read all alternated chapters and for some it felt forced. You explain the “hand-off” well. The book that did this best was Moon Over Manifest–it’s a MG historical with two sets of pasts and it was masterfully done. Looks like I’ll have to study your book too. Thanks for this post.
I haven’t read Moon Over Manifest, but I’ll check it out. I’m always looking for new strategies. I’m glad you liked the graph. The exercise of charting my plot was unexpectedly helpful to me. I highly recommend it. Best of luck!
I love your ideas and thoughts on the Time Snake, Julie, and feel they summarise my empirical experience when writing ‘Nights of the Road’.
I had no idea of how to begin so just started writing. The real life 17th century story wrote itself chronologically. ‘All’ I had to do was sit at my computer and let my characters tell me how they wanted the story to be told. The fictional 21st century story took longer to emerge and progressively wound itself around the spine of the historical tale and was often illuminated by it.
During a major rewrite, which involved changing the modern tale from 3rd to 1st person, it began in turn to influence and invite some changes in emphasis, and positioning within the telling, of the original true story.
After several years of incubation, I’m just about to embark on drafting the sequel and don’t yet know whether it will turn out to have two time lines or one. If two, I am minded to try your Time Graph, although not visual myself. What fun!
Thank you for your fascinating article and much love,
Midi Berry
nightsoftheroad.com
Writing this book taught me so much. As I’m starting my second novel, I’m trying to consider all these things ahead of time – POV, structure, time, tense. I’m even outlining (shudders.) It sounds like you learned a lot from writing your first book too. Let’s hope we both carry these lessons into our second books! Good luck.
Thank you for the great, helpful insights.
Other authors who handled dual timeline stories well? Gillian Flynn’s “Dark Places” mesmerized me. Scared me silly.
Oooh, yes! Gillian Flynn. Thanks.
I’m in awe, but graphs give me hives. I can’t make them or read them (it looks like math to me, albeit colorful math). The visual of the handoff is phenomenal. Thanks!
Thanks for reading, Amy. I love the handoff image (which I stole from Celeste Ng) too. It’s a really useful strategy.
Great piece. And very timely as my current WIP has a dual timeline. The handoff concept is something to consider. The only problem I foresee with it is if we have to change the chapters around, you have to be mindful of updating the handoffs too.
Thank you! You are absolutely right about. If you move chapters around, you need to reconsider handoffs. I didn’t give it serious consideration until I really felt like my chapters were all in the places they needed to be. So many of the transitions happened organically, that, in most cases it wasn’t too much work. But when I had to work hard to make a transition smooth, it strengthened the chapter.
This couldn’t have come at a better time for me. Thank you so much for the valuable advice and links. Maybe I can now write my way out of the labyrinth of dual timelines 800 years apart.
Wow! That definitely sounds tricky (and intriguing.) 800 years apart! I only had to deal with a few decades between timelines. I’m so glad you found my post helpful. Best of luck with your book!
I think another book that did dual timelines well was All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. It was a mystery to me how he accomplished this without confusion, but now that I’ve read your article I’m going to go back and examine his hand-offs, tension per story arc, etc. Thank you!
All the Light We Cannot See has been on my TBR pile for a year. Another reason to bump it up to the top of the pile. Thanks for the suggestion.
Hi Julie, awesome seeing you here, and your breakdown of how you handled the crossover of both stories so valuable. I particularly like your list of THNGS TO CONSIDER at the end of the piece. One of my novels, which you have read sections of, has similar problems, though I think if a writer is using an origin story technique, that is a given. I finally decided that the title of my novel would start the process: When the Cottonwoods Blew. Even on page two I am able to refer to cottonwoods and build on elements of that origin story as I progress. The handoffs come in references to the origin scene (a child screaming, a child being abducted) as well as items in nature (crows, the trees, a black dog) that link the origin story to the present line of the story or elements of the mystery aspect that drives the novel to its conclusion. I believe it’s working! Surely, your ideas are keepers. Happy Writing.
Hi Beth! Yes, I remember your book well. The scenes I read really stuck with me. I look forward to reading the final version in print to see how you managed the time shifts. I love the title, by the way.
I’d love to read your book, The Poacher’s Code, but can’t find it available for sale at either your website or on Amazon. Is it not picked up for publication yet?
Maggie, Thank you so much for your interest. My book isn’t in print yet. My agent is working on the line edits right now. (Fingers crossed!) Hoping to start submitting to editors in the next month or so. I’ll keep you posted!
Perfect timing, Julie. The magic word for me was: handoffs. With four MCs, I need the “perfect” transition from past to present in many places. I feel even with titling chapters with names or years, we still need to provide a handoff as not to yank the reader but rather bring her along with the perfect prod: handoff. Great post!
Hi Micki! I’m so glad the handoff resonates with you too. For me, it makes so much sense. It’s a concrete, actionable way to smooth a transition. Of course, it has to be done well or it appears clunky and obvious. I’m still working on it. And many other things. Good luck with your book and thanks for reading.
I truly appreciate the “Hand off” advice. I’ve been working on a past and present timeline in my ms and hadn’t considered the hand off. I took a look back and in some places it happened naturally and others I revised and improved the transitions. This was tremendously helpful!
This notes makes me so happy! I’m glad it helped you. Best of luck with your book.
Hi Julie.
I needed this article five years ago when I was struggling to write Something Old, Something New (published 2014).
I had three alternating time periods that chronicled the experiences of three generations before, during and after the Nazi occupation of France during WWII. By chance, I introduced a ghost writer who offered to write the family’s tragic story for a descendant. His involvement was shown through a series of interviews with the young woman who wanted to tell the story. Quite naturally, the ghost writer became the perfect ‘crossover’ to link the different eras. The transition was no longer an issue.
However, this created an unforeseen POV problem that I resolved by adding locations and dates to each chapter heading. In a similar way to you, I had charts and even a family tree on the wall above my computer to keep me on track!
A family tree and a ghost! That sounds amazing. I hope you saved all those charts and family trees. I love digging through my old notes and trying to understand my own process. Congrats on publishing your book!