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Timeline Gaps And How They Adversely Affect A Story's Continuity by Stephen Allen
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Timeline Gaps And How They Adversely Affect A Story's Continuity |
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Education
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When writing a novel, it's easy to assume that as long as time is accounted for in some manner, all will be well. Nothing, however, can be further from the truth. In reality, the explanation can often be more damaging than the omission. What Happened During the Time Readers Aren't Told About? Consider this passage: John and Mary are having a torrid extramarital relationship that her spouse has suspected for some time. He's known for being hot-headed, and when his suspicions are confirmed he's blind with rage and immediately seeks ways to retaliate against both of them. Three months later, John and Mary are confronted in a parking garage by her husband, who, wild-eyed, is brandishing a machete and screaming epithets at both of them. Huh? I'm certain anyone reading the preceding paragraph would find it downright ridiculous that 90 days passed before this caliber of firebrand did something drastic, yet I read these unexplained--and therefore undesirable--gaps all the time. Imminent Actions Require Equally Imminent Timelines Could readers be expected to accept that a character with a short temper--and now blinded by rage--would put off doing something drastic for even 90 minutes? On a softer but no less important note, if a writer wrote 90 days of inactivity into an action story, is it practical to expect readers not to want to know what was transpiring during the interim? In the case of the example, what was Mary's husband doing during those three months? Was he planning the ultimate reprisal, and did it require this much time to adequately prepare each aspect of his scheme? Or was he more concerned about not having evidence of his actions point in his direction, and therefore everything had to be just right? Sometimes Even a Solid Explanation Isn't Enough In Mary's husband's situation, no amount of explanation could likely justify 90 days of inactivity in the storyline. And this is the problem with so much of what I'm sent when writers are more concerned about adhering to their "datelines" than providing continuity for the movement of their plots. Authors should never be criticized for their concern for accuracy, but this can never trump movement. Because once the reader stops to consider a gap in time, everything in the story at that moment comes to a screeching halt. Omission Is a Technique, But It's Far from Foolproof Omitting time references is a method to avoid hindering a plot's natural movement. But this can be just as detrimental if the reader wonders what had occurred during time for which there was no accounting. The only way to guarantee continuity is to determine the crucial plot timelines and eschew those that fall outside this category. Once the critical time references of the story are isolated, a writer can then decide how often and where to integrate them into the narrative. A Gap Is a Gap With the rarest of exceptions, tight timelines are mandatory to hold a reader's attention. Long or unexplained gaps will confuse people, and once a timeline seems improbable, the reader will put down a book. A simple way to look at this is from the perspective of timelines as a pacing medium. If something seems to take a long time to develop, is the scene's energy level, and therefore its pacing, generally going to be fast or slow? best writing services company
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