Whoops! Ever have one of those moments when you're happily editing your work, things are going well, and then you suddenly realize that you've screwed up the timeline and a lot of the timeframes are wrong?
Last night, I was working on a flashback section of Heroic Lies, and I glanced at the time marker at the top of the paragraph and realized, Seven years? Wait a minute... that's not right. If that flashback had happened seven years ago, my adult protagonist would still be a teen. Crap.
Glad I caught that when I did!
There's been quite a bit of rearranging to do during this edit, more so than in my other two published books. The joys of writing in medias res - I've got two different timelines to juggle. The protagonist's knowledge in the 'present day' sections is affected by the flashback sections, and the timing in the flashback sections is affected by the need for them to fit realistically with the 'present day' parts.
Everything meshes together in ways that I haven't needed to deal with in past novels - those books had flashbacks and characters' memories, but not long segments of backstory like I have in Heroic Lies. It's all a lot less linear than I'm accustomed to, but as I gradually work out all these kinks, it's coming together well.
I do like experimenting with different writing styles like this. When you've been doing something your whole life, doing it the same way over and over gets so boring. :)
Have you ever read or written something in medias res?
Did you enjoy it?
I'd love to read your comments!
Last night, I was working on a flashback section of Heroic Lies, and I glanced at the time marker at the top of the paragraph and realized, Seven years? Wait a minute... that's not right. If that flashback had happened seven years ago, my adult protagonist would still be a teen. Crap.
Glad I caught that when I did!
There's been quite a bit of rearranging to do during this edit, more so than in my other two published books. The joys of writing in medias res - I've got two different timelines to juggle. The protagonist's knowledge in the 'present day' sections is affected by the flashback sections, and the timing in the flashback sections is affected by the need for them to fit realistically with the 'present day' parts.
Everything meshes together in ways that I haven't needed to deal with in past novels - those books had flashbacks and characters' memories, but not long segments of backstory like I have in Heroic Lies. It's all a lot less linear than I'm accustomed to, but as I gradually work out all these kinks, it's coming together well.
I do like experimenting with different writing styles like this. When you've been doing something your whole life, doing it the same way over and over gets so boring. :)
Have you ever read or written something in medias res?
Did you enjoy it?
I'd love to read your comments!
RSS Feed