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I am ready to embark on my next novel but before I do, I need to sort out one MAJOR issue.
This novel spans 4 generations from the time of the great depression until present day.
My intent is to tell the story from the present time, when my protagonist is 71 years old. As the story unfolds, she will need to recall past experiences and discuss past experiences with other characters. These past experiences are very complex and will require multiple chapters (perhaps half of the story).
My issue is that I don't know how to pull this off. I know that I DO NOT want the protagonist to tell the tale to the other characters. I want to take the reader back into the past and have those events play out third person from some of the past character's points of view.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want two stories to play out at the same time. One story is from 1920 until 2008. The other story takes place in 2008 and is directly influenced by the events and gradually learned knowledge of the first story. By the end of the book they will need to come together and both stories will be resolved with one climax.
All of my writing to date has been time forward (with multiple stories/plots that all come together, but I've never written one in two separate time frames.
What I am looking for is some examples of some well written novels that do this. I want to study how those authors successfully transitioned between the two stories. And of course - some advice from this pool of great minds. (Yeah, patronizing is not below me...)
One example that I have is the movie The Ring. There is a present day issue of the 7 day curse, which is resolved by visiting past events. The difference would be that rather than only using learned knowledge and brief flashbacks of Samara, I would be going into a lot more depth - Like chapters from her mother and father's point of view, chapters of events from her childhood, etc.
As you can see from my excessive rambling, I'm confused. Help!
This novel spans 4 generations from the time of the great depression until present day.
My intent is to tell the story from the present time, when my protagonist is 71 years old. As the story unfolds, she will need to recall past experiences and discuss past experiences with other characters. These past experiences are very complex and will require multiple chapters (perhaps half of the story).
My issue is that I don't know how to pull this off. I know that I DO NOT want the protagonist to tell the tale to the other characters. I want to take the reader back into the past and have those events play out third person from some of the past character's points of view.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want two stories to play out at the same time. One story is from 1920 until 2008. The other story takes place in 2008 and is directly influenced by the events and gradually learned knowledge of the first story. By the end of the book they will need to come together and both stories will be resolved with one climax.
All of my writing to date has been time forward (with multiple stories/plots that all come together, but I've never written one in two separate time frames.
What I am looking for is some examples of some well written novels that do this. I want to study how those authors successfully transitioned between the two stories. And of course - some advice from this pool of great minds. (Yeah, patronizing is not below me...)
One example that I have is the movie The Ring. There is a present day issue of the 7 day curse, which is resolved by visiting past events. The difference would be that rather than only using learned knowledge and brief flashbacks of Samara, I would be going into a lot more depth - Like chapters from her mother and father's point of view, chapters of events from her childhood, etc.
As you can see from my excessive rambling, I'm confused. Help!