Hi

I am writing a novel with the same MC, but chapters alternating between timelines. Her as an adult, her as a teenager.

The adult chapters will run consecutively over a period of, say, months. However, the teenager strand will move from her aged 10/11 to 15 years, sometimes with one chapter and then a gap of several years and other times with four-five chapters during the same period.

I don't really want to 'date' the chapters, even though I have done so up to now, especially as this means having the 'now' in 2014/15 as - if the book got published - it wouldn't see the light of day until then.

Are there better ways of giving the reader a foothold on the date/time period? Or, if I provide dates in the chapter headings, how do I minimise it dating the book?

So many 'dates' - sorry.

Thank you.

My rule for TMOL was that the opening line of the first paragraph after a switch of time/narrator had to have two things that were strongly characteristic. One was usually that I cranked up the voice to be super-typical in that sentence. The other was a place or a name or a thing which could only belong to that strand.

You could head the adult sections with a formal date - but not necessarily a year, althoug if it gets published you could always update it - and the teen sections with something teen-ish like "Only two days till the holidays" or "five days after Christmas". Or her age.

Or if the stories take place in different settings, you could head the chapters with those places, as long as you've established them early on. Macmurdo's Croft, Skye for the teen, 17 Acacia Buildings Brixton for the adult, as it were.

You could give your MC a name which can have different forms- e.g. Gilly as a teen, and Gillian as an adult, and head the sections with those. (Or even two completely different names, if she's someone who did some self-reinventing in the time between.)

Thanks Emma

Their voices are very different to begin with and will merge as the book progresses. I've gone for strong voices this time, as they are so much easier! Yes, the names are different too as she has reinvented herself (not for the better, unfortunately).

You could head the adult sections with a formal date - but not necessarily a year, althoug if it gets published you could always update it - and the teen sections with something teen-ish like "Only two days till the holidays" or "five days after Christmas". Or her age.

Great idea about giving the teenage character chapter dates/titles that reflect her thinking. And the adult one can be a stark 'Now' or something like that if I decide not to go for a date. I'd prefer not to date this with a specific year if I can help it.

Thank you

You could give the protagonist's age, perhaps?

The Time Traveler's wife uses both dates and ages and somehow it doesn't seem to matter that the "present" date is no longer present as the years roll on. After all, the novel is an artefact of its time anyway so the "present" is invariably a specific present.

You could make a virtue of this and set it a few years in the past anyway?

Thanks Flora

I've seen books where it is set a few years back - say 2010 - and wondered about this.

I def like the idea of presenting the chapters differently according to the thinking of the MC - eg Year 7 or similar.

Hi Sharley,

I've titled the two timesline 'Then' and 'Now' and that heads every chapter. In addition the editor has asked me to put all the Then chapters into the past tense (which I'm finding absurdly difficult to do!). I also need to find ways of putting some anchors into the first few paras of each chapter - some good tips here.

I write in the past tense, so I'd find it harder to try to write the 'now' in the present. Hmm, I wonder.

Can you write in the present and change it, or is that harder?

Yes, the tips on anchoring are great. I'll need to use them all the more later in the book, when the voices becomes similar/disillusioned/realistic.