#dual timelines

[lavendercoloredglasses]

workin on a new fic - there will be a lot of time skips. should I tell it linearly with the time skips OR should I do a dual-time line or something?

[ljandersen]

Sideways Part 3

-----------------------------------

Chapter 14:

Incoming*

Fandom: Mass Effect Trilogy, post-war

Pairing: Femshep/Kaidan Alenko

Rating: Mature

Available:  AO3 (beginning, new chapter)

Summary:  She is a peaceful politician who loves her family. The other’s a hated renegade at the center of war. Trapped in the others’ timeline, it’s a race to find the impossible before getting locked in place forever. Is the way home worth the ultimate sacrifice?

James saw Shepard looking at them and broke free.  He rushed at her.  Perhaps he felt a responsibility to protect the shuttle as well as the Councilor, but she wasn’t in trouble.  It was the asari who was in trouble. 

The asari looked Shepard in the eye.  “Don’t kill me.  I’ll fight for you.”

She had attacked Tazzik.  But one Warp didn’t make up for the beating she’d given Shepard.

“Why would I trust you?”  Shepard drove her Omni-Blade down again.

It glanced off the asari’s barrier.  Her biotic barrier faltered.  She was panting.  One more hit would end it.

“I’ll help!  I surrender!” She gasped as Shepard raised her blade for the final swing.

James caught Shepard’s wrist.  “Whatcha doing?  I heard her surrender.”

“She’ll stab us in the back, Vega.”  Shepard ripped her wrist free from him.  “Get back to that monster of a salarian.  I’m fine!”

“Hey, hey, I’m not sayin’ you need me.  We need you!  That salarian and his crew -- we need you there, not rolling around here.”  He threw biotic cuffs on the ground by her feet.  “Lock her up.  Let’s go.”

James and cuffs.  It reminded her too much of the last memory she had of him in the other timeline.  She glared up at him.

“Let me take care of her my way.”  Shepard kicked the cuffs away.

“I surrender!” the asari screeched and tried to catch James’s eye.

“Help the soldiers.”  James dragged Shepard up by the elbow.  He locked the cuffs on the asari himself and left her belly down on the floor.  

[women-writing-women]

Followers by Megan Angelo

If you’ve watched the cult-like following of “just-like-you” influencers and felt a bit worried, here’s a book for you! Followers explores a near future world with a not-unrealistic jump from our present day - celebrity “towns” where the inhabitants are always on camera, collecting followers from childhood, and having the major plot points of their lives decided by scriptwriters. Wildly popular Marlow is having a great life - the corporate sponsors have just decided it’s time for her and her husband to liven things up and have a baby, but a new secret about her past sends her trying to flee, or at least have a moment off camera to understand. In the present day, floundering writer Orla decides to help her roommate become an influencer, skyrocketing to fame faster than either of them know how to deal with the consequences. If you want some really terrifying reading to go with it, also check out American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers by Nancy Jo Sales for a look at the impacts constant social media during their coming of age is having on modern teenage girls. 

[sophiebartow]

Book 8 of the Stories from Swan Harbor series. The trailer can be found here. 

Can the Past Save the Present? Or is Hope Doomed?

Emma Foster and Killian Reade have finally set a wedding date. But as their special day arrives, with the fate of Jonesy and his hope resting on their shoulders, can they truly get married? 

For generations, a Spanish Galleon has been the centerpiece in Swan Harbor. It belonged to a pirate, who had loved and lost Hope Prince. But with their journals uncovered, and Jonesy ailing, it's a race to reunite the star-crossed lovers and save hope. 

Join Emma, Killian, Captain Jack, and the rest of their families, as they learn the love story of Ian Jones and Hope Prince. Will they uncover the answers they seek, while they travel in the lover’s footsteps? 

Can Jonesy, the symbol of Swan Harbor's hope be saved? Or are hope and the town destined to fade away?

[scriptstructure]

Hi! So I'm incorporating a dual timeline into my story, where most of it takes place present day but there's also chapters of stuff from the past. The story starts in the middle of things, and I want how it got to where it is to be revealed throughout as the main plot moves forward. Kind of a general question, but do you have tips on how to best execute this? I've done some research and I know not to put flashbacks in a row, to make sure context is clear etc, but anything helps! Thanks!

Well, I think that the most important things, to me, in writing a dual timeline story is to ensure that the transitions between timelines are clear and have a purpose in the narrative, and to ensure that each timeline has its own narrative progression so that it isn’t simply one timeline being used in the story to explain or prop up the other timeline.

I have a couple of posts that you might find helpful, [THIS] post talks about using grammatical tense to indicate depth of time in flashbacks. [THIS] post is about beginning a story In Media Res or in the middle of the action, and utilising timelines to heighten dramatic tension.

As well, I’d suggest reading stories that use this kind of plot structure to see how it’s been handled by other authors. At the moment I’m rereading Stephen King’s IT, which weaves between the childhoods and adulthoods of seven protagonist characters. It is a big book, and it has a lot of confronting contents, but the early chapters have some really exceptional use of timeline shifts to illustrate characters and to unfold the dual timelines.

I hope that helps!

[housmania]

@groupkiller:

The man getting into the bus has a paper (the daily express" with an article about BE IN TWO PLACES AT ONCE" (the [duplicate] man? Or sherlock contemplating alibies?) but when he sits down it's suddenly "the national gazette" a paper in which important government people wrote under pseudonyms.

Excellent catch! Looks like good evidence for the dual timeline or John’s alibi theories.

[ljandersen]

Sideways Part 3

-----------------------------------

Chapter 5:

In the Moonlight

Fandom: Mass Effect Trilogy, post-war

Pairing: Femshep/Kaidan Alenko

Rating: Mature

Available:  AO3 (beginning, new ch)

Summary:  She is a peaceful politician who loves her family. The other’s a hated renegade at the center of war. Trapped in the others’ timeline, it’s a race to find the impossible before getting locked in place forever. Is the way home worth the ultimate sacrifice?

He threw a glass stone he’d been rolling in his fingers into the water.  It sank with a splash of ripples.  

“You must miss your daughter, Shepard.”  

It was a prompt. A statement more than a question.

“Every day.”  Shepard skipped a flat stone across the purple water.

Kaidan’s eyes sharped on the trail of pinprick ripples.  His brow wrinkled.

“It’s easier to not think about it,” Shepard said.  “Keep telling myself, I’ll get back.  It’s nothing different than a long tour of duty.  Only, I haven’t been on a tour of duty in ten years.  I’ve never gone this long without seeing her.”

Kaidan palmed a glass rock in his hand.  “The Sol Relay going down was the longest I’ve gone without seeing Leida.  Even then, I talked to her on comm.  I can’t even imagine, Shepard.  Maybe I shouldn’t have asked.”

“I used to think it was better to ignore things that hurt.  Even now, some things are buried too deep to touch.  Mindoir.  The rest of it, I realized it’s better to face.  I don’t mind you asking.”  She gave him a half-smile and skipped another stone across the reflection of the moon.

“You picked up how to skip rocks, eh, Shepard?”  Kaidan skipped his own rock along her trail of ripples.

“I’ve spent some time skipping stones.”  She flashed him a smile.

“Now you beat me at skipping stones.  You leave me nothing to brag about, except for knowing you.”

“I can even make a better steak.”

“I don’t know if you’re joking.  Either way, I'll be disappointed.”

[rozmorris]

Let the messages emerge from characters and story – how journalist Alice Wright switched to novels

Alice Wright’s usual writing was entertainment columns until one day her imagination took an unexpected swerve. A beautiful day, a spooky song in the headphones, and she found she needed to write a paranormal novel with a dual timeline. I’ve worked with many journalists who transitioned to novels and it’s quite a different way of writing. My first question was how did she find the switch? Very…

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