: Re: What chapter timestamp to use in fantasy time travel novel? (By 'chapter timestamp' I mean the text at the beginning of a chapter indicating when it is taking place). Here is a basic summary
I love time travel stories and have rad a lot of them. I've written a few too. The issue, as I understand it is that you have chronological time which is what Ryan experiences but you have a folded time which is what Andy has lived. Effectively we have two frames of observational reference (Einsteinian relativity concept) while we are used to treating time as a fixed frame of reference (which it actually is not).
By age
The Time Travellers Wife deals with this by giving you the age of each character in the chapter. This helps us get a feel for where each of the two characters are along their own timeline. You might wish to do that.
Chapter Six: Andy 51, Ryan 26
As there is a single loop, these numbers will increment at the same rate after the journey back.
Chapter Seven: Andy 52, Ryan 27
But you would also have something like this for pre-change time.
Chapter Three: Andy 27
Personal timelines
Another approach might be to reference the time and the frame of reference.
Chapter Nine: June 7th 2012, Andy's time
and the second timeline something like this:
Chapter Ten: June 7th 2012, Ryan's time;
Alternatively:
Chapter Ten: June 7th 2012, Ryan's time; Andy +25 years
By Epoch
The choice is partly down to how and what you want to express. If you want to talk about pre-change and post-change timeline, then use the jump as an epoch.
Chapter Nineteen: June 18th 2014; 24 years, six months, four days, three hours post change.
or just express the epoch in hours
Chapter Nineteen: June 18th 2014 +214,719 hours
This works well for the old timeline too
Chapter Twenty: June 18th 2014 -184 hours
or
Chapter Twenty: June 18th 2014, 184 hours before Andy changed everything
As long as you are clear...
Pretty much every combination of those ideas would make it very clear to me, if I were reading this story, which timeline I was reading. I honestly cannot pick a favourite. Speaking of which, I really do want to read this story.
As a side note, this could be a situation where a prologue could be powerful and effective. Generally, I hate prologues as they do not work and should be banned but, every now and then, a writer comes along and breaks the rules and it is wonderful. Break the rules as often as you need to - but do so knowing that there is a rule and that you are deliberately and purposefully breaking it.
More posts by @Sue2132873
: Is this attribution clear and sufficient? My characters are well read and some like to recite poetry. My MC is particularly fond of Paradise Lost and is known to quote a few lines here and
: Effectively conveying an unreliable narrator I have been working on a post-apocalyptic novel for about a year. My female narrator/protagonist, named Eris, was isolated for almost all of her life
Terms of Use Privacy policy Contact About Cancellation policy © selfpublishingguru.com2024 All Rights reserved.