Juggling timelines

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I'm writing some more parts of "the Forsythe Saga". My problem is that of where two basically separate stories take place in much the same timeframe. They are also separated by 150miles.

This is basically the sequence. (hoping not to include any plot spoilers)
1) A proposal is made to buy a property in location 1. An offer is made.
2) A series of events involves another property in another location and a business has to relocate.
2a) while this is happening, the purchase of the property in 1) takes place.
3) The builders used to do some work in 2) are engaged to work on the other property from 1) later on.

The part about where an offer is made (1)) is quite short (1300 words) but the story for 2) is close to 10,000 words and 3) hasn't really been written yet.

My quandry is how to post the things I've described above.

Any thoughts?

Samantha

Comments

Merging parts1&2 seems

Merging parts1&2 seems reasonable to me. I have no idea how well the two parts stand alone or fit together which would weigh on the decision.

I've seen that handled in several ebooks

Patricia Marie Allen's picture

The way other authors have handled it is to write a chapter regarding one; leave it hang so the reader wants to know the rest. Follow that with a chapter about the second; leave that hang and in the next chapter deal with the first one again. Simply continue that until the two timelines converge.

I'm thinking of "Soulswap", "Soulshift" and "Soultrade" by Arizona Tape, Laura Greenwood. If you need epub, Barnes and Noble, or if you need Kindle.

They are shifter stories with a twist. Two of the character are born in the wrong bodies. Sound familiar? Anyway they deal with your problem of timelines that occur simultaneously.

BTW, I recommend the series wholeheartedly,

Hugs
Patricia

Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann

Oh, Just Write It

Half the fun of reading it will be connecting all the dots. I don't think it matters how you post it, only that you do!

Another way

might be to suprise the reader by withholding some information, then disclosing the details at the appropriate time tying up loose ends that might make a difference to the story or the characters. Of course this only works for some plotlines.