JGittes
Been around
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2015
- Posts
- 504
I'm facing the same issue with one of my WIPs.
My original plan was to write something short and breezy about one day in the main character's life. After 2k words of my fairly standard sex filled opening, I needed what I thought would be a brief, 1-1.5k-word flashback. I justified it by noting it was exactly a one-year anniversary, which briefly explained how the opening scene came to be.
Well, 20k words later, I've finally returned to the opening scene and am moving the story forward from there. After my 'brief' flashback took on a life of its own, I keep wondering if I should just start with the flashback and move the opening scene into its appropriate chronological order.
Mitigating against that is my current preference for beginning and ending stories with similar scenes. Heart of Darkness begins and ends on a boat anchored in the Thames estuary, with Marlow telling a group of people on the boat his story of his journey up the river. Citizen Kane begins and ends with the same word, Rosebud, first spoken and finally written on the burning sled.
Not to compare my efforts to those, but it is an effective device for a more contemplative story. I've already written the final scene, which mirrors the first. While writing the '20k flashback', the story went through several tragic moments. Told strictly chronologically, I feel it would be more sad than hopeful. Putting those events in flashback lets them be shown in the context of knowing there will be a positive outcome, not a tragic one.
Anyway, @Rob_Royale, you are not alone.
My original plan was to write something short and breezy about one day in the main character's life. After 2k words of my fairly standard sex filled opening, I needed what I thought would be a brief, 1-1.5k-word flashback. I justified it by noting it was exactly a one-year anniversary, which briefly explained how the opening scene came to be.
Well, 20k words later, I've finally returned to the opening scene and am moving the story forward from there. After my 'brief' flashback took on a life of its own, I keep wondering if I should just start with the flashback and move the opening scene into its appropriate chronological order.
Mitigating against that is my current preference for beginning and ending stories with similar scenes. Heart of Darkness begins and ends on a boat anchored in the Thames estuary, with Marlow telling a group of people on the boat his story of his journey up the river. Citizen Kane begins and ends with the same word, Rosebud, first spoken and finally written on the burning sled.
Not to compare my efforts to those, but it is an effective device for a more contemplative story. I've already written the final scene, which mirrors the first. While writing the '20k flashback', the story went through several tragic moments. Told strictly chronologically, I feel it would be more sad than hopeful. Putting those events in flashback lets them be shown in the context of knowing there will be a positive outcome, not a tragic one.
Anyway, @Rob_Royale, you are not alone.
