The important thing is that, I’m not here. I’m somewhere else. How is that possible might you ask? Well, technology is smarter than I am.
But then, there are other right now’s I mean, as you read this, I might not be teaching, your right now could have me on the train to work, or it could have me sleeping, or it could have me in some other future place. Right now, could be any point in time that this exists in, cause even though I move through time, it moves through time with me, or maybe it stays where it is.
Okay now I’m officially confused, and you should be too, cause if you followed that, you're either way smarter than me and a mind reader (which I believe people smarter than me automatically are), or that made sense, and I really dont think it made sense. So where are we? I don’t know. I do know for my right now I’m writing this in a coffee shop, but you definitely won’t read it until I’m somewhere teaching someone something.
Lets move past that. I have a problem with timelines in my writing, and perhaps tense. It might be because I think too hard about both things. But I don’t think that’s right. I think it’s just cause I dont get how things can happen at the same time in different realities because the thing that happened, has already happened, but is happening for the first time for the reader because it in fact never happened. (see why I like Alice in Wonderland?)
Do any of you have trouble with timelines?
What are you doing right now?
The way I've done it, which worked for me, is I established the timelines separately then wove them together at some point. For the reader, it's the same reality, but their minds will switch automatically. It's the prep work or setup that needs to be done first. If not done properly the thing will collapse on itself, IMHO.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...I must not be super smart. I'm confused :)
ReplyDeleteBut, while you're off teaching our youth, I'll be supervising them at a Relay for Life event. I'm responsible for a bunch of 14 year old girls :)
Ohh, I hate timelines. I hate timelines so much. When I read my first draft back, that was the biggest problem it had. I'm so bad at remembering that 4000 things can't happen in the same day, and somehow everything seems to happen in way less time than it should.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, reading your blog. when you read this, probably (hopefully, if I can move my butt) in Best Buy. Or sunbathing. Or maybe just simply bathing. Who knows? *shrug*
ReplyDeleteI actually love the mixture of time and tense, maybe because I have a thing for grammar ideas. What's the right way to talk about something that happened in future, after traveling to the past? Or talking about a past that you have changed so it never happened but you still remember?
I'm not bad with timelines. Sometimes I need a little help, but I'm usually okay.