Forum: Author Hangout

I'm not a fan of it, but you can jump back and forth in time.

It's not real easy to carry off. Typically, it's mainly done in 1st person, where the character reflects on what's happened to him, so the flashback is limited in scope. Often, the flashback will change tense, either present to past, or past to past perfect, to denote the time change. You only need to maintain that for a couple paragraphs, but when you switch back, you need to do it again to signify the transition.

For 3rd person omni stories, it seems the (local) consensus is to use full chapters or chapter segments, either listing dates, times or having the narrator explain that it happens in the past.

Doing it as a block like that is probably easier for less experienced authors, as this is a difficult process to do well.

Thanks! It all helps me as a pretty new struggling writer. Being 75 years old this year ain't helping either!!!

If you're feeling nervous/unprepared for the challenge, you may want to consider putting the story into chronological order and reposting it. Your reader's won't see the changes, but many fans will reread earlier chapters, especially if it takes a while between posts. If nothing else, it makes for a decent fallback position.

P.S. Most of the techniques are more common in fiction, rather than autobiographies, so you wouldn't be expected to grasp it right away.

What happens to the original Story when I repost it again? Is this taken care of or do I manually delete it?

There's no need to delete stories, in fact I wouldn't recommend deleting and reposting stories, as you're more likely to lose readers rather than gaining rating points.

When you repost chapters, they're updated. It won't flag the chapters as new, but they'll be there for anyone who rereads them. You can alert fans about changes, but most readers won't go back, while loyal fans will often reread stories multiple times. In short, you'll reach some but not all readers by reposting chapters. However, since many readers only read completed stories, they'll see the complete story, rather than the evolving story.

How does this look to you???

I wouldn't put it in the document, as then it's disruptive to new readers (and the majority of readers will read it long after you've finished posting). Instead, I'd put it in your blog. Face it, the majority of readers will only read your story once, and won't really care about minor (non-plot centric) changes. You need to focus on them first. By posting the changes or details to the blog, then those who are interested can follow your progress and provide feedback about it.

Another alternative, when you submit the chapter, as the Administrator in the submission process to post it as chapter 1A or 1.5 (if they can). That will flag it as a new chapter, but get it into the correct numeric sequence without disturbing the flow of the story.

@DocHoliday

Or he can post it as a rewrite of the story using the wording "Version 2" or something.

The reason why I advise against deleting and reposting a story, is that the majority of readers are impatient. They don't care about works "in progress", they simply want to read something. If they read a story, then start a new story, only to discover it's the old one, reworked, they're likely to abandon you as an author, and never come back.

The number of readers who want to see both versions is incredibly small, so reposting a new version (as a separate story) will disappoint more readers than it was please. It's a no-win situation!

Aerosick, another alternative is to post it as a separate short story. Simply write a one chapter story about that one even in your life, create a universe incorporating both stories, and let the earlier events stand on their own. That way, you'll always know how readers reacted to the new chapters, rather than guessing based on score variations at the time of posting.

Leave the original available as posted so people will not feel cheated or whatever.

Leaving two different versions of the same story means your votes & download scores will be split between two different stories. Not a deal breaker, but you need to be aware of the effect on your final results.

I will put this at the bottom of Chapter 8 and at the top of Chapter 9:

Personally I would reorganise the whole story in one straightforward timeline. I hate flashbacks, they're so often disruptive and an obvious fix.

I'd write the new earlier chapters offline, then when you're ready Re-Post the whole story in its natural sequence. I wouldn't apologise too much, your readers should be grateful :)

You can do a blog post or two as CW says, to explain what you're doing, and maybe an End Note while the online version is on hiatus.