Adding Depth and Complexity: Using Dual Timelines in Your Novel

A few tips and thoughts on creating Dual Timelines that works

There must be a reason why Dual Timelines have always been popular and have become even more so lately.

I think that’s because the way the two timelines connect is just like the way we connect to the story: by finding parallels and coincidences, by harmonising two different realities.

The characteristic of Dual Timeline Stories is that they offer two (sometimes more) different but connected plots. Each of these stories has its own main characters and cast of characters, setting and most of the time they happen in different historical periods. They are, on all accounts, two stories that are distinct but somehow connected. The connection is the defining characteristic of the Dual Timeline story.

Dual timelines are more common in historical fiction, where the two plots happen in different historical periods. But there are instances where other circumstances separate the plots.

What do Dual Timeline stories look like?

The main ways to distinguish the timelines are by:

Time

Different timelines revolve around different main characters living in different times, often separated by a few decades at least. For example in The Cottingley Secret by Hazel Gaynor, Olivia Kavanagh discovers a manuscript in her grandmother’s bookshop telling the story of how, in 1917, cousins Frances and Elsie Wright convinced the whole of Britain that they had befriended the fairies (this is a true story, by the way). The novel follows Olivia as she tries to uncover the reasons why an entire nation ended up believing two little girls could really talk with the fairies, and at the same time, the unfolding of Frances and Elsie’s story as it happened.

But it might be that the same person appears in both timelines, although it might be argued that the more years separate the two stories and more the same person could be considered two different characters. In Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg, Ninny Threadgoode appears both in the contemporary timeline (happening in the 1980s, when the book was written) as an elderly woman living in a nursing house, and in the 1920s timeline as a young orphan witnessing the events of a deep friendship.

Setting

Sometimes the different timelines are separated by distance rather than by time. The two plots happen at the same time, but at different places, so that the two timelines constitute two different plots. Most of the time, these two plots travel on their own but will converge at the end.

In All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, the two plots happen at the time of the Nazi’s occupation of Paris. But Marie-Laure lives in a walled city on the coast of France, while Werner lives in a mining town in Germany. They don’t know anything about each other, and for most of the book, their lives go on separately, oblivious to each other. Still the story draws them together, and it’s their meeting that gives meaning to it all.

How to characterise the different timelines

Any shift in the narration is potentially confusing for the reader, so we need to give to each timeline its particular, unique feel so that right away the reader will know in which timeline we are.

There are many ways in which we can achieve this. Some of the more common are by:

1. Giving the narrator a different register, depending on the main character it is focusing. This is particularly adapt to stories told in the First Person. The main character of each timeline will have their very own language patterns and way of speaking.
2. Giving the setting strong ‘personal’ mood. In timelines that happen in different historical times, this may be easily achieved, provided that we give historical research a fair shot. Different times should emerge not just by the casual use of vintage language or the occasional ‘historical’ description. The entire setting should breathe the air of the time and transfer it to the reader. The use of details will be particularly relevant here. Details may create a distance in stories set in the past, giving the sense that things were different back then, even on an everyday-life level. At the same time, details may also create the necessary connection between the different timelines, because no matter how life might be different, people will always experience the same emotions and fears and joys.
3. Using names consciously. The mere use of different names will signal to the reader that we moved from one timeline to the other. Simple and almost granted as this may seem, we should be careful to give these names at the very beginning of the section, so that the reader will have no doubts in which timeline the action is.

How do we connect the different timelines?

If creating a sense of ‘diversity’ between the timelines is important, creating a meaningful connection is downright essential. This connection is always part of the meaning of the story, and so the way we connect the timelines says something in itself.

Some of the more used ways to link the stories are by:

• Creating convergence. There are two main plots. Each plot has its own characters and arc, and at the beginning, these different plots don’t seem to have anything in common. The protagonists don’t know each other. Often they don’t have the notion that the other character exists. Many times, the story happens in different places (it may happen in different times too, but it’s less common and more tricky). For most of the story, the two plots move on their own, as if the other didn’t exist. Still, the other plot does exist, and the two plots (the two timelines) attract each other irresistibly until at the end they converge on one particular event and become a singular plot. When the two timelines happen in the same space, sometimes there might be more than one convergence throughout the story. There might be unnumbered reasons why the two timelines converge, but it must be logical, that the action in which the approaching happens is credible, and that there is an overarching reason why this happens.
• Creating a similar structure: Every story has an arc. By giving the two timelines a similar structure, we create a connection. This means that the hero’s journey of the main characters will be similar in both plots and that similarities (together with the differences) will create meaning. Very often, this kind of connection also brings to a convergence, though it isn’t a necessity.
• Creating coincidences. While similarity creates a similar global movement of the stories, the coincidence is just one (or a few) singular episodes or actions occurring in both stories. When something that happened in the past to one character repeats itself in the present for another character, there’s obviously a meaningful reason for it. Mind you, coincidences are very tricky to use in storytelling, because they may feel forced. But I think that Dual Timelines is one of the most fascinating ways to use them.

Why using two different timelines?

But why would we even tell a Dual Timeline Story in the first place? After all, we could tell the stories separately. Why bringing them together?

The reason should always reside in the theme. Sure, bringing two stories together might make a story more interesting, more unusual, more mysterious. But personally, I think there should be more.

The different timelines should complement each other. They should enrich each other. A Dual Timeline Story is successful when by putting the two timelines together, we’ll still offer a cohesive story that feels whole and complete. And above all that gives meanings and levels of reading that are enhanced in comparison to the singles sections.

The way we connect the timelines is therefore essential. Do they converge? Do they coincide in a way or another? Above all, do they affect each other (when possible) or at least one affects the other? For example, when one story happens in the past and is therefore unchangeable, does the other change as an effect of the connection?

It’s only when the timelines affect each other that the overall story becomes complete. Independent as the timelines need to be, ultimately they should never be able to stand on their own.

When they have a reason to be told side by side, they will become stronger and more meaningful.

How to write a character that impacts the story? By giving them not just history and character personality traits but also a strong narrative role. Create characters that leave a mark. Give them a strong desire, make them fight for it. That’s how to create memorable characters. Download The Protagonist Builder, a free worksheet and start creating your character right away.

Sarah Zama wrote her first story when she was nine. Almost thirty years later, she started working in a bookshop and discovered books addressing storytelling techniques and the story structure. She became addicted to them. Today, she shares what she’s learned from experience and from books about creative writing, hoping to make other writers’ journey easier and shorter than it was for her. Visit her Etsy shop for creative writing workbooks that make a difference.

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