I’ve briefly divided my story into two seasons where S1 sets back 10 years ago when the two MC’s meet. S2 is about developing and repairing the relationship.
Since my story will sway back and forth between past and present, is there anything I should be aware of when it comes to plotting the story? I’m currently working on character developments of mainly the two MC’s. I haven’t found a post about this, hence to why I am asking you guys.
I think just caution how often you switch in an episode since doing too much can be confusing or annoying to readers (try to avoid too many short moments in past/present too). And make sure that it’s obvious in which time period the reader is currently in (eg. some writers put a saturating filter on past memories)
But I don’t think there’s anything too major(?) and I think it sounds like a really cool idea!!
Yeah, my main priorities is to keep people away from head aches of overdoing flashbacks hehe. Also, I forgot to mention that S2 is purely about the present! S1 is just covering up the reasons to why the relationship between those two scattered (and other events). (:
ohh okay! I like that, some stories come with little content and my simple mind gets super lost lol
I guess something nice but not something you should necessarily do (sorry if I accidentally contradict myself lol) is tie the past and present a lot more when you’re telling the story. So reference a lot that happens in the past (eg. have a character repeat something they said in the past and insert a quick flashback of when they said it in the past) but lemme know if you publish your story, i’d love to read it :>
I won’t be promoting my story on this account, but if you see a promotion post of a story called “Second Your Words”, then you bet it’s me (:
Another way to different the past and present is by changing the appearance of your characters. (I’d definitely recommend creating several of the same characters, as it’ll be a lot easier to code. Just specify which time period each character is supposed to be from, so you can find them easier.)
For example, your MCs set in the past could be labeled as:
. MCAPast
. MCBPast
(Just replace “MCA/MCB” with your characters names and change the time label to past/future/present, and you’re good!)
If you’re planning to include time jumps or flashbacks, make sure to specify when they occur and when they end. And to avoid overdoing both, try to only add time jumps and flashbacks when they’re essential to the plot.
A question that will be helpful to ask is, “if I omit this time jump/flashback, will it affect the plot?” If it affects the story, you might want to keep it in.
For example, let’s say a flashback includes a detail that’s incredibly important to your story. You’d keep this flashback, as it ties the story together. This is an example of a scene that can work in both your first season and your second season. For scenes like this, try to avoid including more than three times, otherwise it’ll feel redundant.
Another example- you want to include a flashback that shows your characters having a fun conversation. This might seem like a scene to include, but if nothing within that conversation really adds to the plot, it might feel like a filler scene and could annoy some readers. If you really enjoy having a scene like this in your story, it’ll fit better in season one.
I hope this helps! I’d love to read your story when it’s finished! : D
You can also use the “previews” command!
In addition to what the others have said, I think it might be worthwhile to also write/type yourself a timeline as well that lists all of the important scenes including the time periods for those scenes. I just think it might help you keep track of your story better and it might also help your readers or followers understand too (if you wanted to post it to ig or smth).
If you wanted to be a bit more detailed, you could even create timelines for each episode as well so you could see at a glance what you’ve added into each episode for both past and present and see how many times you’ve switched between them per episode.