I’m in the process of writing my first draft for my first novel and have been bouncing some ideas around for the past couple weeks as I finalize my characters and their growth throughout the plot. I want to write a story about how our childhood dreams and aspirations change over the course of life and how we can achieve that dream, but it often doesn’t look like how we once imagined it. And I want to illustrate this in a character who’s spending years, maybe a decade, creating a masterpiece.
The beginning of the story sets up the “why”: his childhood, what inspired his aspiration, the things that tore it apart, and what he’s doing to build it back up again. What drives him and what’s at risk if he gives up, and why his project must be kept a secret. When his masterpiece-in-progress is exposed, incomplete and possibly dangerous, the world around him turns upside down.
The later half/ending will show what happens once his creation is finished. His quality of life, its effects on his community, negotiations and politicking, positive/negative repercussions, and who he’s become as a result of it.
But in between, there’s that space of multiple years showcasing the brunt of the work and how he and his world change and adapt during it. This is not something I want to lightly gloss over but also can’t afford to spend hundreds of extra pages on.
How can I show this passage of time in a way that lets me highlight certain moments of it without the jarring “X years later” that still feels consistent with the rest of the book’s pacing?
Because it’s a creation process, my current idea is breaking up the book into 3 parts (all in one book) and having the middle portion be in a journal format. But I want to hear the community’s thoughts on this. How should I write to convey the long passage of time?
Thank you.
-Riley
The beginning of the story sets up the “why”: his childhood, what inspired his aspiration, the things that tore it apart, and what he’s doing to build it back up again. What drives him and what’s at risk if he gives up, and why his project must be kept a secret. When his masterpiece-in-progress is exposed, incomplete and possibly dangerous, the world around him turns upside down.
The later half/ending will show what happens once his creation is finished. His quality of life, its effects on his community, negotiations and politicking, positive/negative repercussions, and who he’s become as a result of it.
But in between, there’s that space of multiple years showcasing the brunt of the work and how he and his world change and adapt during it. This is not something I want to lightly gloss over but also can’t afford to spend hundreds of extra pages on.
How can I show this passage of time in a way that lets me highlight certain moments of it without the jarring “X years later” that still feels consistent with the rest of the book’s pacing?
Because it’s a creation process, my current idea is breaking up the book into 3 parts (all in one book) and having the middle portion be in a journal format. But I want to hear the community’s thoughts on this. How should I write to convey the long passage of time?
Thank you.
-Riley
