{"id":2312,"date":"2010-08-21T10:00:18","date_gmt":"2010-08-21T08:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alexhernandez.es\/?p=2312"},"modified":"2010-08-20T14:53:52","modified_gmt":"2010-08-20T12:53:52","slug":"tres-en-uno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alexhernandez.es\/en\/2010\/08\/21\/tres-en-uno\/","title":{"rendered":"Three in one"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time for reader’s questions again. Perhaps some other day we’ll continue with the “Eccentrics<\/a>” series, if you like it.<\/p>\n

Freddy Orea Lanz writes from Venezuela to ask:<\/p>\n

I’mwriting my first novel. Everything is define, I know where I’m going to and where I want to get, but I start by narrating three initially unrelated events (whose significance becomes apparent later) that take place in different locations. I need to make these changes of location clear without the need to use commonplaces such as “Meanwhile”, “In the meantime”…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

OK, let me get in a replying mood.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now I’m ready. As usual, dear listener, the question can only be answered by the author himself, but let’s do some brainstorming.<\/p>\n

The first idea that comes to mind is simple: you can write three independent chapters, with their header or their line break or both. Sometimes these psysical separations are the simplest of solutions.<\/p>\n

[…] text text text about Character A in Location X.<\/p>\n

New paragraph with text text text that ends Event 1.<\/p>\n

[rest of the page is blank. Next page:]\n

II<\/p>\n

Beginning of Event 2 with Character B in Location Y, and text text text […]<\/blockquote>\n

If the events are so brief that they do not justify a whole chapter each, the separation can be as simple as a double line break. You only need to leave a little space between the final paragraph of one scene and the first paragraph of the next scene.<\/p>\n

[…] text text text about Character A in Location X.<\/p>\n

New paragraph with text text text that ends Event 1.<\/p>\n

Beginning of Event 2 with Character B in Location Y, and text text text […]<\/blockquote>\n

If these structural ideas don’t work for you, then we have to enter the text itself.<\/p>\n

The rest of options that come to mind would have to deal with the content of the text itself. Ask yourself questions. Do I really need all three scenes at the beginning, or can they be told later, as the become relevant? May I connect the three scenes somehow, or the two most interesting ones, leaving the third for later? These events are the beginning of my novel, are they a good start? All three of them? When I have trapped the attention of the reader, will I lose it by switching character and location? Should I tell them in the shortest possible way, as some kind of introductory anecdotes? Could they form together a preface in three parts? Or could I come up with a narrative voice who, as in Am\u00e8lie<\/em>, connects the events not through the facts themselves but through the eyes that filter them?<\/p>\n

You may need to fully write some of these variations to find out how well they work. the final answer, my writer friend, only you can find.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time for reader’s questions again. Perhaps some other day we’ll continue with the “Eccentrics” series, if you like it. Freddy Orea Lanz writes from Venezuela to ask: I’mwriting my first novel. Everything is define, I know where I’m going to and where I want to get, but I start by narrating three initially unrelated events […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[66,103],"class_list":["post-2312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-taller-literario","tag-consulta","tag-narrativa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexhernandez.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexhernandez.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexhernandez.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexhernandez.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexhernandez.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2312"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/alexhernandez.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2317,"href":"https:\/\/alexhernandez.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312\/revisions\/2317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexhernandez.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexhernandez.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexhernandez.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}