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244 Part IV: Developing Your Plot and Structure
Beware of simply writing ‘little did she know’ or similar phrases – you need to
be more subtle, especially if you’re writing in the point of view of a character:
after all, if she doesn’t know, she can hardly write about it!
Flash forwards work best in a narrative where the narrator is in the future
and telling a story that happened in the past. This enables the narrator to
keep jumping forwards and letting readers know what’s going to happen. For
a discussion on the technique of writing with hindsight, check out the earlier
section ‘I knew that would happen! Writing with hindsight’.
Mixing up time
You can write some pretty complex narratives that jump around in time. If
you’re going to use this technique, however, you have to know exactly when
events are taking place, and you need to find ways of letting readers know.
When you’re oscillating between several different time periods, a good idea is
to give readers times and dates and places at the opening of each chapter, so
they don’t have to work too hard to know where they are.
Novels with complex time structures include the following:
✓ Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveller’s Wife (2003): Features
Henry, who as a time traveller can move back and forth from the past
to the future, and Clare, whose life moves chronologically. The author
helps readers out by giving dates and both characters’ ages at the start
of every chapter.
✓ Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (1997): Weaves back and
forth between the present and past, foreshadowing future events. I don’t
analyse the complete structure, because the author admits that she
wrote the book as a linear narrative and then cut it up into pieces and
rearranged them!
✓ Lionel Shriver’s The Post-Birthday World (2007): Starts with an initial
chapter and then splits into two with alternating chapters showing two
different possible futures depending on the choice the character makes
at the end of the first chapter.
✓ Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life (2013): Describes many possible versions
of one character’s life.
✓ David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (2004): Consists of six different stories
nestled within one another like Russian dolls.