How to Turn Your Life into Fiction Step 4: Timeline

When turning your life into fiction, it can be very difficult to determine the timeline of the story. You are writing about real events, which probably happened over several months – or even years. However, in order to write an engaging story, you need to decide on what to include and what to leave out.

Shorten the timeline

Shortening the timeline will make the plot more exciting. In real life events often occur slowly, and it’s only when you look back that you see the main theme of the story and what significance singular events had on your life – and to the plot of your book. Instead of what actually happened, you can make the events occur in the space of one year, or even less, depending on what the story is.

Ewan McEwan’s book Saturday takes place in the space of one day, but he uses a lot of backstory to let the reader understand why the events that take place are so monumental and why the characters react in the way that they do. If you dissect the novel, you can see how the main story is a very simple one, but it’s the history of the characters that makes it even more engaging.

Shortening the time-frame is one way of making the story more concise and interesting, however, this isn’t the only way you can make the plot move faster.

You can also leave gaps, even years between chapters. Just pick out the events that move the storyline along, and leave those months and years when nothing happened out. In this case, it might make sense to title the chapters with the date and/or place, ‘Autumn 1988’,  ‘Helsinki 1979’ or similar, so that the reader can easily see that the timeline has moved on. Make sure it’s easy for the reader to pick up the thread of the story again, though.

No irrelevant plot points

Another way of shortening the story is to leave out some of the plot points, especially if you have chosen to write a complicated life story.

In this case, it will be difficult to decide what is relevant and what not so important to the storyline. However, think about your reader. Will he or she be interested in certain details? Always try to focus on how to best keep the reader’s interest alive. 

Think about what you absolutely have to include for the story to make sense. Review the plot, slotting the main events into the Five Commandments of Storytelling (see my previous post), and leave everything else out.

Then start adding the details you’ve left out, giving each a reason for their inclusion. Does the storyline warrant adding a plotline or detail? Perhaps you need an event or scene to show the character traits of your main protagonist? If you can’t think why the scene should be included, disregard it. Save it in notes or somewhere safe and, if you think it needs to be included later, then add it.

Always think about what your reader needs, not about your need to tell the story.

Chronology

You can, of course, write the book in a non-chronological order. This is a very difficult method to get right, but there are some talented authors who do this brilliantly. Think Margaret Atwood in The Blind Assassin or Kate Atkinson in Life After Life.

Changning the chronology of your book will work wonderfully if, for example, the main event needs a lot of backstory for it to become relevant for the reader. In Coffee and Vodka, a novel loosely based on my early life, the experiences of the main protagonist as a child are crucial to the plot. On the advice of one of my MA in Creative Writing tutors, I divided the novel into two parallel timelines.

As well as dealing with a long timeline, this method also creates further tension in the novel. You are essentially telling two separate stories, each with their own plots and arcs. The reader is spurred on to find out how the two stories fit together as well as wishing to find out what happens in each timeline.

Over to You

I hope I’ve helped you to deal with the timeline of your life story. If you’d like to find out more tips and advice on how to turn your life into fiction, there are 10 easy steps to follow in my book, Turn Your Life into Fiction. You can find it here.