How to write alternating Past and Present chapters
BY Shi Naseer
3rd Jul 2024
In 2021, Shi Naseer was awarded mentoring as part of our Breakthrough Writers’ Programme for under-represented writers – she worked with her mentor, acclaimed author Nikita Lalwani, for nine months. Her debut novel The Cry of the Silkworm is out now from Atlantic Books/Allen & Unwin, a coming-of-age narrative that explores China's one-child policy. Here she shares her advice from writing a novel with alternating timelines.
Set against the backdrop of China’s one-child policy, The Cry of the Silkworm follows a girl’s poignant coming of age in a Sichuan village (1990s) and her quest for vengeance against a government official in Shanghai (2002). I alternated chapters between my protagonist Chen Di’s current life as an avenger and her childhood as an unwanted girl. The chapter titles are formatted as ‘Shanghai, Winter 2002’ and ‘Daci Village, Autumn 1994’. If you plan to use a similar structure for your novel, here are six steps to consider.
1. Decide if you really need multiple timelines
Two full-fledged timelines can enhance themes like memory and trauma, but prepare yourself for a challenge. You are basically writing two stories: both need to be compelling, and they must connect. Readers don’t always find the Present and the Past equally engaging. You also risk confusing readers, especially if you already have multiple POV characters. Imagine dual timelines on top of three POVs, i.e., six types of chapters – my head would spin!
I alternated between Present and Past chapters in The Cry of the Silkworm because the purpose of the Past is more than providing backstories for the Present. The Past has its own arc; it’s my way of exploring the one-child policy’s impact on rural China. Occasional flashbacks wouldn’t suffice to tell the full story, and Chen Di’s Past and Present are so different that presenting her life chronologically would make the book feel disjointed.
2. Define the Present and the Past and determine how you stage them
Once you decide on alternating Present and Past chapters, determine their time spans and gauge how much space each should occupy in your book.
In Where the Crawdads Sing, the Past spans decades and is the main story, while the Present is mostly a courtroom scene. It therefore has snappy Present chapters, with more pages dedicated to the Past. In The Cry of the Silkworm, the Present spans only a month but details Chen Di’s revenge; the Past spans a decade and recounts her childhood and adolescence. I dedicate a comparable number of pages to both.
The Present or the Past might not unfold in traditional chapters: the Past often takes the form of letters, diary entries, etc., as in Gone Girl.
3. Find the arc in the Past and the Present
Both the Past and the Present need clear storylines with their own sets of conflicts, climaxes, and resolutions. Each requires a separate arc for your protagonist(s).
In The Cry of the Silkworm, the Past chronicles Chen Di’s life in a Sichuan village in the 1990s, where families prioritise boys and the one-child policy is strictly enforced. She seeks education, loves and protects her little brother, and witnesses unforgettable scenes with the authorities. Then her mother dies.
The Present depicts a gutsy, aikido-practising Chen Di, alone in Shanghai. Now twenty and hardened by experience, her determination to avenge her mother’s killer is strong, and she steels herself against affection of any kind. Then she meets a cocky, wisecracking teenage boy who reminds her of her little brother. Will he aid or hinder her plan for revenge?
Joining the Past and the Present gives the arc of the whole novel.
4. Connect the Present and the Past on a small scale
Ending a Present chapter with a question about Character X or Event Y and starting a Past chapter with Character X’s name or Event Y’s details is a straightforward way to link them. In The Cry of the Silkworm, one Present chapter ends with Chen Di spotting the man she’s been hunting down, and the next Past chapter starts with the same man terrorising her village.
Remember to weave the two timelines together through details: people, food, clothing, meaningful items, and motifs. Silkworms, of course, come up in both my timelines. Other small examples: In the Past, Chen Di was deprived of century eggs. In the Present, she gobbles one up every morning. In the Present, she’s always wearing her old-fashioned green jacket, hiding her face with the hood. In the Past, we see that the man who broke her heart gave it to her as a parting gift.
5. Connect the Present and the Past on a large scale
The Present and the Past must link on the full scale of the novel. Past events must (a) explain the motivations and actions of your characters in the Present, (b) answer some of the biggest questions raised in the Present, and (c) resonate with Present events, thematically speaking.
In The Cry of the Silkworm, Chen Di’s Past shows us how she became the person she is in the Present. In particular, the Past culminates in her resolve to seek vengeance against a government official. The Present starts with her spying on the official’s workplace, waiting to spot him, trail him, and kill him.
In a thriller, the moment a Past timeline connects to the Present is often the reveal of a shocking twist. Such as in The Silent Patient, where key events are explained, and two characters become one.
6. Control how much the Present should ‘spoil’ the Past
For the Present to work, you need to give readers enough information. But if you give too much, you risk losing the tension in the Past.
In The Cry of the Silkworm, we know upfront that Chen Di is in Shanghai to seek vengeance against her mother’s killer. But we don’t know what happened to her little brother – something that haunts her to this day. Is he lost? Dead? Will he show up again? Readers form their own theories and become engaged.
You can fine-tune your chronology and structure by moving chapters and scenes during the rewrite. Ensure that the layers of revelation unfold naturally. Readers don’t want to feel like information is being deliberately withheld just to create suspense.
The Cry of the Silkworm is out now!
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