Blog Post

I am rewrit­ing the mid­dle of my novel where each of eight Sephardic char­ac­ters takes turns telling the sto­ries of his/her ances­tors. I am look­ing into how fic­tion writ­ers use time so maybe I can tell the sto­ries in another way than chrono­log­i­cal, where one char­ac­ter fol­lows the next. Some writ­ers have used par­al­lel uni­verses and eras alter­nat­ing, such as in Brooks CHILDREN OF THE BOOK and A. S. Byatt’s POSSESSION. Oth­ers use first per­son telling about the past. Still oth­ers use flash­back. It has been pointed out to me that clas­sic best sell­ers such as THE CANTERBURY TALES and SCHEHEREZADE are chrono­log­i­cal, and, hey, they’re still around. I’m learn­ing by doing and try­ing it out on peo­ple, such as today’s PEN Fic­tion Writ­ers’ Group in Los Ange­les. Any thoughts, anybody?