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Jugglers Of Time

Dec 11, 2015
by Caroline Miller
cause and effect in the novel. Josephine Tey, curiosity as the drilving momentum in a novel, John Crawley, The Daughter of Time, when writers juggle time
3 Comments

Recently, I’ve reviewed two novels that played with time in their storyline for Just Read It, the YouTube book review program I co-host with author Susan Stoner. (Click)  Personally, when plots mix episodes from the past with those of the present, exchanging them one after the other like the disk in a Frisbee game,  I want to scream. What drives a novel forward isn’t structural gamesmanship, but the reader’s curiosity.  He or she wants to know what happens to the characters and why.  

Playing with time isn’t  avant-garde as some might suppose.  It’s been done for hundreds of years and in the most mundane formats.  What, after all, is a detective story but, as  John Crawley describes so beautifully in his essay, the saga of a sleuth moving forward in time to solve a mystery arising from the past.   (“A Ring-Formed World,” by John Crowley, Harper’s, November 2015, pg. 5.)  Sometimes a story begins at the end and works backward to explain how events brought the characters the present moment, but what  keeps the reader turning pages is his or her desire to discover how the course of events brought the central character to the present moment. (Ibid pg 6)

To be honest, there is no real time in fiction.  Centuries can pass in a single sentence.  A novel is an illusion of time passing.  Even so, it should conform to the constructs of our mind.  For the reader, time flows linearly and in one direction: forward.  That understanding is the basis of our belief in cause and effect and curiosity is the stepchild.  Presumably, if we know the cause, we will understand the effect. Flipping the reader back and forth in time may not make him or her dizzy but it can produce a lack of focus.  As a general rule, I’d argue disruptions in time impede rather than answer a novel’s overwhelming question:  Why did the work end as it did?. 

Some artists will argue that juggling time is the only way to  tell the story.  He or she might be right. On the other hand, he or she might be lazy.   Constructing a linear plot that mixes past and present requires great effort, but it can be done, as Josephine Tey accomplished it in The Daughter of Time. 

When I was a teacher, I’d often hear a student complain,  “I know what I mean, but I can’t write it.”  My reply was, “You can’t write it because you don’t know what you mean.”  I want to speak in a similar vein to writers who juggle time too freely.  You’re confused.  Get your thoughts in order.

woman juggling clocks

Courtesy of www.gettyimages.co.uk

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3 Comments
  1. Www.Realhacks24.com December 14, 2015 at 4:46 pm Reply
    You need to be a part of a contest for just one of the best blogs on the internet. I will recommend this website!
    • Caroline Miller December 14, 2015 at 9:09 pm Reply
      High praise, indeed and I do thank you for it. And I regret it's true. I'm a well kept secret on the internet.
    • Caroline Miller December 14, 2015 at 9:11 pm Reply
      High praise, indeed and I thank you for it. It is true I'm a well kept secret on the internet.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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