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?