I have a story that I've been working on /off for sometime. The story is split in two parts. The first part involves the main character that is struggling to handle pressure, has a meltdown and disappears. The second part is where he comes back after a 15 year gap. How do I bridge the gap i.e. Where the first part ends and the second begins. Would I write; fifteen years later and then proceed with the story? Your suggestions would be appreciated.
What kind of changes has the character undergone in between? Has he aged significantly, like from adolescent to adult? Readers will register something like that a lot more strongly than saying fifteen years later. Little statements like that can fly by under the radar without anyone noticing. But if the character was three feet tall in the last chapter, playing with toys, and now he's a tall, sturdy young man, that makes them take notice that things have changed a lot. Then you can mention it's been 15 years, if the number is important. Or tell them how the setting has changed, if it's changed a lot. Give them something tangible they can really feel.
The main character is in their mid 20's in the first part of the story. When he comes back on the scene he would be early 40's and trying to get in contact with his family. The main character struggles with the pressures of fame, has a meltdown and disappears. His family and friends try to find him but to no avail and eventually give up. 15 years later the main character reappears and tries to reestablish contact with his family.
Well there you go. He's no longer dressing and acting like a teenager, his formerly long unruly hair is short and neatly groomed, he's driving a much better car and dressing better. Or whatever changes you want. Just show how he's changed.
You could also show behavioral changes. If he was struggling with early fame he might have been addicted to drugs or alcohol or into some really shady stuff or whatever, and maybe he's got his act together now. Or some variation on that—I know nothing about the character of course.
Pretty much, yes. And it will be artificial. If the character was sat next to the reader, telling the story as a brief anecdote, then they might skip over 15 years naturally in just a few lines. "After that I had a happy marriage with x and worked for y and lived in z... and then the other day." But in a novel the narrative focus is normally much closer-up than in an anecdote So the gap becomes like a curtain drawn down over the play while it's still going on If it really is a play in two acts, and the curtain comes down over what would be a long, boring part - or if it's something like a contrast between innocence and experience and there are structural handholds for the reader, then it can work - it's in the execution I'd suggest to avoid stuff coming out from the concealed story and impacting the told one. The 15 years shouldn't be concealed so as to provide a source of infinite, unchallengeable plot devices And would staying with the character in his 20s and showing him surviving his meltdown do more violence or less violence than skipping 15 years?
I don't know the plot, but I'd just open a chapter with the 20th anniversary of the musician's debut, or begin 15 years later at the last festival he performed at. The trick is to make it not seemed forced. Or you could make it a spectacle, like 'Mad Dog' returning on a motorcycle to reclaim his title after going into hiding because of guilt of killing a fellow wrestler:
If he comes back changed, the reader will be very interested in finding out what happened in the intervening 15 years to change him. You might cover this in a page of writing, or incorporate it into the second part of the story.
A span is the period of time between two dates or events during which something exists, functions, or happens. The batteries had a life span of six hours. If something spans a long period of time, it lasts throughout that period of time or relates to that whole period of time. His professional career spanned 16 years.
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