How Do You See Time?
Do You Think It Flows Linear, Like a Straight Line?
I’ve always thought I saw time in a linear way. A long line which squiggled and turned like a snake with dead ends and side roads, bringing my story back to it over and over again. But I watched an interview with Lisa Wingate and my HistFic Group of WFWA (Women’s Fiction Writers Association) recently. She had a perfect explanation for why my theory on time makes sense. Lisa said she looks at time like a layer cake. She explained a physics theory which goes like this and I’m paraphrasing, “Time is not linear. Time is tied to place.” Like layers of a cake, periods of time in the place it lives is layered between other layers. We poke down through these layers to experience and/or observe events, people and places as we research. Research for a book, for a family tree, or for curiosity.
I’d wondered how events can happen in two places at the same time or at different times and they seem to influence each other. How does serendipity work? How about déjà vu? Haven’t you been walking somewhere or talking to someone and suddenly it feels like it’s happened before. It has a dream quality, but you haven’t ever seen the place or walked on that road, or said those exact words in the past. Not to get all psychic on you, but that’s happened to me a few times. A few seconds of your life passes and it feels like a repeat of a former time. It was just you poking those layers.
It used to drive me crazy, if the book I was reading, jumped around from time period to another time period. The chapters had to be marked clearly in order for me to keep up. When I study history or research for my stories, I like to study and see the before and after. Now I know why, I’m looking for the layers above and below the part that I’m researching. If an event in my story happens in 1941, what happened in 1940 at this place to make this happen? Could another event have stopped it? I may need to research before 1941. Was this event the impetus to cause other things to happen? Like dominoes in a line. Did it cause a disaster in 1942 after this incident occurred? See me digging down into that hole.
With a new story I can easily fall down a research rabbit hole. When I started research for “Junebug,” my short story in Feisty Deeds: Historical Fictions of Daring Women, I fell deep into a big pile of time. Researching World War II and the WASPs (Women AirForce Service Pilots) were fascinating. There’s a museum, National WASP WWII Museum, dedicated to these brave women in Sweetwater, Texas, where many of them trained for their duties. So off I went through time and books and the internet. Deep into government websites, historical newspapers, and letters the women wrote to families and husbands.
Looking back, I can see how hard it is to mesh time together, to make the connections flow as if it’s happening in real time. I hope I’ve entwined history and time with my story well enough that a reader can follow along and when finished, and want to know how each character’s story ends. I plan to make “Junebug” a novel and I’ll be working hard to layer time in the right way while poking holes in historic time stacks to get the research I need.
How do you believe time works? A continuum or layers stacked on top of each other?
BOOK REVIEW: Saving Vincent by Joan Fernandez
Joan Fernandez's meticulous research is evident from the first page to the last in this historical fiction novel. This historical fiction biography reads with authority of the subject, but empathy and certainty of the main character, Jo van Gogh-Bonger. Jo is the wife of Vincent van Gogh’s brother, Theo. I loved reading how Jo came into her own from a timid wife to a fierce marketer of her brother-in-law’s artwork. She was determined to have an inheritance for her son, Vincentje. Jo bravely fought against the overwhelming tide of bias and misogynistic behavior coming at her from the established art dealers. She searched for innovative ways to promote Vincent van Gogh’s work.
Jo reinvented herself into a brave, determined woman who carved her own path through the art world to shine a light on Vincent van Gogh’s work for everyone and in the process, set herself down the path she choose. I throughly loved this enlightening book about a hidden woman behind the scenes who deserves her recognition! Don’t miss out on this heartfelt novel of a strong, smart woman who changed her life and the entire art world. A Starry Night Well-Deserved 5 Stars!
Here’s the Poll from my last newsletter. Looks like most of us read via Paperback or Ebook.
What type of book do you prefer to read?
Hardcover
0%
Paperback
33%
Ebook
33%
Audiobook
0%
All of the Above
33%
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And remember Books Make the Best Gifts! Check out Feisty Deeds: Historical Fictions of Daring Women. My story “Junebug” starts on page 198. You can purchase a paperback copy or ebook on Amazon, BookBub, Kobo, and Barnes&Nobles.