So I’m working on one of the my multipart stories and there’s a time skip.
But stuff happens during that time skip that programs one of the characters and I want to show that but I’m torn between doing a montage or a reflection.
With a montage it would be just a handful of paragraphs each out showing a different point in time during the skip-like the diary/journal style of story just on a smaller scale.
Where a reflection it would be the character thinking about how much he’d changed over the time span, thinking about some of the key events that have happened and maybe what they mean.
So they would show the same stuff but in a different way. And just to be clear in this case the person is aware of what’s happening so that’s not a factor.
But I’m torn because both make good stories, and both are useful so I thought it would make an interesting topic and hearing other writer’s views or ideas might help me make up my mind.
Montaged work pretty well in the middle of a chapter that spans a period of time, but if you lead readers in right you can get a really fun effect by starting a chapter off with a montage.
I find long reflections are a little harder to do, but GRRM’s central chapter style for ASOIAF is “character in present day which is time-skipped from the last time we saw them”, “character flashes back to what led up to this point”, “character moves on” and it’s really great there, as you can establish a feeling of mystery about this new status quo and then explain it. But I personally don’t remember how he makes it so smooth.
1 Like
I will also state I am not his level of writer.
I feel you can go deeper with a reflection, as you can have the character reflect over just about anything and everything which is very handy and how I expect he uses them (I won’t read any of the books until they done which at this point will likely be never)
I do like montages in the middle of a story to weave the read from time point A to time point B. But I have to say no examples come to mind where the chapter starts with a montage but then shift to some other style.
You can do both if you’re sneaky.
As long as you deal with it gracefully you can get away with anything in fact.
My rules of thumb are:
For montage (or time skipping)
Always use a “harder” rather than “softer” section break (or equivalent).
You sometimes see book writers use “three asterisks” as a means of putting in a hard section break in a chapter. Do whatever your equivalent to that sized section break is. For GKS I might often go with one of those ledger line things.
Bigger breaks such as new chapter or new acts are also good. Just never make it too soft a break that the reader races through it and get disoriented.
For reflection:
Put characters reflecting (where that reflecting contains exposition and context important to the story) in the same place where you would put long rambling descriptions.
There is a place in stories for your longer descriptions; not the middle of action sequences, or paragraphs where time is moving forward. Put it somewhere where reading it isn’t forcing the reader to hold up too many plates (i.e., not in the middle of an action sequence, or a pivotal moment in the story) longer descriptions and exposition filled reflections are like “smoke breaks” in your story.
That’s a good point about keeping reflections out of the action moments, I’ve had stories (and a few books) that do that and it’s always annoying because I forget what’s happening in the current moment.
It was for PT with Coach 3 and I ended up trying for both.
I used a montage to cover a lot of time but made each part a little peak in what’s going through Berry’s head because it was about his emotions. I think it worked well enough, but covering a lot of time is always a challenge for me to balance, which is often why I write very linear.