Wet today, but luckily it was dry enough for our walk this morning. I’m experimenting with the brightness on my phone camera. The photos have been a bit gloomy. Love how these ones turned out.
Busy today catching up on repeating the Effective Writing MOOC at Coursera. Third time – the names and functions of the parts of speech are sinking in better.
on my way home on the walk this morning
wet handrail on the footbridge
I finally noticed the timer function … hard to take selfies with a only a back camera on the phone.
Another day wasted when I should be writing. 1000 index cards arrived yesterday – I could have been outlining the next books.
And yes, the theme has changed. Trying to make it more mobile friendly. Must reduce image sizes and do a new menu.
I love how Scott Lynch uses parallel timelines in his ‘Gentleman Bastard’ series. Kristen Lamb explains how to work flashbacks into your story.
Image from HBO’s “True Detective”
One reason we might be tempted to use a flashback is to explain or to expound to artificially prop up weak characterization or a weak plot (the training wheel flashback). This is what good editors will cut. Then there is the other way to use time and that is time as a literary device. This is when our going back in time is used intelligently to serve the forward momentum of the story.
Last time, we delved into the idea of a loop around (one form of flashback as a literary device). Sometimes we see a story that is smack in the action and then after the inciting incident the story shifts back in time until it catches up where we began then continues real-time.
I used the example of Christopher Moore’s Island of the Sequined Live Nun. This is looping back in time as a literary…
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Christine R 
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