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I've dug myself in to a bit of a hole and I'm hoping someone may be able to give me a bright suggestion.

My novel starts out with a prologue of four characters, in a high tension scene. Nothing much is explained but its full of dark atmosphere, forboding etc, and you get the feeling that whatever happens after this scene is going to be important.

The first chapter is set generations later, in a world still affected by the decsion made by the characters in the prologue.

At this point my main character of this part is Evelyn. A young child living an idealic childhood on a remote farm. I try to imbue a sense of peace and happiness in this chapter while establishing some initial characters, mother father, friends etc.

After this I skip ahead in the timeline, to a point where Evelyn's is kidnapped and confined in horrible conditions. There's no explanation for this, but the events leading up to her change in circumstance unfold in between current events by way of dreams, recollections etc.

This has been working well so far however here's the problem. Some of the events that lead to her kidnap need to be told from other characters prespectives. Recalling the story from Evelyn's POV only limits me.

Telling the story linearly removes the early hook of finding out what happened to Evelyn.

So how can I keep my timeline whilst telling some events from other POV's?

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

cheers,
Darren.

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Life is a containment field for thought. (A Slatz original.)

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Darren, are you writing in the first person? If so, - this is the great dilemma for writing in first person....how on Earth to show what's going on outside of the main character's life, thoughts, eyes.

I think I mentioned it in another string how writing in first person terrifies me and have tremendous admiration for writers who can pull it off well i.e. Robin, Sara, etc.

I'll just wait and see if Darren is writing in first person otherwise we'll waste his time discussing it.

Over to you Slatz....

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I do this a bit in my stories but once you've carried your reader forward then your narrative will be in past tense so you'll find the word "had" appearing a lot!

You can of course get around this by doing something like:

While Evelyn was taking her first bowl of gruel in the dungeon (and you make sure you remind the reader of which scene so they get a handle on the time) Bert was re-tracing her steps to discover why his friend has suddenly disappeared without word. I

This is overly simplified but you'll get the gist of how you swap the POV to another character and you take your reader back to the point where you want to start giving him/her the background info.

Does that make any sense?

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Yes it does thanks Fiona. There's a particular scene that I need totravel back to explain the events leading up to "now". I can easily explain it from Evelyn's POV. But now I also need to explain it from other characters POV. I wasn't expectign to do this initially. I was just going to reveal certain events through Evelyn's returning memories.

Now I've found all these other characters taking things over and I need to go back and explain their part in the major event as well. I wonder if instead of keep jumping back and forwards, if i jump back once and explain all the POV's and then jump back to the present.

I was just worried about doing this becasue my jump back must start with Evelyn, and then moving on to other POV's from there may be a bit of a problem to follow.

Hhhmmm.

Darren.

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Life is a containment field for thought. (A Slatz original.)

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No Fiona, I'm not writing this one in first person, all 3rd person.

cheers,
Darren.

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Life is a containment field for thought. (A Slatz original.)

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Slatz,

I think the problem you're running into can be fairly common depending on the type of story. It seems to me that you should be able to create scene breaks in the story and switch the POV between them. The key, IMO, is to clearly identify time, place, and POV character immediately, like in the first 2-3 sentences. Especially if you're going to switch a few times.

There doesn't have to be much preamble. I've read plenty of books that go back in time, and they don't pander to the reader. They describe those 3 things and just move on with the story from the new POV, which is the way to do it. Believe me, readers will keep up well. George Martin's Game of Thrones series. He jumps back and forth between chapters and his read comes out great.

There's also the possibility of doing it through dialogue (though this will tend to be more distant). You can keep a single POV and have that person discuss or listen to someone recalling the events. This may not be appropriate for your story, but I mention it just in case it is.

Hope that helps.

Brad.

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I use these: ***** every time I'm about to switch POV or go leaping to a different time or even place.
As Brad says, the readers are cluey enough to keep up providing you give them the links. Good luck.

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Thanks for your suggestions everyone.

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Life is a containment field for thought. (A Slatz original.)