Okay, #romancelandia, this one is for folks who like dual timeline second chance: would you rather flashback in pieces scattered through the book, or have the inviting incident and the the full past before the present?
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The latter, please. I've abandoned many a book that has the former. I recently attempted to read a book that had present time chapters alternating with flashback chapters. It stunts both past and present stories to an unreadable degree.
It's almost like someone who's never driven a stick shift attempting to drive. Start. Stop. Start. Stop. Start. Stop. And on and on. Many readers become extremely frustrated they have to stop just as the story (past and present) draws them in. I cannot adequately express how irritating this is!
That’s an amazing analogy! My gut has always been to open with the present scene that forces the second chance into existence, then go back and tell the past all in one go, like a novella inside the novel, but I’ve gotten some pushback in critique, so it was time to ask to readers
Full past up front. I want to know exactly what one or both characters need to overcome to get their HEA. I don't want to live in suspense that someone did something truly awful or worse, something so simple.
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