The 5 W’s of Writing and M. Pilotte – Part 3
Both the time ‘When’ and the place ‘Where’ are integral aspects of the setting of any story. In this part, I will focus on the ‘When’ component. My preference is setting my stories in modern times. But I may also include the recent past since I may begin a story and tuck it away only to resurrect it several years later, as in the case of “Cotton Barrington,” a novella that I am rewriting. Since identification by DNA was unknown back then, I had to ensure that the story was set prior to the scientific discovery. I also recognize that relating to past events is inevitable as characters have their own histories, those unique events that serve to shape their lives.
I do not mean to discredit the future as a time frame. Since the future is full of unknowns, it is a challenging and exciting time frame in which to set a story. For example, a play I wrote in 2014, “The Mercy Rule,” is set “sometime in the future.” This choice allowed me the liberty to include the idea of space travel.
More in the line of ‘time when,’ I find myself writing events less so in a linear fashion, that is, ordering chapters chronologically. I have noticed many modern writers leap frog from one time period to another. With that in mind, I am beginning to shake it up a bit with the novel I am currently writing. If anything, I’ll jump ahead, and maybe back up a little, before forging ahead again. I do not feel obligated to stick to a tighter, more linear sequence of events.
Here’s another ‘time when’ view, simply meaning when I write—at what time of the day, etc. I jot down ideas as they come to me, and that could be just about any time. Curiosity often drives me to find out more about something, or else a character will come to mind. I keep notes and ideas on scraps of paper. I’d love to keep to a schedule, but that hasn’t worked for me although I can write with background noise and not get distracted.
In conclusion, the ‘when’ component is multivariate. It deals with the moment-- the time frames in the stories--as well as convenient times for me to write. As I explore the 5 ‘W’s I see that one (or more) of the W’s is inextricably intertwined with another. But not only that; the 5 W’s are involved both in the writing product and also in the writer’s process.
Both the time ‘When’ and the place ‘Where’ are integral aspects of the setting of any story. In this part, I will focus on the ‘When’ component. My preference is setting my stories in modern times. But I may also include the recent past since I may begin a story and tuck it away only to resurrect it several years later, as in the case of “Cotton Barrington,” a novella that I am rewriting. Since identification by DNA was unknown back then, I had to ensure that the story was set prior to the scientific discovery. I also recognize that relating to past events is inevitable as characters have their own histories, those unique events that serve to shape their lives.
I do not mean to discredit the future as a time frame. Since the future is full of unknowns, it is a challenging and exciting time frame in which to set a story. For example, a play I wrote in 2014, “The Mercy Rule,” is set “sometime in the future.” This choice allowed me the liberty to include the idea of space travel.
More in the line of ‘time when,’ I find myself writing events less so in a linear fashion, that is, ordering chapters chronologically. I have noticed many modern writers leap frog from one time period to another. With that in mind, I am beginning to shake it up a bit with the novel I am currently writing. If anything, I’ll jump ahead, and maybe back up a little, before forging ahead again. I do not feel obligated to stick to a tighter, more linear sequence of events.
Here’s another ‘time when’ view, simply meaning when I write—at what time of the day, etc. I jot down ideas as they come to me, and that could be just about any time. Curiosity often drives me to find out more about something, or else a character will come to mind. I keep notes and ideas on scraps of paper. I’d love to keep to a schedule, but that hasn’t worked for me although I can write with background noise and not get distracted.
In conclusion, the ‘when’ component is multivariate. It deals with the moment-- the time frames in the stories--as well as convenient times for me to write. As I explore the 5 ‘W’s I see that one (or more) of the W’s is inextricably intertwined with another. But not only that; the 5 W’s are involved both in the writing product and also in the writer’s process.
