The time-line

My biggest breakthrough came when I was sitting in the car showroom waiting for my car to be serviced. In the time the job took, I transferred the information from the mind-maps of how Judith Dillon’s life in Carlisle would impact on other people’s lives to a time-line.  Taking one month at a time (down one side of the page) and the names of the key people across the top, I noted when she would meet each one, in what circumstances, and described roughly and briefly what will happen at each stage. By doing it this way I could also add in how the other characters would interact with each other at that time.

The book is a story of two periods of Judith’s life, almost exactly one year apart. The Carlisle year is the most recent one so the next thing to decide was how to present the previous year and what had happened in her home town of Hexham

Option 1 – do the whole story as a series of police interviews. In that way Judith can be asked questions about the present and the past by the same person and interlink the stories on-going.

Option 2 – present the back story first then go on to the present chronologically. I decided against that as a lot is made of ‘starting the story in the right place’, and I felt the right place was Judith starting her new life in Carlisle. Her reasons for having moved away would become apparent later.

Option 3 – and the one I went with – to alternate chapters between her new life and old. Chapter 1 is September 2009 in Carlisle and Chapter 2 is September 2008 in Hexham. Chapter 3 is October 2009 in Carlisle and Chapter 4 is October 2008 and so it goes on. In this way both stories are able to unfold together and the reader can see Judith making the same mistakes.

The next stage – to do the timeline for the back-story in Hexham and to decide how it ends.

I like this story more and more. I can make Judith Dillon into a right scheming little madam.