“The work begins with
a deep breath and a blindly trusting step into the unknown.” Susan Cooper
Cross-culture—time
dimension
Across time dimension includes time
within the same world history, such as a novel in an historical setting
crossing generations on a family plantation. Or in a city that we see grow from a seaport to a major
world hub similar to the history of New York City or San Francisco.
And time dimension also covers time
travel backwards or forwards, such as Back
to the Future series. It also includes time across space, such as Farscape or Stargate, and time into a parallel dimension, such as a spiritual
dimension, or any other realm that is accessed through a portal of some kind
like Dante’s trilogy and the land of faerie. Time may pass by on equal ground,
be compressed, or expanded.
Look for key places that can hold common
ground across many centuries, and also capabilities than can be inherited. They
can carry both the foundation of setting and the echo of atmosphere. It could
carry the weight of the pyramids in Egypt, or a coastal town set on a rocky
cliff in Ireland, or Greece or alongside a river like the Rhine or the
Mississippi.
Damar,
Part One
For example, Robin McKinley sets two
novels in the fictional land of Damar separated by a considerable time span.
They can be read in any order without sacrificing their stories due to the
integral setting that overlaps each novel. McKinley has provided a vivid
setting that has the potential to expand into more episodes in Damar, either
past or present or future, by holding to the setting atmosphere and
characteristics which make Damar unique to itself, and influence whatever
characters come into its sphere.
Exercise: Choose an
important location in your setting and list the details that make it so. Using
those details, write up a legend about it that could be found in an historical
article or sightseeing brochure.
Share: Which
detail can play a major part in the current time plot?
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