Time, Tension, and the Art of Story Structure
Think of time in a story as an escalator. Where does your character step on—and where do they get off? On each floor, the world will look a little different.
In fiction, switchback time happens when a character is blocked by something in the past they must confront. To get a clear image of your novel’s structure, it can help to first write a straightforward, linear draft. Once the story’s spine is in place, you can experiment with when to start, and how to reveal events.
Rewriting Time: What My First Novel Taught Me
With my first novel, In the Context of Love, agents initially mistook it for young adult fiction—understandable, since it began with a 17-year-old protagonist in high school. To fix that, I chose a later moment in Angelica’s life to open the story. An editor advised me to start at her lowest point, so I began with her gritting her teeth as she takes her two young children to visit their no-good father in prison. I crafted this scene into a short story titled “Incarceration” published by Bartley Snopes
The challenge, then, was to hold back the information about how she got there while weaving in just enough of her past to create tension and curiosity. This structure adds an emotional pull you can’t achieve any other way.
Be aware, however, that bending time this way isn’t necessarily easy because our world reflects linear structure, and some readers don’t like writers to mess that up. You don’t want to lose your reader right at the beginning. If you’re up for a challenge, however, it’s worth trying.
Don’t be Afraid to Play with Structure
Remember, novels are built scene by scene. Every scene should make the reader ask, What’s the matter here? If there’s no reason to wonder, the scene won’t work. You can even create a character who refuses to look back, delaying revelations until the emotional moment is right.
And trust your scenes to take care of backstory. Write the scenes that move your character from A to B, even if some will later be cut. Some writers jump back in time to create tension, but then when they feel the tension they’ve generated, they explain things. That essentially kills that tension.
If your story feels stuck, try playing with time. Ask yourself: What if I told it this way? Or that way? Sometimes the best way forward is to rearrange the steps on the escalator.
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Linda K. Sienkiewicz writes fiction, poetry and essays.
Her second novel, Love and Other Incurable Ailments, is coming October 27, 2026 from Regal House Publishing: An anxious over-thinker finds love letters and convinces herself she can fix a stranger but absolutely wrecks her own life in the process.
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