One of the biggest issues that JAFF writers seem to struggle with is authenticity. One would think that with a work of fiction, you could pick any timeline you choose and go with it. I have read many that made me cringe. What if this one thing happened? Well that one thing and about twenty other things happened. Pride and Prejudice is loved by many. Its words are poured over by thousands who have learned every paragraph by heart and are willing to defend it as though it were as important as the bible (perhaps even more important than the bible for some). If it didn’t happen in the original book, it should not happen in your fanfiction, unless that is your deviation.
Pride and Prejudice has been poured over so well that we actually know which date almost everything happens. Pemberley.com has posted it, in case you are curious. Others have as well, and I have seen some disagreement by some, but Pemberley.com seems to be the most accurate to me.
I am an inexperienced author. I have had no writing training beyond what one learns in high school and college (when your specialty is Science, not Writing). So, I am writing a book with very little experience, other than the fact that I have written 7 already and self-published them on Amazon and Nook (you can see them here).
My process is to start at the beginning and write what comes to mind. Once I have a chapter, I upload it to fanfiction.net (my ID is LoriH if you are interested in following me for free). I have a beta reader now, and it helps. I simply follow the characters around in my head and write down what comes to me. This method is not conducive to writing a timeline or outline. I have done so for previous books, and it always ends up changing. The characters in my head have no regard for my timelines and outlines.
I am now 84 pages into my newest book, and I am getting to the climax (I have one this time!). I start writing my next chapter and I write something that feels familiar. I look back and I have started the last two chapters the same way. I can’t do that! Realizing I need to figure out what has happened, and knowing what I want to happen, I print out my book (booklet 4 to a page so as to not waste too much paper) this weekend, sat at my dining table with my bullet journal and read through the book, editing where things did not make sense (Charlotte should not walk into a room in one paragraph and then again in the next paragraph. What was I thinking?) and filling out a timeline, characters list (with attributes so that I don’t give someone blonde hair in chapter 3 and red hair in chapter 18), and a detailed list of occurrences in each chapter so that I can remember when things happened.
What did I learn? Well, for one, I had correctly put my story into the timeline of Pride and Prejudice. When I had Elizabeth say she would leave Kent in a fortnight, it was 2 weeks before Elizabeth in the original book would have left Kent. Yes! Score one for me. I also realized I had written 10 days of material with no Sundays. This would be very odd for the parson and those with him to treat Sunday like any other day in Regency, England. So I had to put in a scene, add a day and make things make sense again. I can’t disappoint my fans by having too many days in a week!
So, in short, timelines are important. They protect you from reviews that will slander your work at the slightest issue such as going 10 days without a Sunday. Admittedly, if I read my book as though it were from someone else, I might have reviewed that point meant the author had no idea what was happening. Well, truthfully, I doubt I would actually do that. I am a nice person. I tell them their mistakes individually and to their face. I don’t publish such things, and I try not to give negative reviews.
Have a great rest of your day, Lorraine Hetschel
The last day of November 2022.
