Querying a Dual Timeline Story

 Hi friends! I'm back with a querying specific blog. This time I'm going to drill into how I approached a dual timeline when writing my query. 

Dual timelines are tricky, especially since you have such limited space in your query letter to get through everything. For context purposes, I've briefly outlined my manuscript below:

My Manuscript

• Timeline 1: Present day post-apocalypse, following Lucky Le
• Timeline 2: Childhood and leading up to the events of the apocalypse, following Lucky Le
• The timelines are alternated chapter by chapter equally until Act III, in which the timelines "merge" and then the rest of the story is told in Timeline 1

My work is a little simpler because of this. I only am following one character through both timelines and the timelines merge into one for the climax. You can find my query letter linked here. 

You'll see that my query focused on Lucky as she was experiencing Timeline 1, and then alluded to events that happened in Timeline 2 (her father leaving as a child and a history spanning from the Mekong Delta). While Timeline 2 plays a large role in explaining Lucky as she exists in Timeline 1, the most important events (inciting incident, midpoint turn, climax) all occur in Timeline 1.

If your novel is similar to mine and follows a singular character through multiple timelines, you will likely benefit from a similar framework. You should have a sense of which timelines are "informing" a central timeline. Lucky's current life and character is explained by her past, so my focus in the query letter was on her present. You'll see a similar way of approaching this with the blurb for The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid:

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

There is a primary timeline, one that includes Evelyn and Monique's interview. The blurb is focused on the present while weaving in details on how the past informs the present. 

This begs the question, what should you do if your dual timelines are bit different? Is it dual timeline until the very end? More than two timelines? Are there different characters of equal importance throughout the different timelines? 

It gets a bit trickier here. You will have to force yourself to be as succinct as humanly possible in your query, because you'll probably have to address all timelines in the query. A good example of this is the blurb for The Alice Network by Kate Quinn:

1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie's parents banish her to Europe to have her "little problem" taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.

1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she's recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she's trained by the mesmerizing Lili, code name Alice, the "queen of spies", who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy's nose.

Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn't heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth...no matter where it leads.

 The structure of this is pretty straight forward. It includes:

1. A paragraph for each timeline with a distinct demarcation for time and characters involved.
2.  A conclusion that (to the best of its ability) addresses the stakes across multiple timelines.

A querying following this model will likely be on the longer side. Once you have the structure and details in place, you should trim those sentences to get them where they need to be.

These are generally the two ways of addressing multiple timelines in blurbs I've found (some mesh the two). I tried writing my query following both models, and ultimately settled on the one that was better at communicating my story.

I know none of this is groundbreaking, but it did take me a good while of digging to figure out how to best write my query. If you still are unsure, read a bunch of dual timeline book blurbs to get a sense how other writers have tackled the same thing. I hope this is helpful if you are struggling with a dual timeline text.

Cheers and happy writing!

Hien