Session 10 Adding Scenes from the Past and Future Most of you have read or seen the film version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. You’ll remember that in the middle of a hide and seek game, Lucy hears her brother’s footsteps coming and slips into a wardrobe, which is a closet. It is full of coats, suddenly something cold brushes against her arm. It’s snow and Lucy finds herself standing in snow. She’s in another world. Sometimes in our writing we take a step that transports us to another world. We aren’t transported to a magic kingdom, but maybe to another time or place.

Today I want to teach you that authors sometimes make characters in personal narratives travel through time and place. They do this to highlight the meaning they most want to show. Let me show you an example of a writer who wrote a story of something that actually involved just about five minutes of real time. In this story, the narrator thinks ahead, imagining what will happen in the future. Be ready to notice when this happens in the story and show me a quick thumbs-up. Then we’ll do a quick thumbs-up when she returns (like children in Narnia return) to the very real sequence of events. Are you ready?

Your abuelito is dead, Papa says early one morning in my room. Esta’ muerto, and then as if he just heard the news himself, crumples like a coat and cries, my brave Papa cries. I have never seen my Papa cry and I don’t know what to do. I know he will have to go away, that he will take a plane to Mexico, all the uncles and aunts will be there, and they will have a black- and-white photo taken in front of the tomb with flowers shaped like spears in a white vase because this is how they send the dead away in that country. What happened here?

Because I am the oldest, my father has told me first, now it is my turn to tell the others. I will have to explain why we can’t play. I will have to tell them to be quiet today. My Papa, his thick hands and thick shoes, who wakes up tired in the dark, who combs his hair with water, drinks his coffee, and is gone before we wake, today is sitting on my bed. And I think if my own Papa died what would I do? I hold my Papa in my arms. I hold and hold and hold him. Where is the narrator now?

Writers whenever you are writing a narrative, remember that you have the option of having your narrator or main character either imagine a future event or recall a past event. Today you have lots of options. You could check for the true and honest details in your writing, make sure that all parts of the story connect to what you are really trying to say, play with the story and even work to revise your story arc. LINK **Incorporate scenes from the past or future to highlight the importance of your story