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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42182
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42182
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

 **Give the location of the scenes as the chapter/scene headers.**

If the present-time scenes are in MC 1's house and the flashbacks are in a local coffeehouse (for example), your readers will be able to piece together which scenes go where and they'll know that they are different timelines (since they have some of the same characters).

**Indicate the timing based on the position of the sun or other celestial bodies.**

You give an example of how you can't say "6 months earlier" but your specific examples all say "earlier that day." Either way, the amount or quality of light will be different, the position of the sun (suns?) will be different and also the moon (moons?) or the visibility of the stars.

**Change things about the shared setting based on the passage of time.**

If it's the same day, the earlier scene might have people going to work and in the later scene they're going home. Or the newsstand or bakery windows might go from full to nearly empty. Some flowers only bloom during the day, others only during the night; you can show them at the beginning or end of that process.

For longer periods of time, the leaves on the trees may be different colors, or absent, or starting to grow. The fruit trees may be in bloom, or the blossoms might be all over the ground and small unripe fruits have taken their places.

**The elements you will use to decide:**

- How much time has passed.
- How important it is to show which set of scenes comes first (it might not be important at all because the context of the scenes themselves might reveal that).
- The locations of your sets of scenes.
- What you do or don't want to reveal about the world at this point in the story.

Original score: 3