How Long Can My Timeline Be? Story Arc Questions and Answers

Many first-time novelists and memoirists struggle with timelines, asking excellent questions in my classes.  Two favorite ones: 

* How long a span of years or months or days can my book cover?
 
* What should I condense, what should I expand (Do I have to relate everything in real time or can it be summarized)?


A memoir writer from Massachusetts recently …