Originally Posted by
deltamire
That's how I usually do it too, and what is currently the second one does actually happen a couple of hours before, but the reason I've got it as the latter one is because it explains what happens in the first. So the Big Nasty Inciting incident happens timeline-wise second, but chronologically first, and then the explanation / development of the exposition behind it happens timeline-wise for the characters first, but chronologically second. Infodumps in the first chapter have always been a pet peeve of mine, so I like to keep the first 3000 words or so sleek. Or as sleek as I can get it, anyhow.