Some murkiness.
The hard part of Man of Sin is following the story. I have a big thing about timestamps and flashbacks. They're the lazy person's way of advancing a story. Now, those of you who know me realize I used a 17-year flashback on page one of my story, Mayfield Eight. But that was to establish the tragedy of my main character's father's death. And it was a one-time deal. And it helped to ground the main character as being fatherless, self-reliant, cocky. So there.
That being said maybe flashbacks/timestamps need to be used sparingly. Man of Sin had several, and they didn't really help me understand the story that much better. In fact, I more or less stopped trying to remember most of the details only knowing there was this theme of revenge in the mind of Damien that would surface from time to time. Eventually he'd either achieve his goals or not. MOS's murky artwork compelled my mind to drift in that area.
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