YA with a nonlinear plot

chocowrites · Jan 9, 2010

As it looks right now, my WIP may have an nonlinear plot. But I'm not sure if it's a good idea in YA since I've been told it's important that the plot moves at a fast pace and is pretty clear-cut.

Any thoughts on a nonlinear narrative in YA?

And also, are there any really good YA books out there that have a nonlinear plot?

bobcat22 · Jan 9, 2010

What do you mean by nonlinear? How does your move? Does it jump back and forth? Is it told in different voices at different times? How does it move forward?

chocowrites · Jan 9, 2010

bobcat22 said:
What do you mean by nonlinear? How does your move? Does it jump back and forth? Is it told in different voices at different times? How does it move forward?

Mine's nonlinear in the jump back and forth sense. It's not chronological.

kaitlin008 · Jan 9, 2010

It's kind of hard to say if it would work or not. If it's done well, it would work. (For me, at least).

Leila · Jan 9, 2010

Nonlinear is hard to pull off, but as Kaitlin says, it works if it's done well.

Some of John Marsden's novels jump backwards and forwards in time and it works perfectly. Checkers is one of them. It's good but really sad, about a girl in a mental hospital looking back on her family life, her pet dog, and the events that led to her being in hospital.

DrummerGirl · Jan 9, 2010

I dont mind non-linear. Some non-linear books can be really compelling, especially if things are revealed and built upon each other - I think that drives the plot along.

Jaclyn Moriarty writes non-linear and multiple POV. when she changes POV, the new narrator doesnt pick off from the last in a linear fashion, but from a random moment before/after the last POV. she pulls it off really well, it adds extra intrigue. Try reading "Finding Cassie Crazy" published as "The Year of Secret assignments" In the US.
Although its a epistolic work, definitely worth a look at, one of my all time faves.

I second John Marsden. Genius. I havent re-read much of his work lately, but I think more than just checkers uses this technique.

bobcat22 · Jan 9, 2010

kaitlin008 said:
It's kind of hard to say if it would work or not. If it's done well, it would work. (For me, at least).

Kaitlin's right...you have to be careful that you don't make one story more important than the other, or people will be flipping through the past to get to the present or the opposite. I find that there have been books with multiple POVs that I speed through different speaker's to get to others.

It's not classified as YA, but Dan Chaon's "Await Your Reply" is told in a nonlinear fashion. It's a great book. I got to hear him speak in one of my MFA classes, and he said that he toyed around with marketing it as YA, so you may want to check it out.

Leila · Jan 9, 2010

Jaclyn Moriarty is pure awesomeness!!!

And yeah, I definitely remember it in others by John Marsden too. I think he used a similar non-linear thing in Dear Miffy. And a few more but I can't remember titles.

eyeblink · Jan 9, 2010

A classic example is Alan Garner's Red Shift, which has three timelines - Roman Britain, Civil War Britain and contemporary (1970s) Britain.

Aidan Chambers's Postcards from No Man's Land and Mal Peet's Tamar both have two timelines - the 1980s and WW2 Netherlands. In the Chambers novel, the flashbacks are in first person while the contemporary sequences are third, and its vice versa for the Peet. I think some of Chambers's other novels are non-linear, without checking (I've yet to read Now I Know, The Toll Bridge and This Is All).

Danthia · Jan 10, 2010

Amy Huntley's book The Everafter is non-linear and a great example of jumping about it time. I thought she handled it brilliantly.

Claudia Gray · Jan 10, 2010

As others have said -- yes, you can do this if you do it well. But it's also true that, with YA, less complicated narrative structures are generally favored. This isn't to say that you can only tell a linear story, start to finish; however, you should simplify/clarify whatever structure you do choose as much as possible.

chocowrites · Jan 10, 2010

Thanks for all the book recs and advice!

I'm a little hesitant to try this out as it could turn out badly if not done right, but I think I might attempt nonlinear just to experiment a bit.

I just read the Year of Secret Assignments yesterday (it was sitting on my bedside table) after it was mentioned it was nonlinear. And I really liked how the plot was handled.

I'm definitely going to check out the books recced

Shady Lane · Jan 10, 2010

Under the Wolf, Under the Dog by Adam Rapp

wandergirl · Jan 10, 2010

Three more YA novels that alternate chapters in the past and present:

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson
Inexcusable by Chris Lynch
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Stunted · Jan 10, 2010

What are you trying to achieve by making your novel non-linear? Is there any logic to it, like a bunch of diary pages that were found out of order? (that's a silly example, but you know what I'm saying

)

chocowrites · Jan 10, 2010

Thanks again for the new recs!

@Stunted: Lol, there's not exactly that much logic to it, I guess. Actually, the number one reason I'm considering it is because I write in disjointed snippets that jump all over the place, so my WIP is in nonlinear form as is.

I've been trying to straighten out the plot, but lately I've been wondering if it'd work out if I just kept it nonlinear. And plus I'm trying to experiment a bit with my writing. I figured it'd be interesting to try out. I'm just worried I might mess it up completely

Stunted · Jan 10, 2010

Ok, well, obviously I haven't read any of your manuscript, so you're the expert, not me, but I'd say that experimenting for the sake of experimenting is a bad idea. By all means give it a shot and see if it works, but if it doesn't have some kind of internal logic, it might not work.

One thing to try might be to have each section relate in some subtle way to the end of the previous section. Just a thought.

YA with a nonlinear plot

chocowrites

scaredy cat

bobcat22

chocowrites

scaredy cat

kaitlin008

Seeing newness all the time

Leila

bookshop girl

DrummerGirl

Capturing the Castle

bobcat22

Leila

bookshop girl

eyeblink

Barbara says hi

Danthia

Claudia Gray

chocowrites

scaredy cat

Shady Lane

my name is hannah

wandergirl

~kirsten hubbard

Stunted

Ich heiße Superphantastisch!

chocowrites

scaredy cat

Stunted

Ich heiße Superphantastisch!