Timeline? Chronological? Jumpy? Hook?

It's difficult to get just the right mix of elements. I've seen it fail enough times, or at least become such a hindrance that I wished the author had just told it to me straight. I think the series "Lost" was a good example of both excellent use of other timelines, AND overdoing it at other times (no pun intended). We're just so used to jumping around now, it's almost sad. I wish shows would just pick a story and tell it, but even simple nonfictional shows seem obsessed with telling 2 or 3 stories per episode, jumping around just because it's fashionable to do it that way. Argh. Brians are turning to mush. But when it works, it works. ;-)

Hey, don't insult my metamedia saviness with your luddite terminology. Just cause my augmented neurology can handle several things happening at once is no reason to get jealous, meat puppets.

Well, it also helps that Lost sucks. If you really want a great, multilayed TV show with a 5 year long plot that actually makes goddamn sense, watch Babylon 5.

As for flashbacks and shit: They are one of many tools in our verbological boxes of toolstruction. If you use a flashback where you're supposed to use a adjewrench, you're gonna have a bad time.

It depends on how well you do it.

If you're going to useflashbacks, integrate them properly. If you don't, they'll jar the reader out of the story and may cause confusion. If you don't develop them properly (as in if you just 'tell' all the way through a flashback), they'll bog down the pace of your narrative.

If the flashbacks are there solely to hand the reader information so they understand the "present time" scenes, that's a problem. No matter what the scene, it has to move the story along and provide all the same pieces: goals, stakes, drive. If the flashbacks hook the reader and make them want to know more, they'd work.

The WTF moment at the start, then "starting" the story seldom works, however. The reader has no context or connection with the character or events, so it doesn't mean anything to them. And since you've shown them some part of the story later, you steal tension from your story because they know that scene is coming up, so nothing really bad could happen before it or your protag wouldn't be there.

This type of story is quite difficult to pull off, but it can be done.