non-linear timelines

I love experimental storylines. It's not YA, but a notable example is The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. It's told backwards and I think it does it really well.

Becca C. said:

I love experimental storylines. It's not YA, but a notable example is The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. It's told backwards and I think it does it really well.

Click to expand...

A backwards story? Sounds interesting.

I love experimental storylines too. If I were a more confident writer, I'd try it out. But I say go for it. I liked (500) Days, despite the ending.

Just remember why (500) Days worked. The plot structure was still there, despite the unorganized story. Plot /=/ story. You can have the most interesting story in the world, but if you're telling it out of order you still have to have a climax, midpoint, catalyst, etc..

I love stuff like that. In fact, if I saw a structure like that mentioned in a review or blurb of a book, it'd be enough of a hook for me to find the book in the library or grab the Kindle sample of it.

An experimental storyline works best, though, when you have some sort of thematic reason for its existence. If I were to get to the end of the book and not understand why the author had chosen to tell the story that way, I think I'd be frustrated. Actually, I think the reason for the structure should start to become apparent by the middle of the book. That way, the reader can become fully engaged with piecing the story together without wondering why he or she is being asked to follow a very non-traditional storyline.

Also, with regard to fluidity, in film it's easy to have visual cues alerting you to when certain things are happening (I'm thinking of Pulp Fiction, and how it was not terribly hard to figure out the general order of the storyline by seeing people's clothes and hairstyles and seeing who was alive and who was not...). In literature, that's less easy, and I suppose some authors would resort to something artificial, like putting the date and time at the beginning of each new chapter or scene. But I think I'd like it better, as a reader, if the author wove in details that helped me figure out where in the chronology I was at without explicitly telling me.

I'm trying to think of YA or MG books that use a really nontraditional storyline. In Kathleen Duey's A Resurrection of Magic series, she has chapters that alternate between narrators and time periods (one story is happening several hundred years after the other, if I recall). I can't think of anything else right now. If you're into classics, William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! has a story that's told different ways, with a different chronology each time. And since it's Faulkner, he just lets you flounder about for 200 pages until you pick up on what's going on.

I agree with bloodfiend that keeping the plot and a story structure is key for experimental fiction. You need to lay it all out in order, then chop it up so that it still has a beginning, middle and end when you have it rearranged. A reason for the non-linear structure would probably be a good idea too, unfortunately.

thebloodfiend said:

A backwards story? Sounds interesting.

Click to expand...

It is! It begins with (among other plotlines...) with the two lovers having fallen apart, avoiding each other, etc., at the end of WWII, and it ends at the exact moment, at the beginning of WWII (the bombing of London), when they met.

yep, exactly what bloodfiend said.

Sweet! Sounds like a Tarantino or Nolan film I really like! Keep those flashcards near and your author's notes. Haven't personally done a story like this.

I've have an MS like this once upon a time, and I LOVED (500) Days of Summer - an all time fave of mine. I think you can definitely pull it off and I love it when I read or watch non-linear stories because when it's done, I can make the connections like, "OH!" and "So that's how that happened," or, "So that's why he's like this." So on. And personally, that is so fun. I also agree with bloodfiend.

BUT I LOVE HIM by Amanda Grace is told backwards. (One of my favorite reads of 2011 so far.) You still have to have a forward moving plot with a climax at the end... which is really the beginning.

Not. Easy.

I WANT TO WRITE ONE NOW.

Actually, I think this is exactly what my (stuck) WIP needs. Time to do some slicing and dicing >:]

For further reference (there's some good recs).

I like nonlinear.

pandoricaopens said:

I'm currently writing a story told entirely out of order (think 500 Days of Summer), and I was wondering if you guys had any tips on keeping the story fluid. Also, how do you generally feel about stories told out of order or even backwards?

Click to expand...

Split timelines are becoming very common now. The majority of what I beta read tends to start in the middle, with half the story told in flashbacks.

Backwards would be very ambitious, but if the story works this way, why not?

Make sure you know why each scene follows one another, and arrange them in the order you want the information presented.

For instance,

Showing the main character be a dick, then flashing back to his girlfriend dumping him will have a different effect on the reader than the linear progression of his girlfriend dumping him, followed by him being a dick.

If I Stay by Gale Forman has a present story with flashbacks interwoven, though that's no exactly what you're getting at, I know.

Momento's a very good film for a non-linear plot. Or atleast it's non-linear for the main character most of the way, and also sort of for us at points. It's good though, if you've not seen it!

I think the key is to make everything link. So, if something happens (in the future part or the later part) that makes you think "Wow, this character is an emotionless psychopath" that's a good time to throw in where / what in her life made her that way.
I'm sort of following this structure for a little project at the moment. Once you start writing, it's kind of obvious which sections of the past you should link in. If you have an interesting character with lots of foibles and quirks, it's quite fun having the opportunity to explain how they got there and what it was that influenced them that way.

Even more so than (500) Days, The Prestige has an awesome interlinking storyline mystery. A guy is in jail reading his enemies diary, and in the diary, the enemy is reading his diary. It's three separate story lines that all link together seamlessly. I'd recommend that. It's by far my favorite Nolan film. It's also a book, which I haven't read. I'd check out the book and see how the writer worked out the story.

I can only imagine a non-linear timeline has to be difficult. My experience in it, though, is from movies instead of books (though I'd love to read something like this). In Memento, you started off with the end and worked your way back, but the fact that the MC had amnesia really added to how this worked. In Pulp Fiction, you also have a non-linear timeline, except it jumps around from time to time, back and forth to show different aspects and give us a story from different perspectives. Same with Kill Bill, really - Part 1 takes place before a lot of Part 2.

But yeah, the key it having a linked, coherent storyline where you still have a climax and secrets that you won't find until you reach the end, or else the reader has nothing to look forward to.