Should it be linear?

RG570 said:

In order to make it more engaging, I've started a story with the main character seeing a psychiatrist about some hallucinations. After that's established, I have the main character start to talk about the day they started, then a break with asterisks, then the narration goes back to that day (as opposed to the story going to first person while he explains what happened.)

Is this a bad idea? To me it's clear what's going on but I am not sure if readers would be offended by such a jolt.

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If you finish the story in the psychiatrist's office you will have made a "frame". This is a fine literary device. If you have never read Heart of Darkness by Conrad, you should. Here's one of the best examples of a "framed" story. When they turned the storyline of Heart of Darkness into the movie Apolaypse Now, they made the biggest mistake when they removed the frame and actually showed "Kurtz". Conrad was smart enough not to show the devil on the page, merely led up to him, then showed what happened to the protagonist of the story because he DID see the devil.

Regards,
Scott

So it's a flashback. I think the reader will know. And, it's probably a lot better to "show" than "tell" it.

I originally started my book the same way, with framing chapters at the beginning and the end - but after several re-reads I think think it works better by just getting rid of those chapters - although the end is still sort of there, its just re-worked so its not a seperate element.

Note that you don't have to put a frame around the whole book, you can just return to the psychiatrist's office after the hallucination, then move on to the rest of the novel as usual.

sunandshadow said:

Note that you don't have to put a frame around the whole book, you can just return to the psychiatrist's office after the hallucination, then move on to the rest of the novel as usual.

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True. Some novels have several flashbacks while some are one big flashback. Either way, it's important to make a noticeable distinction for the reader.

You have a break with asterisks - did you consider a new Chapter? As long as it's clear what's happening I can't see any undue jolt problem.

I did the same myself with a character touching on what happened many years ago - at the end of one chapter. Those events are related in the next chapter and the story reverts to the 'here and now' in the ensuing chapter.

Don't know closely that relates to your situation but so far nobody has mentioned my handling of the position as being strange or jolting.

One of my good friends did this and his book was/is fantastic! It is one of my all time favorite books. Too bad it was sucked in by publish america, because I am telling you this book is...WOW.

Anyway, his story was framed like this. What he did was begin every chapter with the psychiatrists notes in italics. It was the psychiatrist summing up the day's events and the effects and the breakthroughs and setbacks this patient and undergone. Then it was fleshed otu or made sense in the body of the chapter, and he had a perfect balance where it peaked your interest on what was going to occur next in the story, without giving anything away or destroying it. And by the end of the book you saw not only the entire event but how he handled his life afterwards. Top notch work! I can definitely tell you in this case it worked.

It was excellent, I wish I could send you to a bookstore or library to read it.

I think that a frame like this works best when the relationship really adds something to the retrospective material--like with 'Interview with a Vampire'.