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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/23865
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/23865
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Stories are the way human being make sense of life. They are an attempt to impose order on the chaotic stream of events that we experience day to day.

History is the interpretation of the stream of past events as a set of stories. As such, those stories will overlap each other in the time scale. When telling multiple stories, you need some way to keep them distinct. TV ensemble dramas typically split their casts up in small groups to tell separate (though possibly intersecting) stories. The viewer knows when you have switched to a different story because the cast changes.

In history, dividing up the cast does not often work so neatly, so it is quite common to separate the stories out, tell one all the way though, and then hop back in time to tell another. Stories told later can reference ones told earlier, so it is important to tell them in the right order.

Whichever approach you choose, the key is to remember that stories are always artificial imposition of order on the chaos of events, and as such the logic and continuity of the story trumps all other threads, including linear time.

Original score: 1