When should one *not* present events in chronological order?
Some stories tell well from beginning to end, all in a neat little line...and some don't.
When can a story be improved by using a different order in the telling?
Off the top of my head, I'd say flashbacks are great when something doesn't make sense out of the context of what is happening now in the story, or when something that happened long ago (before the story's timeline begins) is important to the story.
Also, in a project I'm working on, the story begins at a point where it is very hard to introduce the characters well, so I started at a point after that, then transitioned to a flashback on how they got to that point. It seems to be working out well.
What's the most important thing that your readers need to know right way? What's the scene that will drag them into your …
14y ago
Perhaps the most common reason to tell a story out of order is to put an exciting scene at the beginning to get the read …
10y ago
Just be aware, why flashbacks are considered bad: Many people cannot follow them. Take as example the movie Pulp Fictio …
14y ago
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Just be aware, why flashbacks are considered bad: Many people cannot follow them.
Take as example the movie Pulp Fiction. There is a character which is shot during the movie (I do not want to spoil). Later in the movie you see him alive again for an (for me) obvious reason: the movie is now showing a scene which took place later (like a flashback).
I think that Tarantino made that crystal clear. This scene is introduced like a new chapter. Nevertheless there a lot of people who did not get, why this character is now alive again. They could not follow that jump into the past.
So even if you think the readers should be able to follow your flashback, some won't. That does not mean you shouldn't do it. It means, you should be aware, that these readers will close your book and say "Man, what a stupid plot. That sucks!". You cannot satisfy them all.
It also can reduce your chances getting your book published the traditional way (publisher know, that some people do not like flashbacks, i.e. less money for the publisher). It makes things for you a little bit harder, but if you think it's worth it, go for it.
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What's the most important thing that your readers need to know right way? What's the scene that will drag them into your story? The answers to those questions will tell you what should come first.
It's certainly possible to write a convoluted, insanely complex story, jumping back and forth in time. Kurt Vonnegut wrote: "Start as close to the end as possible", and he was amazingly skilled at writing such a book. Neil Gaiman writes stories nested within other stories, and then you find out you've been in another story all along. There's an entire genre of fiction based on the non-linear narrative, and its called detective fiction.
Can you making it easy for your reader to follow along? If so, there's no reason not to make your story more interesting by using non-linear narrative tools. If you're using them just to add spice to your story, then its going to be obvious that you're trying to pull one over on the reader.
To sum up, it all depends on the story you're telling. What is the absolute core of the story? Use whatever techniques will drive the story forward, including this.
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Perhaps the most common reason to tell a story out of order is to put an exciting scene at the beginning to get the reader interested. Then go back and put in all the exposition to explain how that scene came to happen.
Another reason is if telling the story in order would give away important information to soon. Others have mentioned mystery stories. If you're writing a mystery where the reader is supposed to be trying to figure out who the villain is along with the detective, than of course starting out with the scene where the villain commits the crime could give it all away. Of course many stories have a "mystery" without being mystery stories in the sense of being about a crime, and the same reasoning might apply.
Some stories involve numerous flashbacks as information is progressively revealed.
Any given story might naturally call for non-linear time for any number of reasons. A story about an old man reminiscing about the past would quite naturally involve flashbacks. Perhaps you want to display the chaotic state of the hero's mind. Etc.
As John Smithers says, if you do write a non-linear story, be careful that it is clear what is the present and what is the past. I have occasionally read stories where something was supposed to be a flashback and I didn't realize it, and the story was confusing until I figured it out. This can be done as simply as putting a date at the front of each section or giving clear introductions to the flashbacks, like "Jack thought back to when ..." Remember to also make it clear when the flashback is over, by the way.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/10252. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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