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Monday, February 25, 2013

Nonlinear Narration


Nonlinear narration is when you tell your story out of chronological order. Think movies like Kill Bill, (500) Days of Summer, The Social Network, Pulp Fiction, Vanilla Sky, Memento, etc. Some of my most favorite movies/books use nonlinear narration. It may seem "radical" but nonlinear narration has been around since...well...the Iliad. There's nothing "new" or "fancy" about nonlinear narration...but "mainstream audiences" rarely inform themselves on such things. Nonlinear narratives can confuse audiences if the story arc isn't handled properly or if the plot is too loose. So my dear minions, if you're going to use a nonlinear narrative, make sure you keep the action tight. Don't stray too far into the Tragic Epic Backstory of your characters. I LOATHE backstory flashbacks. Seldom are they informative or useful, however with nonlinear narration you can play around more with flashback techniques. 

Since my main character is a zombie (ha!) I think a nonlinear route is necessary. I've always admired the nonlinear narrative but I've never tried it before. So...this zombie erotica will be my first pathetic attempt at it. I was at an impasse with this WIP for the longest time--I literally deleted 20K+ words from my manuscript and started over. I was banging my head on my desk for two months...but I'm determined to challenge myself and finish this. This story speaks to me. It wants to be a novel, I can feel it. Still gunning for 50K-65K words. 

I might be too hard on myself. But now that I'm armed with a new idea and finally writing again, I feel much better about this project. :) 

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