“Trying Out Nonlinear Storytelling” by Eric Noon

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It’s often said that the fastest way to any destination is a straight line. When it comes to writing, this same approach can be instilled in a writer in order to make it to the “finish line” of their story. But writing, like real life, is not without its detours. As many who begin their writing journey quickly come to learn, the plight of the writer is often figuring out how their story is going to end, and even if the writer has escaped this time-tested fate, a new question arises: “How in the world am I going to get there?” It’s because of these complexities in the craft of writing that the adage rings true, as much as it may seem to be, it’s not truly about the destination, but about the journey taken instead.

So, let’s talk about that journey. For the sake of argument, pretend you’re writing a murder mystery novel. As the writer and creator, you likely know who the killer is, maybe you know how they killed the victim, and you know the killer’s motive. That’s great! But now you’re faced with the issue of how you get your protagonist to find out who the killer is, while also creating their own character arc throughout the story. Your mind tells you you should start there; set the stage for your protagonist to discover the murder and move towards solving it. But here’s the thing: you don’t have to start at the “beginning.”

If the area that you have more confidence in is how the killer picked their victim and what their motive is, maybe start with writing a scene where the killer’s motive gets revealed. Building off of that, if the killer is a prevalent character throughout the story, keep writing scenes where the killer gets slighted or shows subtle hints of things affecting them that align with the motives that led to the victims death. From there, you can work to bring in your protagonist and their angle on the matter. Maybe write a confrontation between the protagonist and the killer before the truth comes out, or maybe one after all is revealed, and then work backwards to how your protagonist got into this mess in the first place. If you know where you came from, the way back becomes that much easier.

But remember that you’re also able to jump around in your writing. If you hit a snag in the B plot, jump back to the A plot and give that another go, or work on the resolution to the C plot that occurs in act three of the story. While there’s plenty of story structure diagrams out there, like Freytag’s Pyramid, that are applicable to the finished product of the story itself, the destination. But how you decide to write the story is entirely up to you, so learn to love the journey, it might just take you to unexpected places.