Non-linear stories are a different way of telling a tale. There are many famous examples (Pulp fiction, Mulholland Drive etc), where the sequence of events isn't in strict chronological order. This style has gained a false reputation of being superior or more advanced or challenging to an audience than linear stories.

That is of course false, the nonlinear style as been around since storytelling existed are more closely mirrors the way we think about stories and tell them to each other : We often tell people about the end of a story first and then back track (“I had a terrible day today”, “I broke my leg”, “I won a thousand dollars!” etc) , we also jump to important parts , introduce other figures and give them back stories (“Then I saw Gene! You remember Gene? The lady with the sleepy eye, she used to look after you when you were a baby…”), and so on and on. Pure Linear story-stelling is actually much harder to do because it isn't natural to us, though a lot of non-linear stories are made by people constructing liner stories first and then going back and rearranging them.

Life and time are linear but our thinking and awareness is not. I would posit that the reason we sometimes seem to find non-liner stories a bit more difficult isn't because of the style, rather it's because those examples are not well constructed. When they are, you don't even notice the form! Neither linear nor non-linear is a more advanced form, they're both simply different ways to tell a story. Have you made a non-linear story? What is you fave example of the style?

This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by Secret Agent British Intelligence II - A cross between classic Spanish guitar by Rodrigo, and those cool wiry guitar riffs from James Bond Dr No, all mixed up into a little hacienda party melange!

Topics and shownotes

Links

Inspired by Banes's newspost - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/dec/04/im-out-of-order-youre-out-of-order/

Featured comic: Saga of the Wide Winged World - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/dec/02/featured-comic-saga-of-the-wide-winged-world/

Featured music: Secret Agent British Intelligence II - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Secret_Agent_British_Intelligence_II/ - by Dpat57, rated M.

Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/

VIDEO exclusive! Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks! - https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS