A Filmmaker's Guide to: Non-Linear Narratives

In this chapter of ‘the filmmaker’s guide’ we’re actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the ‘filmmaker’s guide’ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me (email in bio) and tell me how you’re doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmaker’s guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.

Non-Linear Narratives

What are they?

Non-Linear Narratives are plots and storylines that do not subscribe to one, normally chronological, order. This is normally for the effect of revealing certain facts about the storyline to the viewer bit by bit and keep the viewer interested in the work.

In literature, there are many examples of non-linear narratives and not all of them are "Memento"-style complex. There are a few different kinds of non-linear narrative:

1. when the narrative is contorted so that certain facts are revealed at the times when the viewer requires them
2. when the narrative is written in first person and omits bits of information that another narrator, alternatively in the narrative, will add in later
3. when the narrative is cyclical and we end up in the same place as we were at the beginning. This is for the effect of making the viewer purposefully recognise the strangeness of the non-linear narrative
4. when the narrative tricks the viewer into believing that it is overtly non-linear, when instead it is actually a set up by another character in order to trap this character in a loop
5. when the narrative begins in media res and then covers the backstory and then goes through towards the end
6. when a narrative covers multiple different stories in multiple different time frames and then converges upon the near-ending

So there are a number of different books that cover this. They include but are not limited to:

1. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
2. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
3. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
4. Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar
5. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne
6. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
7. The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
8. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
9. Ulysses by James Joyce
10. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

What about in film?

Film loves the non-linear narrative and by film, I mean Christopher Nolan. When it comes to non-linear narratives, people love watching them because of the fact that they are kept guessing long after the movie is over. They sit there, have to watch every second and then try and work out what the story is actually about by putting the events in some sort of order.

Let's take a look at some films that have a non-linear narrative:

1. Synecdoche, New York
2. Cloud Atlas
3. Inception
4. Memento
5. Jackie Brown
6. The Social Network
7. Watchmen
8. Slumdog Millionaire
9. Michael Clayton
10. I'm Not There
11. The Good Shepherd
12. Pan's Labyrinth
13. Sin City
14. Batman Begins
15. Breakfast on Pluto
16. The Constant Gardener
17. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
18. Oldboy
19. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
20. The Hours
21. City of God
22. Vanilla Sky
23. Run Lola Run
24. The English Patient
25. Pulp Fiction

So as you can see, there are many different types of non-linear narrative in film and they date back to as far as film began even with "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" in the twenties being a non-linear narrative which is mostly told in a flashback with the first and the last scene being the only scenes featured in the narrative's 'present'.

Further Reading:

• Anderson, L (2005). Creative Writing. UK: Routledge
• Kroll, J (2012). Research Methods in Creative Writing. UK: Red Globe Press.
• Laplante, A (2010). The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing. UK: W.W Norton and Company.
• Morley, D (2007). The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing. UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Swords, A (2020). Forest Paths Method For Narrative Design. USA: Independent