non linear chapters

[SevenStars]

I'm experimenting at the moment with the notion of thoughts being a mode of time travel. The piece I'm writing has non linear chapters, they don't neatly evolve and flow. What I want is to present the past, present and future as cascading into one another - I hope that makes sense to some of you.

I'm wondering if:
a: Anyone has an opinion if this is a good, or a bad idea.
b: Has anyone seen anything like this before and, if so, did it work? .
c: Do you think you would like to read something written in such an abstract manner?

Thanks in advance

 

[Jo Zebedee]

A. If done well (and I have no doubt it will be, knowing you) no problem.
B. Time traveler's wife? It skips scenes, mixes protagonists of different ages and manages it with aplomb. But it uses a device at the start of each chapter to keep the reader right with what's going on. Staying On by Paul Scott might be worth a look at says Mr Springs.
C. Yes. When are you ready for betas... Sounds right up my street.

 

[tinkerdan]

This does sound interesting although I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around it.
I know some people who would hate it because they can hardly stand flashbacks. Would this be like flashbacks and flash forwards from wherever you stand in time with a multiple view effect like looking into a large wall mirror that faces another large wall mirror.

My aunt and uncle did that to a bathroom and it was disorienting going in there. I tried to avoid looking into the mirror-mirror-mirror.

I did something with dimensional travel where the person could see the entry point and the exit point and could see themselves somewhere in the middle as if they were looking from all three places to the other two. Is that the feeling you're looking for?

I had trouble following Memento as it traveled backward and Twelve monkeys was so twisted it almost got confusing.

You'd need lots of note-cards and a huge story board on which you might place mylar sheets over the top of each other representing the various time-lines and a light table like surface behind it to bring forward the look of a palimpsest with layers that fade in and out.

 

[Glitch]

It sounds like an interesting idea. Are you planning one character travelling back and fore, or characters from the different time periods converging?

The 2007 film Premonition staring Sandra Bullock has a non linear time line, but it is linear from the characters pov. I also enjoyed 12 monkeys

 

[TheDustyZebra]

As springs said, if done well, it's fine. Time Traveler's Wife did well and was not confusing in the least. Another book I tried recently, Deaver's The October List, was nowhere near as convoluted -- it simply went backward, each chapter happening a few minutes or hours before the previous one -- and I couldn't stand it. I gave up after just a few chapters.

 

[mosaix]

As Springs and TDZ have said The Time Traveller's Wife is an excellent example of how it can be done. But be careful, it must have been such a difficult book to plan and write and the slightest error (I haven't found a single one) would have ruined the whole thing.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

There are a couple of continuity errors* in it but very few considering the scope. In fact, if there was any scene worth looking at for getting your head round the continuity it is one where Henry is in a cage with the other Henry turning up. I had to read it a couple of times to unravel the threads of it.

With that in mind, Sevenstars, there is another thread going on about visual planning tools and I think with something like this you'd need something pretty good at holding onto threads of info.

* an incident is referenced with a character, Helen, which mustn't have made it into the final book
*in his final scene, in one of the time travelling versions of it Henry sees himself with clothes on, but he doesn't have any in the actual scene.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I think I remember that scene that wasn't there -- that is, I remember a reference to something that I had to go back and search for, that turned out not to be there.

 

[farntfar]

I haven't read either of the books mentioned above but is Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 anything like what your after doing?