Story Structure: Non-linear stories

Inventing Characters Read! Journal Word Notebook

Choosing Titles The Fab Four Golden Rules Generating Ideas Stealing Ideas From an Idea to a Plan Planning from a Picture Stories Based on a Passage Stories Based on a Sentence An Example of Good Planning

Describing a Location Longer descriptions Describing a character's appearance Dialogue Distinctive Voices Show, Don't Tell Characterisation: Shown Feelings More Characterisation Techniques Playing with Sentences Playscripts Action Suspense

What is story structure? 1 Exciting opening line 2 Set the scene 3 Talking and describing character 4 Characterisation 5 Suspense 6 Action 7 Cliffhanger Standing Out: How can you stand out from the crowd? Clever Clogs: Non-Linear Clever-clogs: Two perspectives Clever-clogs: Narrative voice Practice 11+ exam titles

Checking your story in an exam Redrafting = improving your story What if I run out of time in an exam? The Grumpy Examiner's Pet Hates

Year 2 into 3 Lemony Snicket After Harry Potter Must-Read Authors Spy Novels Horror Stories Classics Animal Stories Adventure Historical Fiction Myths & Legends Fantasy Family Stories & Comedies

Confident following Bald Worm’s recipe for writing a short story in an 11+ exam? Good – because now we’re going to mess with that structure!

Do you remember the ingredients we included in a short story?

Opening with exciting direct speech or an intriguing statement
Descriptive techniques to set the scene for the reader
Dialogue
Describing one of the characters
Suspense
Action
Ending with a cliffhanger

Now, you’ll probably have written a story that ends with a twist. They’re great fun to write, if a little tricky in an exam (the problem is that you have to plan a twist story really carefully, and you’ve only got five minutes to plan in an exam!). A non-linear story puts the twist at the beginning of the story!
Study this example: Hiro had to write a story. It was entitled Freedom!. This was his plan:

Because Hiro was a clever-clogs, he decided he could go one better, and make this a non-linear story. He decided to write the end of the story first. This is his first six lines.

At this point, Hiro decided to cut back to the beginning of his story, and start to describe how Flaubert received his cake:

He then continued to tell the rest of the story, up until the point that Flaubert escapes from his cell.

What is the advantage of putting the twist first? Won’t it just spoil the story?
Because the reader knows how the story is going to end, they will be laughing to themselves when they hear how the character believes things are going to turn out.

So how much should I write before ‘cutting back’ to the beginning?
As a rule, five-six lines should be enough to write the ‘end’ of the story, before cutting back to the beginning of the story.

How can I be sure that I won’t just confuse the reader?
A sub-heading telling the reader it is ‘Two hours earlier’ is one simple method to make sure your reader can follow what you are doing.

Why will a non-linear story impress the Grumpy Examiner?

Last updated on August 10, 2007