Everyone can tell you a thing or two about it: the neighbor who has an argument with another neighbor. It is told completely differently by different people. Perspectives and time frames play an important role. People like to tell stories chronologically because that’s what we learned at school. But just as a detective has to collect all the pieces of the puzzle to solve a case, the events and, above all, the causes of an argument must be turned over and over and examined from all sides. In a non-linear way. So without chronological order. This blog post highlights the non-linear concept.
What’s the difference?
Above all, there is one major difference between linear and non-linear storytelling: the chronology, the temporal order.
This includes traditional novels – which of course come to mind when we think of “storytelling” – as well as textbooks that contain factual information. But more on that later. Storytelling goes beyond just telling stories, such as fairy tales. It is the art of constructing a unit of information that has an intended task of comprehension in the best possible way for the audience so that this purpose is fulfilled. And of course, this could also be a narrative about the global economy!
Linear narratives follow a chronological order. Time progresses in them as we humans perceive it. Non-linear storytelling, on the other hand, as the name suggests, does not follow this order. It can jump back in time and look forward. Aspects of such stories are flashbacks and foreshadowing, dream sequences and premonitions. But nonlinear storytelling can also exist without a timeline: in parallel with all kinds of information that is compiled as part of nonlinear storytelling.
Some stories contain both linear and nonlinear elements. In Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel Anna Karenina, foreshadowing is a crucial component – even though the narrative is generally linear. Anna, a married woman from the 19th-century Moscow aristocracy, becomes hopelessly involved in a love affair. As the story unfolds, we see repeated references to railroads. One scene is not unimportant: at the beginning of the story, a railroad worker is run over and dies at the very station where Anna gets off the train. All these “hints” repeatedly point to the dramatic end of the book. Tolstoy also uses the alternation between linear narrative and non-linear elements in his novels to shape the content in a unique way, making his stories extremely vivid and compelling. A master of the art of storytelling.
Non-linear
Non-linear stories go in many directions. However, many non-linear stories still follow an organizing rule. Such as books with flashbacks and previews in distinct chapters. The author has decided to place these chapters in a particular order. Although it would be technically possible to simply read across, it sometimes makes more sense to read the book one chapter at a time, as the author has planned.
Non-linear narrative structures are not unique to novels. Most of the time, other sources of information, such as school textbooks or scientific papers in general, work in this way. In fact, it is much easier to create a non-linear textbook, for example for biology, than a novel. A timeline can even be a hindrance to structuring the information in a way that it can be best understood. Or to explore a large concept from different perspectives.
The KontextMaps are a non-linear narrative that can break away from this completely. With this type of narrative, we don’t have to read from left to right and from top to bottom. Instead, we can start at any point to dive in right where the personal interest or knowledge gap lies. The overall context of the topic is always shown in the context map, since the individual information points are embedded in the big picture.
This type of communication uses non-linear storytelling in a different way to novels. If we look at our mappings, we see that they leave it up to the reader to decide where to go, whereas a novel by Tolstoy always points in a certain direction – the reader simply has to follow.
In media res – right in the thick of it
In his Ars Poetica (“poetic arts”, 13 BC), the Roman poet and satirist Horace was the first to use a term that we still use today when it comes to non-linear storytelling: in media res or “in the middle of things”. The opposite of linear storytelling, according to Horace, begins “from the egg”: from the beginning.
“He doesn’t start the Trojan War at the beginning either, but always rushes to action and pulls the listener into the middle of the action…”
Horace was right: when we read nonlinear stories, they often start in the middle of the action – not at the beginning… or the egg, as he put it.
Favorites
So, what is non-linear storytelling? In addition to Tolstoy and Horace, there are many more examples. Here are some of our favorites for non-linear narratives in the traditional sense of the word. We have not included scientific information here.
Wuthering Heights (1847): To be honest, this classic novel by Emily Brontë can be quite confusing due to the time jumps involving similarly named characters. However, once you get the hang of it, it is captivating to the bitter end.
Atonement (2007): This film, directed by Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, describes a British family drama in the 1930s. It uses ingenious flashbacks in which we see both sides of the coin: it shows us how different people experienced the same situation.
Forget me not! (2004) by director Michel Gondry, an indie hit starring Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey, tells the story of a man who would like to erase the memories of his relationship with his ex. The medical procedure he undergoes to do so provides a dreamlike, nightmarish setting for jumping back and forth in time.
How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014): Not all non-linear stories have to be serious! HIMYM is a modern classic that makes many people giggle. Although the entire series is technically one big flashback, it makes thousands of leaps in time to tell subplots.
Santa Esperanza (2004): This book by Aka Morchiladze contains many small books that together make up one. However, they are all self-contained and can be combined in any way you like. Therefore, you can also choose a specific order in which you want to read it.
Cloud Atlas (2012): “An exploration of how the actions of individuals in the past, present and future intertwine, how a soul is shaped by a murderer becoming a hero and how an act of kindness over centuries inspires a revolution,” is how IMDB describes this drama with Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Hugh Grant. Non-linear storytelling at its best!
Tenet (2020): One of Christopher Nolan’s many successful films, which masterfully plays with the concept of time. For example, there are ‘reverse’ entropy spheres that move backwards through time.
Edge of Tomorrow (2014): A thrilling alien science fiction film with Tom Cruise, in which the protagonists have to see through and change a predetermined sequence of events in order to save humanity.
Groundhog Day (1993): Waking up every day to experience the same thing over and over again. A terrific comedy classic that you should see. A journalist gets caught in an absurd time loop and picks his way out.
Is this art?
We are aware that the examples above are narratives, stories. But of course it is precisely technical information, reports, facts, naked information and not novels that benefit most from non-linear storytelling. Content that comes from research, from science that happens every day, that is factual, that can often be quite boring, such as legal facts or technical descriptions, bureaucracy or operating instructions! Textbooks or more comprehensive topics that can only be properly understood in a larger context – such as our map on 5G technology. Such pieces of information often do not have to and cannot follow a timeline, unlike novels – beginning-middle-end (happy end = comedy, disaster = tragedy).
We are aware that the examples above are narratives, stories. But of course it is precisely technical information, reports, facts, naked information and not novels that benefit most from non-linear storytelling. Content that comes from research, from science that happens every day, that is factual, that can often be quite boring, such as legal facts or technical descriptions, bureaucracy or operating instructions! Textbooks or more comprehensive topics that can only be properly understood in a larger context – such as our map on 5G technology. Such pieces of information often do not have to and cannot follow a timeline, unlike novels – beginning-middle-end (happy end = comedy, disaster = tragedy).
There are other reasons why we love nonlinear narratives. At the top of the list is the suspense they can create. While lines of text can be boring and lead to distractions, nonlinear stories are like a fascinating puzzle that always remains exciting. The audience has to do a lot more work to piece everything together and develop their own logic for the story. While this may bring novels to mind again, it is also very important for knowledge-based content. For any content, you want your readers to “stick with it.”
The best of both worlds
Whether or not you use non-linear storytelling is, of course, entirely up to you. We can’t think of a topic where at least a spark of nonlinearity wouldn’t be beneficial, whether it’s through time jumps or adding a multimedia aspect or a completely different perspective on the topic. Often it’s the best of both worlds that helps create the best end product. To convey a topic in such a way that readers and users receive exactly what is intended.
