In our Craft Capsule series, authors reveal the personal and particular ways they approach the art of writing. This is no. 226.
Linearity is hard-baked into Western storytelling because of concepts such as the three-act structure and the hero’s journey. Imagine, for example, if Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness didn’t involve one fateful journey up the Congo. What if instead it involved constant round trips back and forth. That wouldn’t be Heart of Darkness. That would be Heart of Darkness Cruiseline.
However, other storytelling traditions embrace nonlinearity and the repeated return to the same or similar situations. Take for example, One Thousand and One Nights. King Shahriyar discovers his wife’s infidelity. He kills her and then vows that he will repeatedly wed a new woman only to kill her the morning after their wedding night so that she will never have time to betray him. A brave young woman named Shahrazad offers herself as bride to the king. Then, on their wedding night, she begins telling him one enchanting, interconnected tale after another, only to stop at dawn on a cliffhanger, ensuring that the king will allow her to live another night. The bulk of the book comprises the interconnected tales of princes, djinn, thieves, and sorcerers that Shahrazad tells the king. The narratives weave together to form a tapestry of staggering ingenuity, including iconic stories such as Aladdin and Sinbad.
In the book, Shahriyar is so broken by his wife’s betrayal that he embarks on a murderous quest for revenge. Brave, ingenious Shahrazad instinctively understands that she has to first build trust with the king. Thus, she spins him one tale after another of adulterous wives and wronged kings. She knows she cannot just tell him she understands his pain. She has to show him, through stories, because stories reach us in a way that nothing else can. Stories are empathy engines.
However, she also doesn’t want to let Shahriyar stew in his victimhood. Thus, Shahrazad starts to weave in tales of tyrannical kings who failed to show mercy or who acted unjustly to prick the king’s moral outrage. Her plan works. At the end of the 1,001 nights, she invites the king to renounce his decree to wed and behead the women of his realm, return to his senses, and regain his humanity. And he does.
Redemption in the real world is messy, nonlinear work, full of repetition and cruel setbacks. Shahrazad realizes this. Her slow, circuitous climb leading the king out of darkness is a far more realistic depiction of healing and change than a straight-shot, linear, A-to-B version would be.
I invite writers to introduce nonlinearity into their stories by following this exercise:
1. Identify a critical event in your story.
2. How does the main character view it as it is happening?
3. How does the antagonist or a secondary character view it as it is happening?
4. How does the main character view it after time has passed?
5. How does the antagonist or a secondary character view it after time has passed?
6. What accounts for the differences in all these perspectives/viewpoints?
7. Does the event happen more than once?
Not all stories must be straight. The circuitous route can lead to unexpected revelations.
Henry Lien is a speculative fiction author and writing instructor who teaches classes on Eastern storytelling. His writing has been nominated several times for a Nebula Award for speculative fiction. Born in Taiwan, he now lives in Los Angeles.
image credit: TJ Holowaychuk