Of the six feature film adaptations of Little Women, Greta Gerwig’s 2019 version is by far the most daring in one crucial aspect: structure. Rather than telling the story chronologically, Gerwig chooses to depict the trials and triumphs of the March sisters by starting partway through Alcott’s narrative — Jo is in New York, Amy and Laurie are in Paris, Meg is married, and Beth is at home. The film flashes back and forth to bring the viewer up to speed. This tactic not only serves to liven up a narrative many audiences know, but also demonstrates a crucial freedom in storytelling that can be applied to your ghostwriting project.
We naturally tell stories in chronological order because that’s how we experience events, in a casual chain — point A leads to point B before heading to point C. However, just because we experience time linearly doesn’t mean we have to tell our stories that way. In fact, as Gerwig demonstrates, nonlinear storytelling can allow for richer and more impactful interactions. Below are some ways a nonlinear narrative can improve your project and how can a ghostwriter help.
(NOTE: Spoilers for Little Women follow. Read at your own risk.)
Nonlinear Tip #1: Make the audience play catch-up (but don’t forget to make them care). We’ve all seen crime procedural shows start with a shocking scene and then rewind to 48 hours earlier. How did the characters get there? What could possibly have led to such an outlandish situation? We automatically ask questions when we’re forced into a situation without context. In your story, by requiring the audience to play catch-up, you’re driving them to read more.
However, artistic integrity is required to ensure you aren’t toying with the audience. Too many of us have seen crime show rewinds. We know our heroine wouldn’t actually quit the police force and plot against her friends; obviously she’s been blackmailed, is undercover, or is staging a ruse to get a confession. In other words, your audience is smart, so give them credit. Instead of laying down one tense scene and then spending the rest of the narrative building up to that single moment, draw your readers into a universe first. Make them fill in the blanks but still build a world they care about, occupied by people they have a reason to root for.
Gerwig introduces Jo as she works to break into the male-dominated writing industry. Meg is juggling domestic life with keeping up social appearances. Amy is disappointed with her art but happy to reunite with Laurie, who is depressed and dissolute. All of these scenes provide us with full characters in situations already fraught with their own tension. The additional context of their lives before this point only adds more shading to characters we already care about.
A ghostwriter working with you to polish your story will be aware of trends, tropes, and tricks, and can steer you away from gimmicks and toward crafting a narrative with only people and plots that readers will fall in love with.
Nonlinear Tip #2: Context should strive to be satisfying, not shocking. One of the hardest impulses to resist as a writer is to make yourself appear smarter than your reader. After all, you’re holding all the cards and deciding when to reveal them. With nonlinear storytelling, this is especially true, as you can hold back a particular flashback or flashforward until it will have the greatest impact. However, the goal is to pace your revelations so the reader neither feels condescended to nor cheated by the information. The shock of a twist fades; make sure the mechanics underneath remain satisfying.
One way to avoid this is to reveal context slowly but consistently. Nonlinear narratives typically follow several storylines that eventually coincide somehow, revealing aspects about each other. They are intertwined and in relationship with each other. To ensure the revelations land and the resolutions reward the reader’s efforts, crucial information should be doled out steadily, character arcs should be respected, and placement of each event should follow an emotional logic.
The relationships between Amy, Laurie, and Jo are aided substantially by the use of context. By starting with who these characters become, rather than who they were, we can see how Amy and Laurie are better suited for each other, exhibiting palpable history, chemistry, and social compatibility. By contrast, Jo’s dreams of writing and more unorthodox approach to social life highlight why Laurie would have been an unsuitable match. Telling the story out of chronological order helps us understand why Jo turning down Laurie is inevitable, prompting us to root for Laurie and Amy to eventually find each other instead. This is an illustration of how context should ultimately be satisfying, not simply shock the audience with the writer’s audacity, cleverness, or manipulation.
Nonlinear Tip 3#: Structure serves the story, not the other way around. Remember the “48 Hours Earlier” cop show technique? We’re all so familiar with it now, it’s become a gimmick. And a gimmick has a very specific motive behind it: attracting attention. If that’s your only reason for wanting to tackle a nonlinear narrative structure, you will not only leave your readers feeling manipulated, but you will also find the story profoundly hard to tell. Why? Because you will be trying to make your story fit the structure, rather than allowing the story to dictate the structure.
Consider Beth in Little Women. The culmination of her arc is the simultaneous juxtaposition of her first and second illness. In both sequences, we see her fight and her family tends to her. We then see her pull through the first time. Jo wakes to find the bed empty and heads downstairs to see Beth sitting at the table. However, the resolution of that storyline only manages to make the heartbreak even more severe when it is immediately followed by the resolution of Beth’s second illness. Jo wakes to find the bed empty and heads downstairs to see Marmee alone, heartbroken; Beth is gone. The structure serves the story — Beth’s death is all the more devastating because we see it paralleled with when she survived.
Writing out of chronological order should only be done because that style will best serve the story you’re trying to tell. The narrative threads should strengthen and complement each other by the order in which they are told, drawing crucial parallels and highlighting certain themes. Essentially, the structure of the story should be a key component to the story itself; without it, the narrative wouldn’t resonate.
The way you tell a story is just as important as the story you are telling. In fact, your goal should be to make the two seem inextricably linked. If that sounds daunting, and you’re unsure of the best structure for your story, contact us here at Trellis today! We can help you decide how to tell your tale, from the most basic considerations, like point of view and tense, to these more complex decisions of structure and context. We passionately believe in helping you express your dream as vividly, accurately, and powerfully as you imagine it. Most importantly, have fun with your story, like Gerwig did with Little Women, and you’ll find the journey all the more rewarding, both as a writer and as a reader.