A nonlinear storyline
I can’t post this idea in good faith without first dedicating it to my friend George, who mused on it for a while. I intend to take that idea and run with it, in my own way.
This is an idea for a new hyper fiction, or maybe even for the hypertext novella that I have in progress, I’m not sure yet. at best, consider this notes on non-linear plotline. I fully intend to make some kind of original literary work as a result of this, but hell, if I die first, or if you beat me to it, well, that just means I did have a good idea after all if you got around to it before I did. After all, this web log is under a creative commons license. So go ahead and make the movie without my permission. Maybe it will flop without my investment in it and I get a free lesson. Who knows?
I have sketched out two versions of my idea, with scene numbers marked below:
_________________________
1.
There is an incident. There is a group of people present at the time of the incident. Every one among the group of people has angered one particular member of that group, who, in turn, has done nothing of consequence to any of the people involved, all of whom are ignorant of each other, because they do not yet understand that each of them is related in some way, some way in which, all ways combined, have contributed to the incident at hand, an incident which is caused by the sudden interjection of the one insulted party into a scene which happens to be entirely occupied by a “world” of people who have harmed this party in some way, and he snaps. He does something. He does something terrible. He is the cause of the incident. This thing haunts every one of the parties present upon the scene of the incident.
2.
the moment after the incident.
3.
the moment before the incident.
and so on….
4. the moment before, the moment before the incident.
and
5. the moment after, the moment after the incident.
and so on…
Until the incident, somehow, makes sense to all of the other parties present during the incident, a sense which comes upon them, coincidentally, at a moment when each of them happen, once again, to all be present at the same location, at the same time, and all of them happen to lay eyes on the one how has been harmed, and all of them realized that he has been harmed, and all of them suddenly understands that everyone here has harmed him, and then they all realize, all of them, they are reading him, they realize he was the guilty one.
—
Maybe this story is a mystery story. A whodunit. These people are all related somehow, and at first it seems just coincidental… or does the reader already know that this person is freaked out because of all of them, no the reader doesn’t know this. The reader might be led to think that these people are all VICTIMS of the “senseless” horror that has been committed to all of them. the incident is so terrible that it deprives all of them of something dear. but, (as time goes backwards, on the other line?) the other subplot leads toward the development of the idea that these people have each slighted the person in some way, all of them in big ways each, so that the reader will discover at the end, the end will have to look like the beginning, then, like the first moment read and also as if the last minute is a repeat of the first, creating an impossible chronological paradox.. But still, it all comes to a moment where it is realized, the moment is seen, on one end as being through the eyes of the offended [end a] , and on the other end, as seen through a multiplicity of viewpoints, all at once, all of whom suddenly understand that revenge is being enacted upon them [ end b ].
These people involved, each of them has suffered from the event at {1} so they take it out, each of them, in a seemingly small way, on a person who happens then to contribute to the events of [end b]
______________________________________
< before 1. - - - - - - - - after 1. >
[ end a] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ { 1. }_ _ _ _ _ _ [end b]
a = 1 = b.
path of story goes like this.
{ 1.}
the _ to the right of 1
the _ to the left of 1
the _ to the right of the _ to the right of 1
the _ to the left of the _ to the left of 1
and so on…
either the left side, or the right side must be longer by one _
at the end of which there is an option: before or after?
before = [ end a]
after = [ end b]
whichever chosen, is the end.