Some of the biggest bestsellers in recent years, I'm talking books that sold millions of copies and landed massive film deals, use a storytelling technique that most authors overlook entirely, nonlinear timelines. Today, I'm breaking down exactly how these novels break the typical chronological structure, why it's so effective at keeping readers hooked, and how you can use these strategies in your own novel. Because writing a bestseller doesn't require some stroke of artistic genius or years spent in a fancy writing program.
You just need to understand the mechanics of strong storytelling. So why are nonlinear timelines so powerful? The answer requires doing something that most authors don't do nearly enough.
Putting yourself in your reader's shoes. When you tell a story chronologically, this happened, then this happened, then this happened, you're relying on the events themselves being exciting enough to keep a reader interested. You need each event to build on the last one, creating a crescendo effect where the conflict keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
And that absolutely works for many stories. But when you throw out the typical chronological structure, you do something totally different and unlock new creative possibilities. To understand why it works so well, first we need to grasp the underlying psychological principle that keeps readers hooked in a story.
Ultimately, as humans, we crave closure more than anything. We fixate on anything that's left unfinished. In fact, I'm thinking about the dirty dishes sitting in my sink right now.
So, what should you do as an author to give your reader no choice but to continue turning the pages? You withhold closure. You engineer questions in the reader's mind that they desperately want to see answered.
I go into more detail about the psychology behind page turning stories in this video, so check it out if you haven't already. Every effective story relies on this fundamental principle, but nonlinear timelines take it to another level. By showing the reader a fragment of the future or the past, you open a loop that the reader's brain desperately wants to close and resolve.
Let me show you what I mean. I could write a novel about two friends who enjoy summer vacations together year after year after year, but it wouldn't get interesting until deep in the story when they have a falling out. That story would take a while to heat up.
But what if you open the novel with a scene showing that the friends haven't spoken in 2 years? That immediately establishes a question. What happened between them?
Then when you cut to the flashback scenes of their trips where things are going great, we'll naturally want to keep reading to see where things go wrong. This example isn't hypothetical, by the way. If you don't know what novel I'm referencing yet, just wait.
Nonlinear storytelling works because you're not just narrating the story beat by beat. You're giving the reader a puzzle, and your reader's mind will not rest until all the pieces fit together. So, now that we understand reader psychology, let's break down how Emily Henry uses nonlinear storytelling in her number one New York Times bestseller, People We Meet on Vacation, which is now also a Netflix film.
Because what she's doing is not as simple as just jumping back and forth in time. Yes, the novel does alternate between two timelines. The present, where best friends Alex and Poppy haven't spoken for 2 years after a disastrous vacation.
And the past, where we see their friendship and their romantic tension evolve over years of vacations together. But the real genius behind Emily Henry's nonlinear storytelling here is that she essentially has two will they, won't they? Lines operating simultaneously.
In the present, we know something terrible happened between them, but we don't know what it is. That's the central mystery driving us through the book, and we desperately want to resolve it and see them make up. Then, in the past timeline, we're watching two people who clearly belong together grow closer and closer, knowing that their future selves will mess it all up.
Every single chapter in both the past and the present works toward the same question. Will they find their way back to each other? Now, if the author had told this story chronologically, where we see each of their vacations in order, the story would likely be fine, but it would lose its spark.
It would be so much harder to pull the reader all the way to that climactic moment where their friendship breaks because she would have to engineer other conflicts along the way to keep us engaged. By alternating timelines, the author keeps us hooked from the start. Those happy vacation chapters are tainted by our knowledge that everything goes south and we're watching for cracks in the relationship to form.
We are unable to stop reading until the full picture emerges. And that's the difference between a good story and an unput downable one, the kind that tops bestseller charts. So, what's the practical takeaway for your novel?
If your story involves a pivotal event that fundamentally changes your protagonist's life or a key relationship, consider opening after it occurs, so we see the fallout and then show us the event unfolding in real time simultaneously in a second timeline. I've edited several novels where it felt like the primary conflict the characters were dealing with happened in the past before the events of the novel. These stories often end up incorporating lengthy passages of exposition or long flashbacks that can slow down the narrative momentum.
In those cases, sometimes a dual timeline structure is exactly what you need to bring that drama onto the page and show it unfolding in real time. This creates two engines of suspense working simultaneously. The question of what happened in the past and what will happen next in the present.
Each story line fuels the other and pulls us forward. But alternating between past and present is just one way that best-selling authors play with timeline. This next technique is arguably even more dramatic and can deliver one of the most jaw-dropping reader experiences possible.
So now let's talk about another one of the hottest novels and films in recent years, Freda McFaten's The Housemaid, which also has a nonlinear timeline. It spent more than 2 years on the New York Times bestseller list, has sold more than 3. 5 million copies worldwide, and is now a blockbuster film.
If you're planning to read or watch it, continue this video at your own risk because I will be mentioning spoilers. A huge part of what makes this book so explosively effective is how it uses a timeline and perspective shift to deliver its dramatic twist. The novel starts from the perspective of Millie, a young woman who takes a job as a live-in housekeeper for a wealthy couple.
We spend the first section of the book deeply embedded in Milliey's point of view as she navigates the household and witnesses the psychological breakdown of her boss, Nenah. We only see what Millie sees, and importantly, we only know what she knows. Then the author does something brilliant.
She shifts the POV and the timeline. And in doing so, our entire understanding of the story is reframed. We inhabit Nah, the wife's POV, and see the backstory of what led up to her hiring Millie.
We learn that her husband was controlling, manipulative, and abusive, and that Nenah hired Millie as a means of escaping him, to give him a new woman to torture. The author uses this timeline jump to strategically control what the reader knows and when. We of course know none of this backstory about Nah in the first portion of the novel which paints the picture that Nenah is mentally unstable.
So then by the time the twist hits, the reader feels both completely shocked and like they should have seen it coming all along. That combination of surprise and inevitability is what makes a masterful plot twist. And that's exactly what's behind the massive success of this novel.
The lesson here is that being strategic with your timeline can help you engineer those jaw-dropping moments where everything clicks into place. So, if your novel has a major plot twist or reveal, ask yourself, am I delivering the information in the most impactful sequence possible? Or am I giving away too much too soon simply because that's the chronological order in which events occurred?
Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do as the writer is hold back a piece of the puzzle, then give it to the reader at exactly the right moment. Now, before you rush to restructure your entire manuscript to have either dual timelines or a big timeline jump, here's a critical reminder. Not every story benefits from a nonlinear timeline.
And there are plenty of best-selling novels that follow the tried andrue chronological structure. Your job as the author is to know which structure your story calls for. Which one will deliver the most exciting reading experience?
Which one creates the most powerful version of this story? A nonlinear structure only works if there is a clear, compelling reason for the story to be told out of order. In People We Meet on Vacation, the dual timeline creates a mystery that wouldn't be there in a chronological telling of it, and it enhances the romantic tension.
In The Housemaid, the time jump delivers a huge twist that reframes the entire reading experience. In both cases, the fractured timeline is what enables the emotional impact of the story. But it's very possible that your story's power comes from a steady escalating sequence of events.
One excellent example is the thriller Fierce Kingdom, where the entire story takes place over the course of just 3 hours during an active shooter attack at a zoo. In this case, the chronological structure is exactly what the story needs. So, don't fix what isn't broken.
I personally love dual timeline novels because they're so fun to edit, but they're easy to execute poorly. I've edited novels where the past chapters were gripping, but the present chapters felt like filler that were only there to set up the next flashback. On the flip side, I've also edited dual timeline novels where the present action is super exciting, but then the flashback chapters bog everything down and don't add anything.
Ultimately, if a reader starts skimming one of your timelines to get to the other one, then your structure isn't working. Every timeline in your novel needs to hold its weight, and the reader needs to be equally invested in both so that each time you switch, they're excited, not frustrated. If you're at all considering changing your story structure, I strongly recommend drafting an outline of what your novel would look like as a dual timeline or with a big timeline shift before committing to it.
Pinpoint where all the major scenes and reveals would occur with the new structure and then ask yourself, is this a more powerful reading experience than what I have already? No matter which narrative structure you choose, here's what I want you to take away. Your timeline is a tool, and when you use it intentionally, you can make your story unforgettable.
Here's the real trick best-selling authors know. Your structure should be invisible to the reader. They shouldn't be thinking about timelines or the narrative structure.
They should just be unable to stop turning the pages. So, now that you know how to use your novel's timeline to your advantage, the next challenge is making sure every scene leaves readers wanting more. So, watch this video where I reveal my foolproof formula to write perfect scenes every single time.
Thanks so much for watching and happy writing.
