Editing Story structure (section)

== Categories ==
Most forms of narrative fall under two main categories: linear narrative and nonlinear narrative.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lau |first1=Siew |last2=Chwen |first2=Chen |date=2010 |title=Designing a Virtual Reality (VR) Storytelling System for Educational Purposes |journal=Education and Automation |pages=135}}</ref> Other forms also include interactive narration, and interactive narrative. 
*Linear narrative is the most common form of narration, where events are largely portrayed in a chronological order telling the events in the order in which they occurred.
*[[Nonlinear narrative]], disjointed narrative, or disrupted narrative, is a narrative technique where events are portrayed out of chronological order or in other ways where the narrative does not follow the direct causality pattern.
*[[Interactive narration]] refers to a work where the linear narrative is driven by, rather than influenced by, the user's interaction.
*[[Interactive narrative]] is a form of fiction in which users are able to make ''choices'' that influence the narrative (for example, through alternative plots or resulting in alternative endings) through their actions.

=== Linear narrative ===
[[Flashback (narrative)|Flashbacks]], often confused with true narratives, are not strictly linear, but the concept relies upon a fundamentally linear understanding of the narrative. An example would be ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' by [[Orson Welles]]. Although some films appear to open (very briefly) with the ending, flashback movies almost immediately jump back to the very beginning of the story to proceed linearly from there. Usually the film will proceed past the supposed "ending" shown at the beginning of the movie.

=== Nonlinear narrative ===
Cinema can only provide the illusion through broken narrative, a famous example of this being the 1994 film ''[[Pulp Fiction]]''.{{Clarify|date=December 2024|reason=What illusion?}} The film is ostensibly three short stories, which, upon closer inspection, are actually three sections of one story with the [[chronology]] broken up; [[Quentin Tarantino]] constructs the narrative without resorting to classic "flashback" techniques.

An even more ambitious attempt at constructing a film based on non-linear narrative is [[Alain Resnais]]'s 1993 French film ''[[Smoking/No Smoking]]''. The plot contains parallel developments, playing on the idea of what might have happened had the characters made different choices.

Outside of film, some novels also present their narrative in a non-linear fashion. Creative writing professor Jane Alison describes nonlinear narrative "patterns" such as spirals, waves, and meanders in her 2019 book ''Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.catapult.co/products/meander-spiral-explode-jane-alison|title=Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison|website=Catapult|access-date=2020-01-28|archive-date=2020-01-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128100825/https://books.catapult.co/products/meander-spiral-explode-jane-alison|url-status=live}}</ref> The chapters of [[Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni]]'s novel [[Before We Visit the Goddess]] are not arranged based on the linear sequence of events, but rather in a way that fulfills certain literary techniques. This allows the characters in the novel to have a believable life timeline while still employing the techniques that make a story enjoyable.

=== Interactive narration ===
In works of interactive narration there is only one narrative, but the method of delivery requires the user to actively work to gain the next piece of the narrative, or have to piece the parts of narrative that they have together in order to form a coherent narrative.

This is the narrative approach of some modern video games. A player will be required to reach an objective, complete a task, solve a puzzle, or finish a level before the narrative continues.

=== Interactive narrative ===
An interactive narrative is one which is composed with a branching structure where a single starting point may lead to multiple developments and outcomes. The principle of all such games is that, at each step of the narrative, the user makes choices that advance the story, leading to a new series of choices. Authoring non-linear narrative or dialogue thus implies imagining an indefinite number of parallel stories.

In a [[gamebook]], readers are told to turn to a certain page according to the choice they wish to make to continue the story. Typically, the choice will be an action rather than dialogue. For example, the hero hears a noise in another room and must decide to open the door and investigate, run away, or call for help. This kind of interactive experience of a story is possible with video games and books (where the reader is free to turn the pages) but less adapted to other forms of entertainment. Improvisational theatre is similarly open-ended, but of course cannot be said to be authored.