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This is more of an issue for me on the reader side of things. There was a story I was curious about which I kinda wanted to read but the formatting of the first couple chapters is off. I looked at some of the later chapters and they seem to fix it later but I’m a little put off by the first several chapters. Would it be considered bad of me to point this out to the author? I feel it’s probably better to do one on one but I’m not sure how to go about doing that. Rather than get a moderator or admin involved in it directly. I could write a review but that feels too public and somewhat mean.

My take is that brilliant non-linear stories you here talk about get their fame from being good despite not being linear. A possible comparison is the Westworld tv-show season 1 that had a big reveal when you realized what you had been watching. In season 2 they wanted to repeat the trick and made things just as non-linear and in the end it was barely watchable. I have avoided the later seasons like plague. My point is that for every successful non-linear storytelling there are many more trainwreck attempts. Doing non-linear storytelling that manage to capture the reader is seriously difficult.

If the author has a forum account as well as an archive account, you could PM them. Otherwise, unless they've put an email address or something in their profile, a review might be your only recourse. If it were me, I'd be glad for someone to point out a problem like that, even in a review. Remember, the author can always delete the review if they take offense -- or after they have fixed the problem you pointed out.

I guess I’ve gotten into your head? My bad.

Heh… was recently thinking of this thread while working on my potter fanfic as it involved a time turner

Double header! First, we have the concluding chapter of “The Business of Pleasure”: Chapter 8: A New Arrangement Second, we’ve got the next chapter of “Band Together”: Chapter 5: The Band, Part 1

Hi, all. For truly “wrong” romantic/erotic parings, I tend to go towards dark humor. So, Dipper/Mabel isn’t quite a “wrong” pairing, though it raises the question that if they married in Kentucky and divorced in Arkansas, would they still be fraternal twins. I’m thinking more along the lines of Mr. Ed/receptive Wilbur, Granny/Mr. Drysdale, Uncle Joe/every female over the age of consent, etc. Cheers!

IMO, a nonlinear story can work IF you make it clear when the events of each chapter are happening. You could use a literal timestamp (eg, starting each chapter with the date) or a figurative one (“Iggy was exhausted from training, but the championship was only two weeks away”). Or a narrator could explain it (“Now that I’ve told you ____, let me tell you how it all began”).