Desiderius Price

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Fanfiction *is* a spot to experiment with writing, so try it out, and see if it works!

Getting the readers onboard with minimal confusion is always the trick here. As you’re doing character A/B/C/D treatment, I’d still recommend making it as chronological in order as possible, with dates and some transition for wherever it’s not. Star Trek usually did it with “stardate...” that became meaningless, and outside of a main character coming/going, a lot of those episodes you couldn’t be pressed on what the actual in-universe order *is*. My potter fanfic has the POV thing, so it’s doing slight shifts as I cover the Hogwarts crowd in one chapter, and Harry/Ron/Hermione on the next; simply because it offers better focus.

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Another idea, maybe this is what you’re going for. First chapter is a scene of that party (or whatever it is), with your last lines being “This is their stories.” And your next chapter be like “A year before that party, the awkward Name was sitting in the library.” Making it abundantly clear to the (typical) reader what you’re up to here, because as you noted, readers generally expect chronological (or near chronological) order.

“Episodic serial” not sure if it’s exactly the right word. For example, my Jeff story, which started off as backstory to explain the swimming instructor to the main protagonist, has generally become a series of “episodes”. So aside from episode one, which is the “inciting incident” to put Jeff into his general living situation, the rest chronicle his development over time with a series of snapshots. An episode shows the danger that’s generally pressing inward. Another shows some danger he can bring to himself (hypothermia). On occasion, two or more parters with a mini-ark when it gets a bit more involved. There *is* an example on AO3 that I’m aware of, called “The Breeding Ground”, which (according to the summary) is an anthology of Harry Potter sleeping around, with each of the 2,000 chapters featuring a different woman/lady (there’s crossovers to a myriad of other fandoms). (It’s a tad over 3M words...) So, if you’re aiming for the smut circle … you could scatter a common theme at the start of each chapter (a group conversation, part of an orgy) with the BOLD words of “A year earlier...” I mean, once the audience is used to the format, it might work.

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It’s still backstory if it’s “for context.” Maybe better done as separate oneshots, or an episodic serial? Out-of-order is going to confuse the reader IMO, (and in my case, myself too.) This is especially true if there’s something where a character dies, and now you’re talking if they’re alive. Another slight exception here is when I’m doing multiple POVs, so I want to cover character “A” in a dedicated chapter, and “B” in the next (but, the events should be sufficiently disassociated/separate for that to make sense). To me, the strong “out-of-order” means there’s a structural issue to the story, maybe you’re starting in the wrong spot/incident? Hope I’m making sense here.

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If you’re a time-traveling story… SURE! Outside of that, you’ll probably confuse the readers if it’s extensive. (Aside from short flashbacks, or a brief start near the climax along with “two years earlier...”) This confusion is the main reason I broke up my first story I posted here, I was trying to cram in backstory into chapters as well, and came to realize I basically had multiple stories instead. (Which, while I’ve yet to really write that first story, I’ve been busy on the others.)