So in deciding which I want to do, I believe it will be helpful to list some of the advantages and disadvantages to each approach.
Chronological
Advantages:
- Straightforward - the reader learns what's going on in order, at the same time as the characters (more or less)
- Less confusing - no need to spend any time establishing which setting we're in.
- Possibly boring, or at least just very vanilla
- Reader may not have the context to understand the significance of the events they're reading.
Advantages:
- "Cause and effect" storytelling - it is possible to move forward immediately to a consequence (perhaps unforeseen) of what just happened
- Narrative inevitability - The question changes from "what's going to happen?" to "how does this happen?"
- Parallelism - It is possible to show directly parallels between events in the past and present.
- Context - An event which seems insignificant at the time may be very important. The reader, having already seen the consequences, will understand whether the characters do or not.
- Confusing - It is even more important to establish the setting of each scene. This is easier in film than in a book
- Narrative inevitability - The question changes from "what's going to happen?" to "how does this happen?"
If you notice, I put narrative inevitability as both an advantage and a disadvantage, and I believe it is. I believe this is a technique that should not be overused because it changes the entire impact of the story. If nothing else, it is difficult to put a character in mortal danger in the early section when it is obvious they are okay later on.
But if you notice, I came up with more advantages for a mixed timeline, and since I keep going back to that, I think it's the way I need to go.
In that case, the question becomes this--how to carry it off without having any of those disadvantages?
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