Face-Palm

11. Snap, did I miss something? Oh wait, nevermind.

11. Snap, did I miss something? Oh wait, nevermind.

It annoys me when writers randomly skip forward a bazillion years in the next chapter, then goes: "Oh, let me rewind, since I'm pretty sure you're confused." Gee Einstein, how could you tell? Why would you deliberately make your readers confused for no reason at all? Why would you randomly start jumping back and forth in time in the middle of a book, or worse, in the middle of a chapter?

Key word being "randomly". Because if jumping back and forth in time is the whole point of your book, and you can actually pull it off, then COOL I WANT TO READ YOUR BOOK. But if not...WHY? WHY?

The story doesn't flow when you do that. Have you ever read a real book where Chapter 15 has nothing to do with the end of Chapter 14, and then five paragraphs in the author writes: "Well those last five paragraphs must have been confusing for you. So, this is what happened 8 hours earlier..."? Why can't you just tell the story in chronological order? AGAIN, if there is a reason for your using that, and it really adds to the purpose of your whole plot, then I encourage you to do so because that's why authors started using this in the first place. But sometimes it's there for absolutely no reason at all.

JUST TO CLARIFY: I don't have a problem with this technique; I just don't like it when authors feel like they have to add certain things to their stories to make people interested just because other authors are doing it (and then it ends up not working out too well). It's your own story, so make it YOURS! Don't judge whether your story is good or not based on what rank it has on Wattpad!

A/N: I know some people enjoy using this technique in their stories for suspense or to make it more interesting, and I completely agree. What I meant was that sometimes authors do it really randomly and confuse their readers when it doesn't add to the development of the story at all. This is a good idea to slowly unravel a mystery, a conflict, a backstory, etc. but I feel like sometimes when Wattpad authors use it, there's not really a reason for it or it's really unnecessary. Anyways, this is just my own opinion, please don't get offended. :)