Non-chronological hooks

[Fatina]

So I've been working on this post and the way I first imagined it was with a very strong hook that was meant to contrast the mellow mood of the post before mine. However my post also includes a scene that is important to explain clearly for the sake of the continuity of the thread. Chronologically some details of the explanation come before the violent scene. Yet I feel that if I get deep into my post before the action scene it would be much of a build-up and it would loose its shock value.

So I was wondering if there is a way that I could structure a post so that I can use that violent scene as a hook, but that it would be clear to the reader that the hook is some kind of flasforth or something.

I was hoping the contrast between the tension of the hook, and a mellow mood at the actual start of my post could be enough, but I don't trust myself in making the contrast clear.

Is there some kind of device I could use, or something that could indicate a break in continuity?

[Revenant]

I'd just use a centered line of dots with a header posting. Something like this:


text


*****

Some time ago...

flashback


*****

back to the action at hand

[Saxon]

I think you're asking too much for one post, and I'm a bit confused on what exactly it is you're trying to do.

It SOUNDS like you're trying to use the tension of your post to lead the reader into the violent scene, but you're looking for a right hook. My advice would be not to over think it. You can build up the tension over several posts instead of just one thread, and then use that momentum for the violent scene that you wanted. Readers crave closure, so if you bait them with tension, they'll follow you as long as there is an end to it.

As for a 'flash-forward'. I'm not sure what that means other then to have the violent scene now and the tension later, which doesn't really work. You can reshuffle the structure of your story and write what happens in a different order to do that, but you're going to need to reorganize the details that glue the story together so that it makes sense.

Just don't try to hamfist everything you want into one post, because sometimes those big and complex ideas that are overbearing and demand a lot of attention in just one section of the story aren't worth the frustration. They even fall apart on you when you're finished with them anyway, or don't make much sense. Work on spreading your idea out over the course of the story instead of trying to give it all to the reader in one swipe.

[Fatina]

I'd just use a centered line of dots with a header posting. Something like this:

That's a very good idea. Although I was thinking in doing something like that as a last resort. Only because I think it looks ugly :P

I tried to articulate my question as best as possible but I'll give an example. This is the order ideas on the post are presented:

(Narrator is lying on the floor covered in blood in the middle of a street, "what happened?") (Narrator leaves the house, goes grocery shopping) (She begins crossing an intersection) (She gets hit by a car and lies on the floor) (She dies)

This example is probably a little bit to general for my purposes but I think over all it shows what I want to do. It pretty much sounds like a flashback; It might be my own fault, but usually when I think of flashback I think in small bits of information, a few paragraphs, basically not most of the post volume. That's why I think of it as a hook, a flash-forth instead of a flash-back. I want to present it in such a way where my character is not actually imagining past events.

The tension will still build up, it will just go back to a different mood and then transition again into the area where the hook got taken out of. Then I think I could reference to what happened on the hook instead of rewriting it again. Picking it back up right after where the hook scene broke.

[Zook Murnig]

It sounds like what you're wanting to use is en media res. Basically, starting with the exciting action, at a decisive point in the story, and then backpedaling to where it all began, leaving the reader with a cliffhanger of sorts that, if they stick with the thread, will pay off eventually. Try looking into that, and you might find what you need.