Eight Narrative Styles of Movies

There are eight major narrative styles in movies, which are conventional linear narrative, multilinear narrative, reminiscence narrative, circular structure narrative, flashback linear narrative, chaotic linear narrative, repetitive linear narrative, and cascading narrative. Conventional linear narratives are narratives that follow a normal time pattern.

Multi-linear narrative means that the movie consists of many vignettes, with one of them linking up the others in a single period of time.

Memory narrative is a cross-narrative of reality and memories following the memories of the protagonist or non-protagonist.

A ring-structured narrative is one in which the beginning of the movie mirrors the end of the movie.

A flashback linear narrative is a narrative that follows anti-normal time.

A chaotic linear narrative is one in which the entire movie is illogical, so to speak, and all the pieces, plots, and characters are all messed up so that there is no way to know the present, the past, and the future, and the viewer has to rely on his or her own memory to smooth out the movie.

A repetitive linear narrative would have a repeating point in time throughout the movie, from which each story would begin again.

Layered narratives are like Russian nesting dolls, layer upon layer upon layer, layer upon layer, interlocking and progressive, forming a kind of nesting structure.