: Would it be annoying for the reader if the all the scenes alternate between "present" and flashback? I'm writing a short story with the following structure: B tells A she is gravely sick

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I don't think that the structure itself is a problem necessarily. I'd want to make sure that the first scene is sufficiently long enough that the audience isn't like "wait, what?" when scene 2 ends and you jump back to the present, but sure, otherwise this is more or less exactly how a frame is supposed to work. I think I intimated yesterday that another person using flashbacks ought to use something closer to the structure that you have, actually.

You also don't necessarily be slavish to the "one on, one off" structure, but I also think that a good time to figure out when to deviate from this is when you're actually writing the story, not the outline portion.

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The answer to any non-traditional story pattern is... it depends. Why do you want to adopt this format?

Most stories are written in a straight-forward chronological order because this is how we normally experience events and it is what the readers expect. It can be jarring as a reader to learn at the end of the story some basic fact everyone in the story knew all along. If you aren't planning on 'hiding the ball,' then you need some other logical reason for the layout. For example, if you want to emphasize the parallels between the events, this style could work very well.

In the end, it depends on your ability as a writer. Try it. If it doesn't work, you've learned something, and may be able to change to a standard chronology later. If it does work, you might have something special. Either way, you don't have anything to lose but a little time.

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