There are several types of narrative structures that can be used in documentaries. Open narratives leave unanswered questions at the end while closed narratives resolve all questions. Single strand documentaries focus on a single topic or thread throughout while multi strand ones converge multiple storylines. Linear narratives follow a chronological order while non-linear ones use techniques like flashbacks. Circular narratives begin and end at the same point to form a complete circle.

1. TYPES OF NARRATIVE

2. OPEN vs CLOSED
• Open narrative is when there are unanswered questions which still
need to be resolved at the end of the programme
• Closed narrative is when there are no unanswered questions at the
end of the programme and all is resolved

3. SINGLE STRAND vs MULTI STRAND
• Single strand means there is only one narrative thread through the
whole programme.
• Documentaries tend to use single strand because they generally focus
on one topic.
• Multi strand means there are multiple narrative threads which
sometimes converge

4. LINEAR vs NON LINEAR
• Linear is when events in the narrative follow chronological order
• Non linear is when events in the narrative do not follow chronological
order e.g. flashbacks and flash forwards

5. CIRCULAR
• Circular narrative structure is when the start and end points of the
documentary are the same, they narrative has came ‘full circle’