Did You Muck Up The Timeline? On Purpose?

Placing scenes out of chronological order can be done for several reasons. Perhaps your character time travels, perhaps memories return, a flashback is needed (it happens), or maybe, your muse is Insane. Whatever the reasons, it still has to make a fluid, balanced read. Every scene must serve a purpose, and must push the story forward. Everyone with me so far?

I like things in order, who doesn't? Chaos just gives me a headache. So, here's a visual-- We'll pretend each scene is a crate. Sometimes, they're long, sometimes they're tiny. All are important.

When I build a book, I pile one crate on top of the other. But sometimes, I create a smaller crate, then several bigger ones, and my awkward tower topples. What then?

Time might be irrelevant in these cases, it's the shape of the crates that need order. Make sense?

I got thinking about this when I wrote Breaking Cupid. It was in chronological order in about my twentieth draft. It had all the elements it needed;

1.the search for each other (small crate)

2.the romance (long crate)

3.she goes missing (tiny crate)

4.he saves her. (huge crate)

Simple. Yet, every time I read it, it was out of balance. Too much romance at the start and too much action at the end. It drove me nuts, yup summoned Insane. The timeline wasn't working for me, and it was the actual order of things. Finally, the entire book toppled into the trashcan.
I liked it there.
My muse, Insane, did not. "Fix this you idiot."
How?
The problem was that huge crate at the end. I needed to start the story there.
Okay. Now what?
What kind of idiot starts the story at the end?
Well, since I'm normally the idiot who will try anything once, and Insane wouldn't shut up about it, I did it.
I saved everything and rewrote it for fun. If I didn't like it, at least I tried. And, who would know but me, Insane, and now you?
I loved it, and it took very little work, since I had all the crates built.
Now it reads; he's off to save her, but doesn't know why she's missing. (the huge crate) The memories return as he searches... some, moments too late. (all the other crates are piled in it neatly, and come out, one at a time).
I didn't even use flashbacks, only magic.

Ah balance.

Since then, I wrote three more stories that break the timeline. I'm not sure how it happened. They're still in revision stages, so things might change, but I actually wrote them that way.

Why for the love of all things written would I do that?

• My two MCs experienced the same things on different days. So I was dealing with the same problem just on two different days. (Same stack of crates, different towers.)
• Some demon is erasing his memories, and she has to figure how, why, when, and the triggers. She tells her story, he tells his, different times, same solution. (One big crate, just had to dig in it for all the tiny ones.)
• She soul swaps with past lives. (Just a heap of crates all messed up.) Fun.

You getting a visual yet? Still with me or has Insane shoved me in one of my crates?

There's just a kinda magic at play that makes me tingly inside.

 I've reread them several times, even put them in chronological order to make sure I didn't miss anything, and I have to say, I like them that way. It works for me, for now, we'll see where the revisions take me. 

And guess what?

It's my fantasy, I can write it any way I want.

As a reader, does it annoy you to read things out of sequence? Do you break the timeline when you write and for what reasons? What tricks do you use to keep your readers from getting lost? Give me something to think about.